Collaborative Forest Management: What the FACA?

Recently, one of the main the topic of conversation here at NCFP has been about collaborative forest management. We have wandered though several posts and many comments into the controversy surrounding, in particular the Montana Forest Restoration Committee in Montana and the Tongass Futures Roundtable in Alaska. In these discussions, there have been those sitting just beyond the perimeter of a collaboration who feel that something is amiss. Concerns often expressed by local environmental groups include, “Who is at the table, collaborating, and who is absent?” That is, Is the committee biased? If so, what type bias? On the other side of this divide are those who champion collaboration, particularly some National environmental groups who seem tired of litigation battles and stalemate, and to prefer more direct forms of engagement. These would-be collaborators don’t seem too uncomfortable with the make-up of collaboration committees. Because they are well-represented?. Sometimes they look askance at those who challenge the validity of specific collaborations, even accusing local environmental groups of being obstructionists. Local environmental groups counter, and accuse the Nationals of “selling out,” becoming part of the problem that is often labeled “Washington D.C.”

As I’ve watched and participated in surrounding discussion, I’ve wondered: Whither FACA? The Federal Advisory Committee Act FACA) was passed in 1972 in an effort to reign in federal agency ‘capture’ by special interest groups, particularly corporate interests. By the late 1990s there was substantial interest in collaboration in natural resource policy, but FACA was seen by many as a barrier to effective collaboration: Too bureaucratic, too heavily-laden with process requirements. But collaborators seem to have forgotten, else never understood a little facet of the law: an advisory committee doesn’t need to be declared to be a FACA Committee to be held accountable to at least some aspects of FACA law.

A good overview of this FACA problem/opportunity can be found in “The Federal Advisory Committee Act and Public Participation”, 1999 (pdf) publication by Resources for the Future. The act itself can be found here. Another useful reference is “The Federal Advisory Committee Act and Its Failure to Work Effectively in the Environmental Context”, (pdf) 1995, Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review. After reading the latter, I was about to give up on FACA, in part because the courts had failed pretty much to allow people to challenge federal agencies under FACA. And the prevalence of closed-to-the-public advisory committees was still substantial in 1993:

FACA has … failed to fulfill Congress’s goal of opening all advisory committee meetings to the public. Closed-door advisory committee meetings still prevail, despite FACA’s mandates that meetings be open to public participation.218 The GSA, which monitors advisory committee activity throughout the government, reported that, in fiscal year 1993, there were more closed and partially closed advisory committee meetings (2,225) than open meetings (2,162).219 It is clear from these statistics that a substantial amount of advisory committee work is still done in private, away from the public scrutiny and participation that would help limit the influence private interest groups have on the agencies they are advising.

In short it looked like those finding themselves on the outside of collaboratives couldn’t find much recourse via the courts. Then I found an interesting little decision (pdf) rendered after the Idaho Wool Growers Association successfully challenged the Forest Service in Idaho, 2009. In Judge Winmill’s decision I saw a ray of hope that indeed FACA challenges might still reign-in committees that bias agency decision-making. In particular I found this interesting:

Memorandum Decision and Order – Page 18
FACA defines an “advisory committee” as “any committee, board, commission, council, conference, panel, task force, or other similar group, or any subcommittee or other subgroup thereof . . . which is . . . established or utilized by one or more agencies in the interest of obtaining advice or recommendations for the President or one or more agencies or officers of the Federal Government . . . .”

Memorandum Decision and Order – Page 19-20
“When a committee is established to provide expert summaries or interpretation of technical data, their reports can be ‘in the interest of obtaining advice or recommendations for . . . one or more agencies.’” . . .
“Even though [the committee] provided the USFS with only narrative summaries of scientific information, and made no policy recommendations, the [committee] drafts and the final assessment provide the framework, context and information that the USFS will rely on in making policy decisions.”

Memorandum Decision and Order – Page 20
FACA imposes a number of requirements on advisory committees. See, e.g., 5 U.S.C. App. II, §§ 2, 5, 9-14 (records must be made available for public inspection; charter must be filed; upcoming meetings must be announced; meetings must be held in a public place; minutes must be kept; attendance must “be fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented” and may “not be inappropriately influenced by the appointing authority or by any special interest”). Typically, a close examination of each requirement, contrasted against the circumstances in a particular case, is warranted when determining whether a FACA violation occurred.

