Controversial Forester Leads Study Timber Industry Applauds Appointment

Tue., Aug. 2, 1994

By J. Todd Foster toddf@spokesman.com

A forest supervisor praised by loggers but maligned by environmentalists for his grizzly bear views will head a crucial Idaho and Montana forest-management study.

Steve Mealey, 52, chief of the Boise National Forest, will report Aug. 11 in Boise as project manager of the newly created Upper Columbia River Basin Environmental Impact Statement team.

The joint effort of the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management will craft future management policies for the northern Rocky Mountain forests.

“Steve will do a great job in that position,” said Joe Hinson, a timber industry lobbyist in Coeur d’Alene.

“He is a strong leader and has an excellent grasp of both the politics of natural resource management, but more importantly what works on the ground and how to get it done,” Hinson said.

Mealey is considered a national leader in salvaging dead and dying timber and for his views on fire suppression. He strongly advocates using controlled burns to lessen the dangers of catastrophic wildfire.

But environmentalists assail Mealey’s “radical” track record on wildlife management, and say he ignores the role of science under the Endangered Species Act.

Minutes from a federal grizzly bear recovery meeting in western Montana last year quote Mealey as saying public access and roads are not a significant deterrent to bear recovery.

Steve Thompson of the Montana Wilderness Association calls Mealey’s comments “alarming.”

In a letter last week to Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas, Thompson wrote: “This is an extreme position endorsed only by hardliners in the timber industry. It directly contradicts the directives and biological opinions of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”

Montana officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were unavailable for comment Monday.

Mealey also could not be reached, but said last week he is “damn proud of my record” and will do a solid job.

Loggers applaud appointment

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