Let Gore Promote Forests, Agency Says Chenoweth Argues That Ties Would Aid His White House Bid

Forest Service officials urged agency chief Mike Dombeck to promote his conservation agenda by tying it to one of Vice President Al Gore’s environmental initiatives, an internal memo shows.

They also recommended that Dombeck make appearances this summer at big forest fires “receiving high media coverage” to help make his case for forest-management reforms and watershed protection, according to the document obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

The detailed 21-page “communication plan” drew immediate criticism from some of Dombeck’s congressional critics, who say agency officials are mixing politics with their professional duties.

“They are blatantly using this once-proud agency for political purposes and to further Al Gore’s campaign for president,” said Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho, chairwoman of the House Resources subcommittee on forests.

Rep. Bob Smith, R-Ore., chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, said he was “very surprised by the tenor of the plan. It sounds political to me.”

The Forest Service had no immediate response to the criticism, said Chris Wood, a special assistant to Dombeck. Wood said such plans are “common communication tools.

“The Forest Service has an obligation to communicate with and listen to both Congress and the people we serve,” he said Thursday.

The memo, apparently drafted in February by Dombeck’s advisers at agency headquarters, directs agency officials to promote the natural-resource agenda in talks with members of Congress - a move Republican critics say comes close to violating a prohibition against lobbying by members of the executive branch.

It also shows agency officials knew they were potentially vulnerable to complaints that public input was given short shrift in the proposed moratorium on new logging roads in national forests, those critics said.

Smith, whose committee oversees the Forest Service as part of the Agriculture Department, said he is most disturbed by the apparent attempts to “advance the vice president’s agenda.”

The memo said that from July 1 through Sept. 1, “We will take every opportunity to tie with the Vice President’s Clean Water Initiative and indeed provide a media event for the VP to showcase the initiative on national forest lands.”

It said Dombeck should emphasize the watershed-protection aspects of the agenda.

“This should be highlighted by the chief traveling to fires receiving high media coverage,” the memo said.

That entry drew fire from Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, chairman of the House Resources Committee.

“It is a sad day when the Forest Service … decides to use forest fires as a movie set for ‘media events’ to highlight the vice president’s presidential campaign,” he said.