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It’s now Forest Service white

In the fleet lot at the Panhandle National Forest supervisor's office, green and white vehicles wait to be checked out by employees. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)
By James Hagengruber
In the fleet lot at the Panhandle National Forest supervisor's office, green and white vehicles wait to be checked out by employees. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)

A color once common throughout the wilds of the Inland Northwest is fading from the scenery: The U.S. Forest Service is no longer painting its trucks pea green.

The agency began purchasing only white vehicles about four years ago, but changing the massive fleet has been a slow process. Of the 400-some vehicles used by the Idaho Panhandle National Forests and 200 in the Colville National Forest, about half remain green, officials said, but more are being removed from service each year.

Although some Forest Service employees are nostalgic for the old color, the savings have been dramatic, said Mary Elder, spokeswoman for the Pacific Northwest Region of the Forest Service. In Washington and Oregon alone, the agency purchases between 400 and 500 new vehicles per year. White is the cheapest, most available color. It would cost up to $500 per vehicle for the green paint job, she said.

“Even if we could get them in green, it would cost us over $100,000 extra per year,” Elder said. “We’d rather take the money and use it on the ground.”

The color has been associated with the agency for so long that its official name is Forest Service Green, said Cynthia Reichelt, with the Colville National Forest. Most car manufacturers no longer offer the color.

Not only does it cost more to buy the green vehicles, but taxpayers lose money when the cars and trucks are taken out of service and sold, Reichelt said. “When you try to resell them the value is zilch because everybody knows you’re driving around in an old Forest Service rig.”

Forest Service law officers also support the change, Reichelt said. The tell-tale green trucks didn’t have a very high surprise factor. “Everybody could see them coming,” she said.

The white trucks, however, have little chance of blending in with the thick green forests of North Idaho. Bonners Ferry Mayor Darrell Kerby joked about this during a recent meeting with Forest Service officials.

“Now you can see where they’re sleeping,” he said.

The mayor’s remark minimizes the professionalism and high level of training of modern-day Forest Service employees, said Idaho Panhandle National Forests spokesman Dave O’Brien.

“I would think a good employee could still find a spot,” O’Brien joked.

In all seriousness, O’Brien said he has encountered only one sleeping employee during his long career with the agency. O’Brien and a district ranger found a colleague sleeping in a truck several years ago in Oregon. The employee received a stern reprimand, O’Brien said.

Although the Forest Service has a reputation for sticking to its traditions, the car color change has some within the agency feeling optimistic that a major uniform redesign could be possible, said Reichelt, with the Colville National Forest.

Women employees are especially disdainful of the ill-fitting pants and peculiar yellow-green color combinations, said Reichelt, a self-described style hound. “We need a remake so we can come into this century.”