ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 2, 1997 TAG: 9704020026
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES LEVENDOSKY
``Why is it that we look at forests in terms of board feet?'' he asked rhetorically in an interview last week - Mike Dombeck, the new chief of the Forest Service for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Dombeck also sounded this new theme in his address to FS employees in early January when he took over the agency - saying that the first priority of the Forest Service will be to protect and restore the health of the land.
Asked if his address meant a new direction for the Forest Service, Dombeck replied: ``The production of timber should not be the driver. The driver should be the long-term sustainability and health of the forest.
``And taking a look at watersheds - watersheds produce water; they produce hunting and fishing and wildlife values, and non-game values, and scenic beauty and timber and firewood, and all those values.''
Dombeck shows a keen awareness for the public's criticism of the Forest Service as a tool of the timber industry. ``One of the things, I think, that has led us into the cross hairs of the debate is the fact that we always - why is it that we look at forests in terms of board feet? We should be looking at forests in terms of forests and watersheds. And taking a look at all the benefits there.''
Dombeck talks about this shift in emphasis - toward the health of the forest lands - as ``an evolution over time.''
In testimony before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee on Resources, Dombeck made it clear that ``forest health'' in his agency will no longer mean ``log it to save it.''
It is also clear that he is concerned about the credibility of the agency. The salvage rider, which Congress passed as part of a 1995 appropriations bill and expired at the end of 1996, suspended all environmental laws that protect national forests from irresponsible logging. The Forest Service suffered a backlash from citizens across the nation who called for the repeal of the rider and the abuse of our forest lands.
Working in the Forest Service is not new to Dombeck. He served in the agency at various levels in Michigan, Wisconsin, California, and Washington, D.C. Most recently, he was acting director of the Bureau of Land Management.
It may be that Dombeck's stint in the BLM gave him a more critical appraisal of how the Department of Agriculture treated the nation's forest lands in the recent past. Certainly, the lessons learned from the 1995 mudslides in northern Idaho, which were blamed on excessive timber harvests and road building, were not lost on him. The watershed in that region was devastated.
And it may be that in his time as acting director of the BLM, he learned the value of citizen participation in decisions affecting land use. Dombeck now talks of ``collaborative stewardship'' as the key to his philosophy - which he defines as listening to the people and providing them with expertise and information so that together agency officials and citizens can arrive at good local solutions.
While Dombeck doesn't speak of Resource Advisory Councils, a concept initiated in 1994 to help BLM officials decide how to best manage federal grazing lands, he speaks of creating ``citizen stewardship councils to serve as models of collaborative stewardship.''
The Forest Service already works with citizens and industries to better solve local problems, according to Dombeck, and models of good collaboration do exist.
It's the new thrust Dombeck has taken - that if carried out will be significant: ``What I intend to do is provide direction to the regional foresters and forest supervisors to move toward a very strong collaborative stewardship approach. And I don't think we want to dictate by regulations how they should do it. I'd like to see them come up with ways of working with the local communities and utilize what works best in that area.''
It's an ambitious attempt to restore some credibility and national forest leadership to an embattled federal agency.
The first major test of Dombeck's vision for managing our national forest lands will come when Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, introduces his so-called ``Public Land Management Responsibility and Accountability Restoration Act.'' This bill would give logging interests the upper hand in national forests and repeal the law that gives the public an opportunity to comment on all proposed activities on federal forest land.
Sen. Craig can't see the forest for the board feet.
This promises to be a watershed year for the U.S. Forest Service and for those of us who love the land. We should pay close attention.
Charles Levendosky, editorial page editor of the Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune.
LENGTH: Medium: 86 linesby CNB