Time for US Forest Service to Show Its Stuff

Time for FS to show its stuff

By The Helena IR - 11/30/03

Almost lost amid the last-minute congressional hoopla over the Medicare bill
(which passed) and the energy bill (which was postponed) was passage of yet
another controversial measure - the Healthy Forest bill.

The bill authorizes $760 million a year for tree-thinning on 20 million acres
of federal land considered most at risk for catastrophic wildfire. Half of the
money must be spent in areas close to homes and communities.

In addition, the legislation includes provisions meant to speed the
environmental and judicial review of forest-thinning proposals and to limit
administrative appeals.

All three members of Montana's congressional delegation applauded the bill as
an important step toward addressing forest health problems, as did two forestry
associations. Several environmental groups called it a scheme to increase
commercial logging by limiting public involvement.

Disparate views of such legislation is par for the course, but Dale Bosworth,
chief of the National Forest Service, took a more pragmatic approach after the
bill's passage. He said the measure will give the agency an opportunity to
build trust with an increasingly skeptical public.

"If we are prudent in how we use the flexibility this legislation gives us, I
think we can build more support for more work on the ground," he said. "Maybe
this legislation will give us a chance to show that we are a professional
organization - that we do care about the land."

It is interesting to recall that at least since the devastating western
wildfires of 1988, there has been a consensus that decades of all-out fire
suppression have left the forests dense with fuel and vulnerable to
increasingly dangerous fires. Yet it is only now, 15 years later, that
relatively modest steps are being taken to address the problem.

Bosworth, a former regional supervisor based in Missoula, has a point. Now,
with everybody watching, the time has come for the agency to show us what it
can do.

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2003/11/30/opinions_top/a04113003_01.txt