May/June 2001. Roadless plan dealt setback in Boise court. Hold fast to FSEEE’s founding values.

Roadless Setback

The fate of the roadless rule is back in the Bush administration’s hands after a federal judge in Boise, Idaho, advised on April 5 that the rule didn’t allow enough time for public comment. The Boise Cascade Corporation, two Idaho counties, three snowmobile associations, a cattle company, the state of Idaho and the Idaho State Land Board sued to overturn the U.S. Forest Service rule protecting roadless areas from road construction and most logging.

The Bush administration, which is charged by law to defend against the lawsuit, refused to lift a hand in the rule’s defense. Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics intervened to do Bush’s job for him. The plaintiffs want more roads, more logging and more motorized recreation in our national forests. They claim that the Forest Service broke the law when it decided to forego building new roads in 58 million acres of wild, unroaded lands.

The Bush administration agrees with the plaintiffs, and it, too, wants more roads, more logging and more motorized recreation. Former Forest Service Chief Mike Domeck opposed more roads, more logging and more motorized recreation.

The Forest Service is the defendant in the case, but it has been shut out of the litigation by the Bush administration and its Justice Department. The Forest Service has not been consulted, does not review the briefs and is not invited to strategy meetings. In other words, the agency that wrote the roadless rule and is being sued over it is not being allowed to defend itself or its environmentally protective policies.

On April 5, U.S. District Court Judge Edward Lodge, who is hearing the case, responded to the state of Idaho’s and Boise Cascade’s requests for an injunction stopping the roadless rule. Lodge issued what amounts to an advisory opinion, which is generally prohibited by court procedures. He opined that the Forest Service had violated the National Environmental Policy Act by not allowing more time for public comment on the roadless rule (1.6 million people commented on the rule over a two year period, and the vast majority supported it). But he stopped short of issuing any injunction or other order, probably because such an order could be appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

By issuing an advisory opinion, Lodge can help President Bush justify overturning the rule without exposing the judge’s reasoning to review by the higher court. The Bush administration says that it will decide what to do with the roadless protection rule in early May. The administration could reopen the public comment process on the rule while postponing the date the rule becomes effective. This would allow opponents of the rule to build a public record against roadless area protection.

Vermont Law School’s Pat Parenteau, one of the nation’s top environmental lawyers, represents FSEEE in the lawsuit. Parenteau won for Forest Service employee Mary Dalton the right to appeal a bad Forest Service timber sale and brought the lawsuit that abolished toxic tree-marking paint.

Our Voice Was Heard

When we first started Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics ten years ago, those of us who worked for the U.S. Forest Service didn’t believe we would last long enough as employees to see the dawn of a new decade. But here we are. Some of us are still Forest Service employees working for the betterment of the agency and the environment in two ways. We work toward that goal directly as Forest Service employees when on the job, and we work toward it by exercising our free speech rights as citizens on our own time. Our cause was aided, no doubt, by an environmentally friendlier White House for eight years during the Clinton administration. We worry that this may all change soon. Environmentally active Forest Service employees may once again rightfully fear for their professional livelihood. Fear didn’t go away during the last eight years, but it was certainly lessened for employees who openly championed ideals of environmental preservation and restoration.

For the last eight years and more, the Forest Service has been “greening up.” We feel that our voices were heard. Former Chief Mike Dombeck’s natural resource agenda sought watershed restoration, sustainable forest ecosystem management, prudent roads and access management with roadless area protection and recreation. This was a pleasant change from the old order, where “getting the cut out first, the cows in second, and all else a distant third” pretty much summed up the unstated agenda. This is not to belittle valiant effort by many Forest Service employees who through the years championed conservation, wilderness preservation, wildlife protection and watershed restoration. But these efforts were often overrun by the unstated political agenda.

We wait anxiously to see what form of compassionate conservatism will spring forth from the Bush White House. Somehow we don’t expect to see much compassion for creatures other than humans, and we don’t expect to see much compassion shown for those who champion safeguarding habitat for creatures other than humans. We expect instead shortsightedness as energy shortages and human needs dominate the agenda. We hope we are mistaken, but we expect to have to redouble efforts in our vigilance to protect the environment for all who inhabit the earth in the long run.

Whether we encounter compassionate conservatism or compassionless conservatism, FSEEE will continue to support those who speak out to protect the environment within the law of the land. We will continue to hold the Forest Service accountable to the high standards of law and policy. And we will continue to hold ourselves accountable as FSEEE members to emulate in our personal and professional lives those principles and standards of environmental excellence to which we hold others accountable.

We held our ground as a partnership between Forest Service employees and the public for a decade in this country. We hear rumors that British Columbia provincial forestry employees may soon follow in our footsteps. We encourage them to do so, for the same reasons we formed FSEEE and also because forests internationally are under increased pressure in part because of stricter environmental constraints placed on U.S. forests to supply raw materials to feed U.S.-led global capitalism. We can not idly stand by while forests and human rights in other lands are threatened by our addiction to consumer goods. We must take our cause around the world. Only then can we promise a livable future to grandchildren everywhere.—Dave Iverson, Board President

Forest Magazine | FSEEE