FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - January 10, 2000
Further Information Contact: Andy Stahl (541-484-2692), andy@fseee.org

Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics
P.O. Box 11615, Eugene, Oregon 97440
Telephone: 541-484-2692 Fax: 541-484-3004 Email: fseee@fseee.org

Last year, then-Bighorn national forest supervisor Gail Kimball crowed that her reorganization efforts would bring "more money and more resources to the ground." Kimball had come under fire for targeting a dozen whistleblowers by using the reorganization plan to eliminate their positions. Deputy regional forester Tom Thompson rewarded Kimball for her housecleaning by promoting her to forest supervisor of the Pike-San Isasbel national forest.

A recent internal memo from Stanley Sylva, Kimball's temporary successor as Bighorn forest supervisor, undercuts Kimball's claim that her reorganization had anything to do with bringing more money and resources to the ground. Sylva's November memo to the regional office reports a $538,000 budget shortfall for fiscal year 2000, leaving the forest in a "precarious financial position."

As a result of the shortfalls, most of the Bighorn's field programs "will be operating at minium levels." The Bighorn has insufficient funds to pay for offering any timber sales in FY 2001 or FY 2002 (the Bighorn normally offers 4 to 5 million board feet a year). Wilderness field rangers will be cut from four positions to one. Trail maintenance will have to be done by volunteers exclusively. The fire crew will be cut so severely that it will "no longer meet national standards." The Bighorn may have to close all three of its visitors centers, including the Medicine Wheel Interpretive Site.

"The public is getting ripped off," stated Andy Stahl, Executive Director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics. "Kimball's duplicity and incompetence have left a lasting legacy on the Bighorn. I'm scared to think what she'll do to the Pike-San Isabel."

Why the funding shortfalls? The memo points out that one of Kimball's reorganization legacies was her decision to move the Bighorn supervisor's office to a new leased building. These moving expenses will consume $400,000 in fiscal year 2000, amounting to 7 percent of the Bighorn's total budget.

[A copy of the November memorandum can be found at FSEEE's website, http://www.fseee.org in the press releases section.]