So FACA may indeed be ‘in play’ in broader contexts than have heretofore been considered by many. That is, it matters not so much that FACA committees be chartered by agencies. What matters is what the players do, how they deal with the public interest and how they vet various interests/positions. Post Judge Winmill’s decision, it looks like the courts may finally be listening. Or not! If the courts are listening, we may be in for more FACA lawsuits to test these waters.

What does it all mean? How does and agency, say the US Forest Service, go about getting workable committees (defacto FACA committees) that can come to any agreement or give advice that is not all over the map?

I think that the answer lies in an area that the Forest Service is so far loathe to go. That area is the area of multi-scale adaptive governance that includes policy development as well as program and project management. The Forest Service seems to want to hold policy development to itself, yet to collaborate on site-specific watershed projects. That type arrangement gives no space to deliberate upon and enact the type preservation sought by John Muir naturalists, who want intact ecosystems for say, wildlife—big home ranges for large carnivores, protected corridors for migration, etc. So the whole idea of local-only collaboration is a nonstarter to many environmentalists.They want to deal with matters of broader scale and scope. But there is no such forum available in the 2012 NFMA rule. At least that’s the way I see it. No wonder environmentalists cry fowl. When will the Forest Service warm up to adaptive governance, with its emphasis on collaboration and adaptive management? Not likely anytime soon. So, for this and other reasons, we’ll just see what shakes out in FACA court room battles. When dealing with extant collaboratives, we are left to wonder: What the FACA? Or maybe just WTF?

Perhaps the answer, or part of it, has already been offered up in a NCFP comment from Terry Seyden, if only ALL would/could operate in good faith and keep the public interest in mind:

In my view, there is just no substitute for ongoing substantive dialogue to help the agency truly understand what the real underlying interests of various constituents are. Having a rich two way dialogue also assists the agency in creatively exploring all available options for meeting agency goals while trying to meet sometimes competing interests. … [T]o be legitimate and effective, any collaborative effort has to be well grounded within a larger public involvement strategy that gives the larger community of interests substantive opportunity to comment on and influence collaborative recommendations BEFORE decisions are reached.
Of course for any of this to work, the process has to be seen as credible and fair, both in terms of who directly participates in a collaborative group and how those “not at the table” have meaningful opportunities to contribute before decisions are made. While good faith among all interests is not a requirement for this approach to be successful, good faith on the part of the Forest Service or other third party convening any collaborative effort is absolutely essential.

This is echoed by An Optimist:

A good process… will seek to represent the ideas or interests of even non-participating groups. The challenge, however, is that a collaborative process is a learning process ….

In a Michigan Law Review article, Daniel Walters (pdf) seems to agree with both. He advocates for a “deliberative approach” to FACA. It all sounds right to me.

The challenge, for all of us is to be ever-vigilant to ensure that ‘collaboratives’ are indeed operating in good faith, and in the public interest. But if the many of the comments in the posts linked just below are an indicator, many such collaboratives in the past may not have been acting in good faith and in the public interest. Also the Forest Service needs to make sure that collaborative fora are available at appropriate scale to deal with relevant issues—not just at the local level. So let’s keep talking, keep challenging emergent collaboratives and broader policy both in terms of resource-related policy, programs and projects and in terms of collaboration design and operation. And let’s talk here about what I missed, what I messed up, and so on re: FACA, collaboration, and US Forest Service policy and planning.

Some related NCFP collaboration posts of interest:
Odd bedfellows try collaborating to resolve conflicts- from E&E News, March 15, 2012
“Collaboration on natural resource management is divide and conquer” The Wildlife News, March 11, 2012
New Research: Who Litigates, Who Collaborates and Why?, March 7, 2012
Two Views of the Tester Bill, December 22, 2011
Collaboration Can’t Fix What Ails Public Forest Management, October 6, 2011
Colt Summit- Garrity EditorialOctober 6, 2011

New Planning Rule : Less Litigation? More Defensible?

