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JUNE 1998 NATIONAL NEWS FS Discontinues the Forest Service News Digest - The long standing digest of Forest Service news submitted from around the regions and forests will no longer be compiled and published 3 times weekly. In its place will be a bi-monthly publication named "FS Today", available in-house on the FSweb. "FS Today", online in PDF format, is a highly polished, richly illustrated, professional corporate newsletter, in contrast to the text-based digest of local news media from around the US that the FS News Digest contained. The demise of the FS news digest also ends the major source of news that you've seen here, as the monthly news digests on these pages were a digest of the in-house FS News Digest. For now, hotlinks to national, regional, and local FS news will be carried here, in addition to some AGNews digests, newswire briefs, and anything useful we might find in the "press release" type material that appears in "FS Today". USFS - Subcommittee Approves Funding Bill - The House Interior Appropriations bill was approved by the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee on Thursday, June 18. The Subcommittee merged the Forest Service road construction and reconstruction line item with the road maintenance and road removal line items. The House Interior Appropriations bill also ends funding for The Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem management project (ICEMP). The Land and Water Conservation Fund - (LWCF) received a deep cut, being funded at only $139 million for 1999, or less than half the President's request. Under the Land and Water Conservation Fund Program, $900 million should be appropriated annually for the acquisition of high priority conservation lands, but this level has not been achieved in many years. The $699 million appropriated for 1998 to be spent on high-priority acquisitions in 35 states has been held hostage since appropriated, with less than half released. Logging Targeted by Furse - In the House, Congresswoman Furse (D-OR) is preparing an amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill, to reduce subsidies for commercial logging on National Forests. Congresswoman Furse's amendment would seek to reduce the $237 million appropriated to timber sales designed specifically to make money; 60% of these sales lose money. The Forest Service acknowledges losses of $88 million in 1997 although independent analyses calculate much higher losses. Subsidies for forest health, salvage and other timber sales that have a purported ecological purpose would not be affected. Much of the money cut from the timber subsidy would be redirected toward restoring forests and streams damaged by past timber sales and logging roads. Land and Water Conservation Fund Money Held Hostage - A 5/26 Miami Herald editorial urges Congress to release Land and Water Conservation Fund money. The Herald notes $699 million was appropriated for 1998 to be spent on high-priority acquisitions in 35 states but to date zero has been spent. Congress refuses to "certify" the Administration's list of projects and release the funds, and Congress is considering using the LWCF to fund the highway bill. The Herald urges Florida's Congressional delegation to prod their colleagues to release the money, the "primary and dependable source of funding to acquire environmentally sensitive and historic properties." U.S. Helps Mexico Combat Fires - Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman was in Mexico City Wednesday to consult with Mexican officials on Mexican wildfires and to pledge continued U.S. support to the Government of Mexico. Glickman, with U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator J. Brian Atwood, and U.S. Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck, are going to Tuxla Gutierrez today. There they will get a first hand at ongoing efforts to combat the forest fires. Since January, more than 12,627 fires have burned in Mexico. Currently, there are 143 active wildfires burning a total of 13,782 acres. The U.S. has provided Mexico with over $8 million in disaster assistance and 50 officials for technical expertise and assistance.
Forest Service: Weak Contracting Practices Increase Vulnerability to Fraud, Waste, and Abuse
- GAO/RCED-98-88 (PDF), May 6 (released June 5th) and
WORLD BANK GOES GREEN, ALLIES WITH WORLD WILDLIFE FUND: An announcement by James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, and Kathryn S. Fuller, President of the World Wildlife Fund - US, published an article in the Washington Post on May 26 outling the sorry state of the world's forests and announced that they were going to get together and do something about it. They propose to increase "protection" from 6 percent to at least 10 percent of each of the world's major forest types by the year 2000 and to work with countries to put 500 million acres of forest under independent certification by the year 2005. An informed observer notes that what is interesting about the WB/WWF approach, in addition to the World Bank's newly-acquired environmental respectability, is their endorsement of certification. Certification may play a big part in the debate about whether or not any logging at all will continue on national forests in the US. Most environmental groups, he notes, are strong supporters of certification of private lands and trying to create a market for certified forest products. Some people inside the FS are thinking, about opening doors to the certifiers and inviting them to certify national forests. The forest management practices on most national forests are at a higher environmental standard than some private lands that have been certified. We're now observing environmental agencies lobbying against certifying forest practices on public lands. (FSX)
