ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, October 11, 1996 TAG: 9610110043
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: C-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
JACK WARD THOMAS has clashed with environmentalists and timber industry officials alike since President Clinton hired him in December 1993.
After three years of being buffeted by political quarrels pitting environmentalists against timber interests, Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas said Thursday he will step down next month.
``I look forward to returning to the West. That's where my heart is,'' the longtime researcher from La Grande, Ore., told a news conference at Forest Service headquarters. ``There are damn few elk here.'' He intends to teach at the University of Montana.
Thomas, the only wildlife biologist ever to head an agency that historically had focused more on timber production, has clashed with environmentalists and timber industry officials alike since President Clinton hired him in December 1993.
He also faced criticism from Western Republicans in Congress and from within the Clinton administration itself as he administered Clinton's forest policies. Under his watch, national forest harvests dropped to one-fourth of their 1980s levels after federal judges ruled past practices were breaking wildlife protection laws.
``I think we are in a particularly contentious period at the moment,'' Thomas said. ``I hope very much after the election there will be time for everyone to sit down and talk about giving the Forest Service a clear mission. Our mission is somewhat confused.''
Although he initially was championed by environmentalists for his advocacy of protecting the threatened northern spotted owl by wholesale reductions in logging of old trees, timber industry leaders had come to view him as a moderating force in an administration they view as overly ``green.''
``It turned out the chief was not an ideologue,'' said Doug Crandall, a vice president of the American Forest & Paper Association.
Sources in the timber industry and on Capitol Hill said Thomas frequently was at odds over logging decisions with officials at the White House and at the Agriculture Department, which oversees the Forest Service.
Thomas denied that spurred his departure but acknowledged frustration with the politics of his job, saying: ``As time has gone by, the management of public lands has become more political. I don't attribute that to any one administration. I think that has been an ongoing process'' over the past century.
However, he emphasized: ``I have never been asked to execute anything that was not in my mind both legal and appropriate. Most of those decisions I agree with. Sometimes I didn't agree. But I wasn't the person that got elected.''
Although industry officials said privately that Thomas and the administration had agreed the relationship could no longer work, Thomas, 62, said he had always intended to retire from the Forest Service at that age. He said he had met the personal and professional goals he had set when he took the job.
Agriculture Undersecretary James Lyons said he had overruled Thomas on only one or two occasions, but refused to provide specifics. Of Thomas' resignation, Lyons said: ``I don't think it has anything to do with the administration. It was Jack's decision.''
``We will miss him greatly,'' said Kathleen McGinty, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
When Clinton hired him three years ago, debate was raging over Northwest logging policies because of the spotted owl controversy. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman praised him Thursday for leading the agency through ``one of its most difficult and contentious periods.''
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. A wildlife biologist, Jack Ward Thomas plans toby CNBteach at the University of Montana.