Check out this EE news story.

FOREST SERVICE: Agency chief says no ‘redraft’ for planning rule (06/14/2011)

Phil Taylor, E&E reporter

Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell today said he has no plans to scrap the agency’s draft planning rule for the nation’s forests and grasslands, as urged last month by a group of nearly 60 lawmakers who warned the proposal could draw unwanted lawsuits.

But he also made no indication whether the agency would follow the recommendations of conservationists who have argued the agency’s new planning proposal lacks regulatory teeth to protect and monitor wildlife and their habitats.

He said the agency is hard at work analyzing more than 300,000 comments it received in the three months since the draft was released in mid-February. The agency still expects to finalize the rule by the end of the year, he said.

“As we look through the comments, if there’s something that we missed, we’ll look to make those changes,” he said. “What I’m not OK with is the status quo. The planning rule back in 1982 was a very good rule, yet so many things have changed between 1982 and today that we need a different rule so that we’re able to move forward and restore these national forests and provide for the services that these communities need.”

Tidwell said there are no plans to “redraft” the rule, as proposed by 59 lawmakers in a letter late last month that warned of likely lawsuits from environmental groups (Greenwire, June 6).

“It’s my expectation that with the final rule, first of all, there will be less of a need for folks to litigate and that also it will be easier for us to defend,” he said. “I don’t have any indications from anything I’m aware of in the proposed rule that we need to do [a redraft].”

But the lawmakers, most of them Republicans, say the draft planning rule is overly burdensome and would bog the agency down in environmental lawsuits.

“By adding more process requirements and introducing more technical terms, you are increasing the likelihood that, like previous attempts at reform, the proposed rule will be tied up in court for years,” wrote the lawmakers, led by Reps. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and Mike Ross (D-Ark.).

Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson (R) said he was particularly concerned about a “viability” provision in the proposed rule that requires consideration of both vertebrate and invertebrate species on the agency’s 198 million acres of forests and grasslands. He was more succinct in describing the rule today at the U.S. Capitol: “It sucks.”

Simpson said he is meeting with Tidwell this afternoon at the chief’s request and expects to discuss the planning rule and the Forest Service’s 2012 budget, among other things. He was not certain what Tidwell had planned to discuss.

The planning rule seeks to revamp how the agency updates land management plans for 175 national forests and grasslands by speeding planning efforts, incorporating best available science, engaging the public and ensuring forests’ resilience to climate change, pests and other threats (E&ENews PM, Feb. 10).

The two previous administrations tried to revise the rule but ultimately had their efforts stymied in court.

Rep. Walden et al. on the Planning Rule

This story, with the letter, is linked here
.
Walden Leads Forest Planning Rule Foes: Sees Good Chance of More Long Legal Battles

– Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) said Friday he is leading a bipartisan chorus of House members in protesting the Obama administration’s national forest planning rule, saying it will lead to more litigation that will divert limited agency resources from badly needed job creation in rural communities.

On Feb. 14, the U.S. Forest Service issued its proposed “National Forest System Land Management Planning Rule.” The rule will govern the planning process for establishing management plans for the nation’s national forests and national grasslands.

This is the fourth attempt to implement a new planning rule since 2000. This proposed rule would have far reaching impacts on permitting processes and the current multiple-use standard for National Forest System lands. “This will place additional burdens on multiple use industries, including grazing, timber, recreation, and resource development,” Walden said in a news release.

Walden and Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), organized a bipartisan letter signed by 60 members to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to tell him that this new rule fails to avoid the pitfalls that have put the Forest Service in seemingly endless litigation for the last three decades. Taken together, the signers of the letter represent 77.7 percent of the nation’s 193 million acres of federal forest land.

“The proposed rule moves the agency further away from a simple, concise rule that can be understood by both agency personnel and the public and implemented with a minimum amount of contention among stakeholder groups,” the lawmakers wrote. “By adding more process requirements and introducing new technical terms, you are increasing the likelihood that like previous attempts at reform, the proposed rule will be tied up in courts for years.”

