Forest Service looks for support

WASHINGTON – From overgrown forests that contribute to major fires to the spread of invasive species, the U.S. Forest Service faces a host of weighty concerns.

But as the agency begins its second century, four former Forest Service chiefs say it must address an even more basic challenge: convincing an increasingly urbanized public of the agency’s importance.

“Our biggest challenge is connecting people with the land and nature,” said Mike Dombeck, who served as Forest Service chief from 1997 to 2001.

Without public support, Dombeck and other former chiefs said, the Forest Service will have trouble with everything from getting proper funding to enforcing complex rules over management of the nation’s 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands.

When the Forest Service was founded in 1905, the country was still largely an agrarian society, said Max Peterson, who headed the agency from 1979 to 1987.

“Now kids think heat comes from a stove and milk from the grocery store,” Peterson said. “We somehow have to connect young people to the land.”

Dombeck and Peterson were among the speakers Tuesday at a forum marking the 100th anniversary of an American Forest Congress convened by President Theodore Roosevelt. The 1905 event led to creation of the modern Forest Service.

About 500 people are attending the four-day celebration, which Forest Service officials hope fosters greater commitment to conservation and restoration of the nation’s 192 million acres of federal forest lands.

The event comes as some critics say the Forest Service is so tied up in litigation that it no longer has the sharp focus provided by legendary forester Gifford Pinchot, its first director.

In December the Bush administration released rules for the national forests that some environmentalists complain make it easier to log vast swaths of public lands.

Environmentalists also complain about the administration’s efforts to transfer control of remote, roadless forests to governors.

While the disputes are significant, they pale next to the battles of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when debate over the spotted owl and logging of old-growth trees reached a fever pitch, recalled Dale Robertson, who served as Forest Service chief from 1987 to 1993.

In those days, Robertson said, he and Jack Ward Thomas, who succeeded him as Forest Service chief, regularly received death threats.

The unflappable Thomas, a career Forest Service employee known for a sharp wit, had an answer for a man who made a threatening call about 2 a.m. one day: “I only take death threats from 9 a.m. to the afternoon,” he said.

Thomas, who served as chief from 1993 to 1997, called criticism of the Bush administration and the current chief, Dale Bosworth, overblown.

“Most of what I see is not any great reversal” from the Clinton administration, he said. Thomas said fears by some environmentalists that the Bush proposals could lead to massive road building or a drastic increase in logging were unfounded.

“It costs so much to do anything (in national forests) that the only practical thing to do is nothing,” he said.

Robertson, who served under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, said the proposed changes appeared reasonable.

“They’re trying to add practicality to management of national forests,” he said. “I think it’s right on.”

Peterson, the only one of the four former chiefs to serve under presidents of different parties, offered the one discordant note, saying the Bush roadless policy made little sense.

“It transfers heat to the governors, who don’t want the heat. And I don’t think it’s an appropriate role for them,” Peterson said.