Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 5, 1993 TAG: 9309060270
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A16 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
. . . birders, hunters, power companies, scientists, educators, wildlife enthusiasts, horseback riders, state agencies, environmental activists, oil companies and cattlemen - all of whom want to use or protect parts of the forest.
Being a public servant, she must do it with diplomatic aplomb. Somehow, she must cull from the din of all those opinions a compromise, a working plan on how to manage the 708,000 acres of federal land under her control.
Sometimes it seems taffy is pulled in fewer directions than Joy Berg.
Berg meets the challenge with an easy smile and a sense of humor, a skill acquired from her 18 years of moving up in the ranks of the U.S. Forest Service.
Dressed casually in dark blue slacks and a white cotton blouse for a recent interview over lunch at Mr. Su's Chinese & Vietnamese Restaurant, her favorite downtown Roanoke spot, she talks about her role as supervisor - and as one of a handful of women in that position.
When appointed in 1990, she became the eighth woman in almost a century to head one of the nation's 155 forests.
"And now, I've lost count," Berg says. She's still the only woman supervisor in the East; her closest woman counterpart works in Nebraska.
Berg, 42, has faced her share of challenges on the gender front during her Forest Service years. She started out in Southern California and later pulled a stint in the "cowboy culture" of New Mexico, where they had "definite ideas about what women should and shouldn't do."
By comparison, she says, Southwest Virginia does not seem all that conservative.
For one thing, Berg's predecessor blazed a trail among forest staff and constituents in terms of dispelling stereotypes.
Charles "Chip" Cartwright was the first black man to supervise a national forest. After 1 1/2 years in the Jefferson, Cartwright was promoted to the Forest Service headquarters in Washington D.C.
Still, the gender gap gapes open now and then. "It's just the million little things that happen every day."
For instance, she was at a public meeting recently, mingling with people who use the federal land for hunting, hiking, camping and logging.
Two men from out of town walked up. They introduced themselves to Dave Olson, public affairs officer for the forest. They introduced themselves to a few other forest staff - all men.
"It was as if I was invisible," Berg says. But she kept quiet, biding her time, knowing the two eventually would find out just who that 5-foot-something woman with the curly dark-gray hair and intense blue eyes was.
"I can take it with a good deal more humor" than she used to, she says.
But there's no mistaking the gravity of her job, or the seriousness with which she approaches her work. Berg is responsible for:
A $12 million annual budget.
260 employees.
708,000 acres stretching from Wise County to Lexington.
Complying with a mind-boggling number of complex environmental laws.
Coordinating with state and federal agencies on issues of land use, pollution and economic development.
Approving or rejecting major controversial projects such as the high-voltage power line being proposed by Appalachian Power Co., and the rerouting of U.S. 58 through the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area.
"And it's getting more complicated every day," Berg says.
But she's not about to back down now. For Berg, supervising the Jefferson National Forest culminates much of her life's work.
Berg received a master's degree in forestry economics from the University of Wisconsin. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa from 1973 to 1975 before setting a course through the Forest Service that has led from California to New Mexico and Alaska.
Most recently, she was deputy forest supervisor for the Ketchikan Management Area in Alaska's vast Tongass National Forest.
As of this month, Berg has been in Southwest Virginia longer than in any other forest job she's held. "And I'm not ready to move," she says.
"I like the climate. I like the people. This is a good place to live. I love the mountains." She spent a week's vacation this year working on the trail at Apple Orchard Falls in Bedford County. She often goes backpacking, mixing business with fun.
This year, she's drawn criticism from an environmental group, the Citizens Task Force for National Forest Management. The group claims she reneged on a 6-year-old agreement to consider all uses equally in deciding what use to emphasize for different parcels in the forest.
"Relations between the Jefferson National Forest and the Citizens Task Force have deteriorated . . . and she is the forest supervisor, and has to bear a responsibility for that deterioration," says Jim Loesel, the task force secretary.
He has filed more than half a dozen appeals this year on proposed timber sales.
Part of Berg's job is to review the appeals, which have more than a financial cost. There's also a cost to her staff members in terms of morale and productivity, she says, when almost every decision they make is attacked.
Although the job can be frustrating - what with shrinking staff, increasing mandates and never enough money - it has its rewards.
"One of the things I like is watching people using the forest," she says. Especially rewarding is being one of the leading forests in developing facilities that are accessible to handicapped people. Six out of the 22 developed recreation sites are accessible to people with disabilities.
Other professional rewards for Berg are the forest's high-quality timber, the fisheries programs and the Job Corps, which brings inner-city youths to the forest to learn trade skills.
But whether she stays is not entirely up to her. Subject to the century-old tradition of promotions within the Forest Service, she may be transferred to a larger forest or another region, or perhaps moved up in the administrative ranks - especially since the agency is striving to diversify its work force by advancing women and minorities.
A fortune cookie at Mr. Su's seems fitting for the forest supervisor: "Depart not from the path fate has assigned you."
by CNB