FS MANAGEMENT RESTRUCTURING: Chief Mike Dombeck announced a major management restructuring of the agency to improve the accountability of managers and reform financial systems to provide more accurate and timely financial information. Specifically, Chief Dombeck announced the establishment of three new management positions and redefined the position of Associate Chief. These changes are intended to create clear functional lines of accountability for fiscal management and natural resource management. The new positions are Chief Operating Officer, Deputy Chief/Chief Financial Officer, and Deputy Chief for Business Operations. This management restructuring requires all Forest Service Deputy Chiefs to report to the Chief Operating Officer or the Associate Chief for Natural Resources. Two current Forest Service senior leaders are moving into two of the four top leadership positions: Francis Pandolfi moves from Special Assistant to the Chief to the position of Chief Operating Officer, and Clyde Thompson moves from Associate Deputy Chief of Operations to the position of Deputy Chief for Business Operations. The Deputy Chief/Chief Financial Officer and Associate Chief for Natural Resources positions will be filled as quickly as possible. The Forest Service will also seek to increase temporarily its personnel authorizations in budgeting and administrative support positions over the next 3 years as it works to correct financial management system and function. (FS) CHALLENGE TO RULING ON STUDS: Homebuilders and lumber retailers plan a court challenge to the Customs ruling that reclassifies lumber with holes drilled in it as common lumber subject to a quota limit for duty free imports. However, lumber producers complain that classifying the drilled lumber separately has resulted in an extra $42 million in lumber entering the U.S. from Canada. Journal of Commerce 6/26 (USDA) ENVIRONMENTALISTS WIN WATER FOR SALMON: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 10-year-old case that the Bureau of Reclamation violated the Endangered Species Act by not considering environmental effects of issuing water contracts to farmers. The agreement will force the renegotiation of contracts with 14 irrigation districts. The court ruled the BoR must consider the water needs of fish and restore damaged streams. Washington Times 6/26 (USDA) GOSHAWK DOES NOT QUALIFY, SAYS F&WL SERVICE: The Fish and Wildlife Service announced June 23 that the northern goshawk in the western United States does not qualify for addition to the Federal endangered species list. In response to a U.S. District Court ruling, the Fish and Wildlife Service completed a status review and issued a "not warranted" 12-month finding for the goshawk. The Fish and Wildlife Service found no evidence of a declining population trend for goshawks. Available data indicate that goshawks remain widely distributed throughout the Western United States. According to the Arizona Republic, a lawsuit was filed by the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity on June 23 (FS)
INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE: Representatives from the Office of International Programs attended the International Conference on Integrated Pest Management-Theory and Practice, Developing Sustainable Agriculture in Guangzhou, China, June 15-20. The purpose of the conference was to exchange knowledge and experience in both theory and practice of Integrated Pest Management. The Guangdong Association for Science and Technology Cooperation and the Guangdong Entomological Society organized the conference. NEW DISEASE THREATENS ELMS The elms on the National Mall have survived a number of threats, but they now may be facing a potentially fatal disease, elm yellows. The disease has been found in the Frederick and Hagerstown areas. The Forest Service will conduct a survey next month to determine the disease's spread and the potential threat to the elms on the Mall. A Park Service pathologist notes that defenses against elm yellows have not been developed yet. AP (USDA) CRUCIAL SUPREME COURT DECISION: On May 18, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a suit brought by the Sierra Club and the Citizens Council on Environmental Control challenging the 1988 Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) for the Wayne National Forest (OH) must be dismissed. The ruling overturns a 1997 Sixth Circuit Court decision that held that the Wayne LRMP was unlawful. The plaintiffs had charged that the plan was biased toward timber harvesting. The court examined both the "fitness of the issues for judicial decision" and the "hardship to the parties of withholding court consideration." The court decided that there was no hardship to the parties because the Wayne Forest Plan "does not give anyone a legal right to cut trees, nor does it abolish anyone's legal authority to object to trees being cut." From the court's perspective, immediate review of LMRP's could result in reviews taking place without the benefit of the focus that a particular logging proposal could provide. In view of these considerations, the court held the challenge did not present a "ripe" controversy. The Court based its decision on the ":ripeness" issue, which, it wrote, is designed "to prevent the courts, through avoidance of premature adjudication, from entangling themselves in abstract disagreements over administrative policies, and also to protect the agencies from judicial interference until an administrative decision hsa been fromalized and its effects felt in a concrete way by the challenging parties." The Supreme Court therefore vacated the 6th Circuit Court decision and remanded the case with instructions to dismiss. The Appeals Court decision was brought to the Supreme Court by the Ohio
Forestry Association. The Administration and the Forest Service decided, against
the strong recommendation of OGC, not to be a party to the appeal. The link to
the entire decision can be found elsewhere on this site. (FSX)
HOUSE HEARINGS:
