Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 24, 1994                   TAG: 9406290034
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

U.S. FORESTS

The U.S. Forest Service estimates such a move would save $2 million a year, and forest users shouldn't notice the difference - unless, perhaps, they notice improvement. The agency hopes to pump any administrative savings back into staffing, services and programs in the forests - but this is subject to budget decisions made by Congress.

Joint administration of one, 1.8 million-acre George Washington and Jefferson National Forest is an idea that has been kicking around for about 30 years. Why might it actually happen now? (Well, "now" in terms of the federal bureaucracy, anyway. Once - if - the proposal is approved by the U.S. secretary of agriculture, the merger would occur over a span of two or three years.)

One reason is that the government's money belt has been tightened enough to make change necessary if both forests are to have the capable specialists needed to manage the land. The Forest Service has been told to cut costs throughout the national system. Already, the two Appalachian forests share specialists such as a fisheries biologist and a geologist.

Another reason the time is right is simply that the times have changed. The world is smaller. Where once Forest Service workers traveled on U.S. 11, there is now Interstate 81. Just getting from one end of the Jefferson forest to the other used to take about all day, and that was driving hard, one veteran recalls. I-81 changes that.

And the improved road is just one difference. Where there were fire towers and crude communications systems, Forest Service personnel now spot fires from airplanes and communicate instantly. The computer technology that is making the entire world a global village has brought the pieces of the George Washington and the Jefferson in Western Virginia, with bits in West Virginia and Kentucky, together into one.

At least, it will if the agriculture secretary makes it so. In light of the Forest Service's orders to cut costs and reduce staffs, it's hard to imagine a reason not to. It will save money, increase staff efficiency, perhaps even add professional staffing in the forests themselves. We don't think Mr. Jefferson would mind losing his very own forest in favor of scientifically sound resource management.