Forest Service Workers Trying To Sabotage Protection Order

U.S. Rep. Pat Williams says a few Forest Service workers are trying to scuttle attempts to protect wild lands in Montana from logging.

Calling the federal employees “timber beasts,” Williams said, “There are a few Forest Service employees who think their primary job is to allow timber sales wherever they damn well please.”

He charged the group has leaked official memos and lobbied wood products groups.

“There was even an internal Forest Service memo on the Internet,” he said.

The Montana Democrat said such sabotage has been going on for three months, but it intensified this past week when Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said he would sign an administrative order protecting 1.7 million acres of Montana’s roadless areas from logging.

Republican politicians, angry about the order, said they had read an internal Forest Service memo that had ruled the order illegal, or at least questioned its legality.

The memo also apparently appeared on the Internet. Several versions of the secretary’s directive also were sent out by fax.

Northern Region Forester Hal Salwasser said he knew of no lobbying in the regional office for or against the proposed wilderness protection directive.

“These are political things,” he said. “Our job is to do the resource management once the policy call is clear.”

Williams said the timber industry is also trying to deep-six the order.

“What Montanans should learn from this little flap is how truly threatened Montana’s wildest places really are.”