SHERIDAN, Wyo. (AP) - Eight Bighorn National Forest employees won a $200,000 settlement in what whistle-blower protection advocates hailed as a victory over bureaucracy.
All disciplinary actions were also dismissed against the current and former employees as part of a decision announced Monday by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, said Martin Andersen, media director for the Washington, D.C.-based Government Accountability Project.
The group is a nonprofit law firm that represented the workers.
''This is a victory for stamina over bureaucratic intransigence that completely vindicates eight gutsy Forest Service whistle-blowers after a nine-year nightmare,'' Andersen said.
The eight employees were allegedly punished after blowing the whistle on ''environmental and fiscal misconduct'' among forest managers, which included illegal Forest Service-approved timber sales; overgrazing; abandonment of commitments to restore habitat; civil rights violations; retaliation against whistle-blowers and other allegations.
The employees and their attorneys said the problems stemmed from previous U.S. Forest Service management, including prior Bighorn supervisors Larry Keown and Elizabeth Estill and former deputy regional forester Tom Thompson.
''This wasn't a case of Bighorn management not seeing the forest for the trees,'' GAP legal director Tom Devine said. ''Rather, the Forest Service's neglect, mismanagement and outright corruption meant the public couldn't see the forest for the sleaze.''
GAP attorney Joanne Royce said her office could have requested disciplinary action against the three forest managers had the case gone to trial.
''Our job is not done until all retaliation stops,'' she said. ''However, the case settled, so we had no legal authority to request disciplinary action against them.''
The eight whistle-blower employees included in the settlement are: Paul Beels, former ecosystem coordinator who is no longer with the Forest Service; Mavis Biastoch, former budget and finance officer who was terminated; Craig Cope, a Bighorn recreation forester and wilderness coordinator; Michele Girard, former ecologist who transferred to Arizona; Bob Mountain, former rangeland vegetation specialist now with the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest; Kat Oropeza, a Bighorn mail clerk; Dan Orr, former budget voucher examiner no longer with the Forest Service; and Roger Wardlow, former archaeologist no longer with the Forest Service.
''What this settlement is telling us is that internally and externally, people were trying to do the right thing for the land, and certain people had to fight hard to make sure that was heard,'' Mountain said.
Liz Howell, director of the Wyoming Wilderness Association, said the case was a small payback for the amount of fear and agony the employees endured.
''This case is about the management of our public lands, and it's about public trust,'' she said. ''When forest management isn't ethical or legal, how can we trust the managers of our public lands?''
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On the Net:
Bighorn National Forest: http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/bighorn/
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