Scientific Team Sought To Map Forest Service’s Future

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, urging a “fresh look” at national forests, is seeking public nominations for a new scientific panel that will help chart future management of the Forest Service.

Environmentalists praised the development of the panel. But timber industry officials skeptical of the idea say it’s an attempt to postpone tough decisions the agency has been examining for nearly a decade.

“It is time to take a fresh look at the Forest Service’s land and resource management planning process in light of emerging ecosystem management efforts,” Glickman said in a statement last week.

“We are committed to streamlining processes while ensuring biodiversity, long-term sustainability and public collaboration in current and future forest planning efforts,” he said.

The Committee of Scientists will consist of 13 individuals with backgrounds ranging from forest and range ecology, fish and wildlife biology, silviculture, hydrology, sociology, land management planning and natural resource law, Glickman said.

They will evaluate the current planning process and make recommendations for the Forest Service to consider in incorporating revised planning regulations.

Under the National Forest Management Act, individual national forests adopt 10-year management plans that outline uses of various parts of the forest. The plans also establish the maximum amount of logging that is believed to be possible without damaging the environment.

Environmentalists complain the planning process produces inflated logging estimates while timber industry officials complain that citizen appeals prevent the projected logging from occurring.

Chris West, vice president of the industry’s Northwest Forestry Association in Portland, said the agency has been revising proposed planning changes for nearly a decade.

“There has been a lot of work done on these regs and a lot of public comment to date. I guess this shows the administration doesn’t want to release the final regulations as prepared. They want to do something different,” West said.

Mike Francis, national forests director for The Wilderness Society, said it would be “an appropriate way to bring science back into the management of the Forest Service.

“The Reagan administration threw out the last scientific recommendations and went with what the industry wanted,” he said Monday.

The Agriculture Department under President Bush developed proposed changes in the planning process in 1991 and those were published for public comment. But no final version ever was released.

“Why do we need to have another group and another study?” West asked.

Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee on forestry, also has been writing legislation that would reform the National Forest Management Act, its planning and appeals procedures.

Neither Glickman nor Jim Lyons, agriculture undersecretary for natural resources and the environment, were immediately available for comment Monday, USDA officials said.

Lyons testified before Congress this year that public demand for recreation on national forests is rising while federal logging has dropped to about one-third the level of the 1980s.

“Our business on the national forests is changing,” Lyons said in the statement Friday.

“We need a highly credible scientific team to update the planning process to reflect evolving priorities such as recreation, water quality, public involvement and sustainability.”

xxxx