“We foresee limited federal dollars available for U.S. Forest Service operations being consumed by these processes to the detriment of the health of our federal forests and continuation of multiple uses of our federal resources,” the lawmakers wrote. “This, in turn, will reduce the number of jobs in our already distressed rural communities and further limit the amount of American wood and fiber available to aid our economic recovery.”

The lawmakers also noted in the letter that the rule will shift significant costs onto already burdened taxpayers in the form of legal fees and settlements.

On January 18, President Obama issued an executive order that requires agencies to assure that the costs of a rule are justified by the benefits achieved and that the regulations impose the least burden on society.

“We do not believe that the proposed rule complies with the President’s executive order,” the bipartisan group of lawmakers concluded.

They then asked the Forest Service chief to redraft the rule to make it “simpler and less encumbered with process,” and pointed out that it’s possible to meet the goals of the agency without bogging it down and further separating the public lands from the many taxpayers that depend on them for sustainable clean air, clean water, recreation, harvesting of fish and wildlife, grazing, and timber production.

SAF Principles for a Planning Rule

Here’s a link to the Society of American Forester’s letter on the planning rule.

They started with some principles (I numbered them for the purpose of discussion):

An effective PR:
1) enables forest plans that are simple and efficient to prepare and amend to account for changing conditions, rather than overly prescriptive and onerous to prepare;

2) enables forest plans that reflect the aspirations of communities of place (i.e., local communities), communities of interest (i.e., groups interested in particular aspects of National Forest management regardless of their residence or direct use of the forest), and communities of use (i.e., groups of forest users);

3) enables forest plans that facilitate, rather than impede, on-the-ground project implementation;

4) provides clear criteria for determining whether projects are consistent with forest plans;

5) requires forest plans to describe the types of projects needed to restore habitats and achieve other plan goals, and the forest conditions under which such projects are needed;

6) requires forest plans to set realistic targets for production of commodities and ecosystem services upon which communities of place, interest, and use can rely;

7) establishes appropriate scale and requirements for species surveys, thereby reducing the need for project-level species surveys, because such surveys often provide little information regarding either the quality of the project or the species‟ status;

8 ) elevates the roles of resource monitoring and assessment at appropriate scales to evaluate achievement of forest plan objectives over time;

9) encourages forest plan amendments as needed to reflect changing conditions, rather than encouraging forests to allow their plans to become obsolete, whereby plan revisions require excessive effort and resources; and

10) enables forest plans that are flexible in the face of fluctuating Congressional appropriations and mandates, and responsive to emerging local/regional/national/global issues.

I like the idea of having principles; generally I like these principles (especially 1) although I think there might be some tension between 6 and 10 (another way of saying 6 is, perhaps, unrealistic). But then again, maybe principles should not be required to be realistic.

What do you think?

Timber-Itching or Past-Hankering

Agency must curtail ‘timber-itch’

By Jim Furnish | Posted: Thursday, May 26, 2011 12:15 am

Aldo Leopold, the iconic American conservationist, spoke of once watching “a fierce green fire” dying in the eyes of a wolf he killed, noting “there was something new to me in those eyes.” The she-wolf was not just a varmint, and he came to regret his youthful “trigger-itch.”

Likewise, the U.S. Forest Service must overcome its long-established “timber-itch.” With the agency creating new rules for the vast acreage under its management, and the way we use these valuable resources changing dramatically, we now have no choice but to be concerned.

The division of the Department of Agriculture that once responded mostly to the timber industry now needs to measure its mission not in harvesting trees, but in recreation visits, sheltered wildlife and protected water resources.

But old habits die hard. The agency had long suffered from such a timber-itch when Hubert Humphrey, as a senator and before he was vice president, fought to pass the 1976 National Forest Management Act. It was time to rein in overly aggressive cutting, and elevate consideration of other bedrock values like water and wildlife.

Yet, incredibly, timber harvesting continued to climb, peaking in 1990 at 12 billion board feet (it’s about 2 billion today), until a federal judge intervened, finding that agency officials had “willfully violated the law.” It was the low point for a once-proud agency with a high calling.