FOREST FIGHT: Fourteen environmental groups sought to portray a united front on the eve of a legislative committee's public hearing on a host of forest management bills. The groups that pledged to work together with the Legislature for forestry reform include the Forest Ecology Network and the Maine Audubon Society. The bills before the agriculture committee range from banning clearcutting to trying tax breaks for land owners to good forestry practices. Legislative leaders say the big challenge ahead will be getting large landowners, environmentalists, small woodlot owners, and a host of other constituencies to agree with one another. The Associated Press. (FS) OREGON REPRESENTATIVE SMITH WARNS AGAINST LOGGING BAN IN ROADLESS AREAS: Representative Bob Smith (R-OR), Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, warned the Clinton administration against taking any steps to block logging of unroaded areas of National Forests without input from Congress. He said he's concerned about reports that the Forest Service is devising a new policy that may limit logging and other activities in parts of the forests where there are no roads. "I would be gravely concerned were the Department to put into place a new policy, by executive order, memorandum of agreement, general directive, moratorium or any other means, without an open public process, consistent with the requirements of current environmental laws," Smith said. Representative Helen Chenoweth (R-ID), Chairman of the House Resources Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, said in a letter to Clinton on Wednesday that "any direction on roadless areas that would override local forest management decisions and numerous individual wilderness laws would be met with the strongest degree of opposition." Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck said earlier in the week the agency will propose a new policy before spring for roadless areas as well as construction and maintenance of existing logging roads. Associated Press. (FS) REPORT ON WESTERN WATER: A congressionally mandated study by the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission recommends government action to restore degraded watersheds, encourage water transfers from farms to cities, and charge full-market value for water from new irrigation projects. A rancher on the panel dissented from the report saying it was biased against agriculture. Washington Post 6/25 (USDA)
FY 1999 Forest Service Budget: The Senate Interior and Related Agencies Appropriation Subcommittee held a hearing on the Forest Service FY 1999 Budget April 23. Subcommittee members were primarily concerned about roads, the roads moratorium, and Forest Service accountability and financial management. Under Secretary Jim Lyons and Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck were the witnesses. (FS) (Only the Chiefs' Testimony is Available) Public Lands Management Improvement Act - Former FS Chiefs Invited To Testify:
Senator Larry Craig invited former Forest Service Chiefs Jack Ward Thomas,
Dale Robertson, Max Peterson, and John McGuire to testify before the Forestry
and Public Lands Subcommittee at a hearing on S.1253, the Public Land Management Improvement Act of 1997.
Hearing testimony from April 30, but the Chiefs
testimony is not yet available. (FS) See also
testimony from the April 23 hearing,
testimony from the May 5 hearing,
testimony from the June 4th hearing, and
testimony from the June 17th hearing, including
Jim Lyons Testimony on PLMI Act of 1997 6/17/98.
Also see
what the Audubon Society says, and
what the Farm Bureau says, and what Sen. Murkowski says
about Craigs "Public Lands Management Improvement Act" And More...
NORTHERN REGION (Region 1): Idaho and Montana Stone Container's Frenchtown pulp mill busted $500,000 -- U.S. District Court Judge Charles C. Lovell has signed a settlement of an environmental lawsuit filed by 16 Montana citizen groups over violations of federal Clean Air, Clean Water, Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know laws at Stone Container's Frenchtown pulp mill, west of Missoula, Montana. The citizen's settlement requires Stone to pay $50,000 in fines, and earmarks $450,000 for various environmental and community programs. ENN 6/1/98
COUNTY RESTRAINED FROM OPENING ROAD: On June 12, on a motion by the Government, the District Court in Idaho enjoined the Boundary County Commissioners in Idaho from reopening the Boundary Creek Road on the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. The County asserted ownership of the road under R.S. 2477. The Boundary Creek Road was constructed on National Forest System lands along the Canadian boarder in 1913. Forest officials closed a 6-mile segment of the road several years ago due to landslides and installed gates at both ends. Reopening the road would have posed immediate and irreparable harm to public health and safety as well as threatened and endangered wildlife and plants. The road is within the Selkirk Grizzly Bear Recovery Area near Boundary Creek, which has a population of Bull Trout, a recently listed under the Endangered Species Act. (FS)
DRAWDOWN OF TIN CUP DAM CONTINUES: The Tin Cup Sewer & Water District turned to the Forest Service for help in stopping a significant leak along an outlet pipe at the Tin Cup Dam, located on the Bitterroot National Forest (MT). The leak poses a risk to over a dozen homes that lie downstream and could result in extensive flooding. On May 31, the Forest Service brought in earth-moving equipment and a Large "Skycrane" helicopter that started airlifting large equipment to Tin Cup Lake, a lake lying in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, accessible by a difficult, steep and narrow trail or by air. A six-person contractor crew will then begin carefully and systematically to lower the spillway to let water out of the lake, but not more than Tin Cup Creek can handle within its banks. The crew will then breach the dam. The dam, operated under a special use permit with the Forest Service, stores water for irrigation use in the Bitterroot Valley. Personnel are monitoring the situation 24-hours a day. The Tin Cup Sewer & Water District is expected to make a proposal to the Forest Service some time in the future on the repair of the dam. OFFICIALS DECLARE STATE OF EMERGENCY AT TIN CUP DAM: Ravalli County commissioners declared a state of emergency at the Tin Cup Dam after learning little progress had been made over the past week in lowering water levels in Tin Cup Lake. Bitterroot National Forest administrative and engineering staff officer Roy Grant said the dam is still at high risk of failure. The Tin Cup water district has worked this past week to lower levels and though the reservoir level has dropped about 4 feet the seepage around the outlet pipe has not decreased. The Tin Cup Water district is in the process of submitting a proposal to the Forest Service to further lower the reservoir level, an action expected to need heavy equipment to carry out. With the county issuing the emergency declaration, the water district will be able to use the services and equipment of the National Guard, such as helicopters to fly in equipment. The Missoulian
June 1998
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