Today the agency faces a strong residual urge to cut timber, plus the added challenges of urbanization, energy development, climate change and off-road vehicle abuses. What’s needed now is a progressive planning framework that charts a clear path towards sustainability, water and wildlife protection, and diverse recreational values of the natural landscape as the greatest assets of national forests.

Unfortunately, the proposed planning formula hints at, but does not squarely embrace such a vision. The regulation seeks to protect agency discretion where, instead, clear commitments and accountability are needed. The danger is that the new rule won’t give Forest Service managers the tools to make the vision real. Clarity and specifics are required to do what’s right. While some flexibility is inherently necessary, too much elasticity could snap the agency back to old behaviors that would threaten to give away too much and protect too little.

The agency was not bashful about pursuing aggressive timber harvesting for many decades, stopping only when required by lawsuits. And it should not be bashful about declaring – firmly and convincingly – that those days are over. It is time to embrace conservation and lead the country into the 21st century with this vision in mind. Rather than asking for more discretion, the Forest Service needs to build trust with strong commitments and then keep them.

Americans should look for something new-evidence of a fierce green fire, a passion for exemplary land stewardship. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has spoken with urgency about restoring and protecting water and wildlife values, and the Forest Service needs to deliver the goods.

– Jim Furnish is former deputy chief of the U.S. Forest Service.

My thoughts: Recognize that I don’t work in a timber region (not that I think they still exist; there are “used to be timber” regions), but it is human nature to like flexibility and avoid courtrooms and lawyers. It is also potentially less cost to the financially beleaguered taxpayer.

Jim says

While some flexibility is inherently necessary, too much elasticity could snap the agency back to old behaviors that would threaten to give away too much and protect too little.

Jim seems to imply that we might go back to “excessive” logging under the new planning rule. This seems unlikely to me for a variety of reasons, two of which are: 1) most of the itchy people have retired, 2) there is little or no timber industry in many FS places. Also, I don’t believe that national standards are necessarily the policy solution even if you subscribe to the timberphobic worldview.

The concept that making national standards is the only way to make strong commitments and keep them, in my view, tends to disenfranchise all the good work done day after day in collaborative groups- people that care about and understand specific pieces of land. In addition, it tends to reduce the role of local people and local governments. In fact, in my discussions with collaborative groups, they also want the FS to make commitments and keep them.

I don’t know what kind of experiences others have- but in my recent experiences with counties, and state and federal legislators I have found that they are public servants faced with a hard task of mediating conflicting goods (resources, environment, climate, jobs) and who are accountable, through elections, for what they do. To imply that something determined in D.C. as a “one-size fits all” could be better policy carries a whiff of what someone (was it Matt Carroll?) called “domestic imperialism.”

Western Governors on Planning Rule

Here is the link..

Below is the summary in the press release.

The governors said it is imperative that the U.S. Forest Service coordinate with states and others in refining and implementing the new rule. The letter was signed by Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter (Idaho), Chairman of the Western Governors’ Association, and Gov. Christine Gregoire (Wash.),WGA Vice Chair.

“Given the joint authority and shared goals, it is imperative that the Planning Rule consistently and clearly recognize state authorities, as well as the need for inclusive processes and transparency, which will improve planning efforts and collaboration while reducing litigation,” the letter stated. “Further, given that both the Western Governors and the Obama administration have made the strengthening of our transmission grid a high priority, the Planning Rule must ensure that forest plans recognize this.

“With our recommended improvements to the draft rule, we can together ensure the health and productivity of our nation’s forests, watersheds and wildlife.”

The Governors comments and recommendations also included:

The planning rule fails to acknowledge the unique authority states have to manage wildlife, forest and water resources and to protect public health and safety within their boundaries.
A common landscape-scale vision for the sustainable management of forests is needed.
The rule should be amended to consider how the Forest Service will work with Governors on large multi-forest, multi-state projects. A subsection of the rule should be developed to specifically address planning for transmission lines; other utility infrastructure and facilities; and mineral and energy resources.
Because the management of public lands can significantly impact the economy of some local communities, the planning rule must provide additional direction for an increase in large-scale forest restoration and more active management. The current definition of “productivity” should be amended to include economic productivity.
The USFS should coordinate with states and ensure that forest, resource and fire management plans incorporate the plans and policies of state and local governments. States should have the opportunity to review, advise and provide suggestions on those issues and topics that may affect or influence state government programs.
State wildlife agencies should be consulted and their data integrated into the planning processes at the earliest possible stage. The current language in the proposed rule only requires the Forest Service to “consider” state and locally developed water, wildlife and community fire protection plans.

With regard to this

A subsection of the rule should be developed to specifically address planning for transmission lines; other utility infrastructure and facilities; and mineral and energy resources.

I am reminded of a recent trip to visit county commissioners in which it appeared to them that federal efforts on public land use, energy and transportation are not as coordinated among agencies as one might hope. Don’t know if a planning rule is the best way to help fix that, or perhaps a piece of the puzzle..

Science and the Planning Rule Redux

See this story in the Sacramento Bee:

Critics say Obama abandons science in forest rules

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — The Obama administration’s proposed new rules for protecting clean water and wildlife on the United States’ nearly 200 million acres of national forests goes against the president’s pledge to let science be the guide, conservation groups and two former Clinton administration officials said Monday.

The administration made a “clear commitment” to make conservation policy based on sound science when it took office, said Jane Danowitz of the Pew Environment Group.

“One of the things we are asking for today is simple: Use science to set clear standards,” Danowitz said. “Make sure water and wildlife are protected for generations to come.”

The comments came in a teleconference from Washington, D.C., marking the end of a 90-day public comment period on new rules governing administration of the National Forest Management Act. The U.S. Forest Service expects to come out with final rules by the end of the year.

Also participating was Jamie Rappaport Clark, a Defenders of Wildlife executive and former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director. Clark said forest supervisors being given unprecedented discretion under the new rules need strong standards and guidelines to resist the political pressure they regularly face in making decisions on managing their lands.

Jim Furnish, a former deputy chief of the Forest Service, said the proposed rules tell local forest supervisors to consider science but leave them room to ignore science when making decisions on protecting clean water resources, fish and wildlife habitat, and endangered species.

The proposed rules represent another shift to the right on environmental issues for the Obama administration, which recently stood aside as Congress lifted Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in the Rocky Mountains and took steps to ramp up domestic oil production by extending drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska.

The 155 national forests and grasslands managed by the Forest Service cover 193 million acres in 42 states and Puerto Rico. They provide about 40 percent of the nation’s clean water and threatened and endangered species habitat.

Balance between industry and conservation in those areas has been tough to find since the existing rules took effect in 1982. The existing rules were the basis for lawsuits that cut logging by more than 80 percent to protect salmon, the northern spotted owl and other fish and wildlife.

Tony Tooke is overseeing development of the rules as Forest Service director of ecosystem management coordination. He said the agency is trying to write rules that will guide a collaborative process based on science and other information sources. It looks forward to improving the rules after reviewing more than 100,000 public comments received, he added.

“There are other important sources of information as well, used in the planning process,” Tooke said. “For example, local indigenous knowledge, public input, agency policies, the results of the monitoring process and the experience of land managers on the ground.”

On national forest policy, the Obama administration came into office supporting protection of undeveloped areas known as roadless areas and payments to rural counties hurt by the loss of logging revenues.

Earlier this year Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he wanted to break through the logjam of political conflict over forest management by using science to do what is best for the forests.

More than 400 scientists and a bipartisan group of congressmen wrote letters urging Vilsack to also include more specific protections for clean water and wildlife habitat in the rules.

“This policy is probably one of the most important conservation measures I think this administration will ever undertake,” said U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.

I have a couple of thoughts on this article:
1) Does it unnecessarily politicize the debate? People like or don’t like the proposed rule across a wide political spectrum. For example, Jim Furnish seems to be called a “Clinton Administration Official”; yet as far as I know he was a career employee in a career position when he retired. Also, “The proposed rules represent another shift to the right on environmental issues for the Obama administration.” What if this article said they represent a faithful response to public comment, or a “shift to the center.” You know what I think about unnecessarily partisanizing public lands debates: it’s a bad idea.

2) I don’t think any of the cited people are scientists, nor students of science and technology studies. The idea that it is more “scientific” to have a policy with one standard from forests in Puerto Rico to Alaska, from New Hampshire to San Diego doesn’t reflect my experience in science.

3) It’s interesting to think about a thought experiment with the same quotes and considering energy policy (another natural resource policy) instead of the planning rule.

For example “One of the things we are asking for today is simple: Use science to determine which sources of energy we use” or

“Governors can consider science but national policies leave them room to ignore science when making decisions on regulating different energy sources in their state.”

and I don’t know if Vilsack really said this:

Earlier this year Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he wanted to break through the logjam of political conflict over forest management by using science to do what is best for the forests.

But how is that working for the climate science policy – using science to “break through the logjam” (did he really use that word?) ?

NRDC Planning Rule Comment Form

For those of you who haven’t found this site: here’s the page:

Tongass
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When you take action and become a BioGems Defender we will keep you informed by sending you alerts and progress reports (learn more »).

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Sign our Petition
Ask the Forest Service to protect our national forests
Consisting of more than 193 million acres, our national forests are the crown jewel of America’s natural heritage. They provide critical wildlife habitat for endangered and threatened species, as well as clean drinking water and recreational opportunities for millions of Americans. The U.S. Forest Service is now drafting new rules for their management. Please urge Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to give our national forests the strongest possible protection.

Note: This action is for U.S. residents only. Please do not attempt to take action without a U.S. mailing address.
Your message will be sent to:

Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture

Subject line:

Adopt strong rules for our national forests

I am writing to ask that you adopt strong, conservation-oriented and science-based rules for our national forests. I appreciate your commitment to preserving and restoring this key piece of America’s natural heritage, and applaud the spirit in which the proposed management rules have been drafted.

The final rules must deliver and improve upon the intent of the draft version. A core function of these rules must be to produce good outcomes for national forests and to help ensure that local managers don’t make the kinds of mistakes that have degraded too much of our public forest estate already. That will require much stronger guidance in several key areas.

First and foremost, it is critical that these rules fully protect the species that depend on national forests for their survival. The final rules must ensure that management choices don’t contribute to wildlife and other species disappearing from parts of their ranges. Local extirpations of plants and animals strip national forests of some of their most cherished elements and weaken ecosystems, increasing vulnerability to climate change and putting added pressure on surrounding lands.

Second, the rules must include numeric standards to protect streams, wetlands, and other water bodies. Please make sure that the rules specify a minimum buffer zone around all national forest waters of at least 100 feet, where all management has to promote aquatic health.

Third, consistent with President Obama’s commitment to scientific integrity across the federal government, the Forest Service needs to be guided by the best available science. I’m concerned that as drafted, the rules only direct the agency to “take account” of the science. The final rules need to require that it rely on the best available science, not just consider and then ignore it.

And finally, I am quite concerned that the public have a fully meaningful opportunity to raise concerns about management decisions with top officials in the agency. Under the rules that now apply, citizens have 90 days to appeal local planning decisions to supervisors. It’s crucial that we have at least that much time for decisions that have been years in the works, fill multiple volumes, and rely on thousands of documents.

Thank you very much for considering my concerns. I share your interest in the welfare of these wonderful forestlands and in passing them on, unimpaired, to future generations. I look forward to management rules that will ensure that outcome.

I’m particularly interested in the “science” paragraph:

Third, consistent with President Obama’s commitment to scientific integrity across the federal government, the Forest Service needs to be guided by the best available science. I’m concerned that as drafted, the rules only direct the agency to “take account” of the science. The final rules need to require that it rely on the best available science, not just consider and then ignore it.

According to my count, that’s Science/Scientists as drivers of land management:
NY Times 1
Wilderness Society 1
Graduate student in ecology 1
NRDC 1

I found the comments to be very interesting as well

Noted, but not resident of US, so could not sign.
If something isn’t done to save what we have it would be a travesty!
“They took all the trees and put’em in a tree museum, and charged a dollar and a half just to see ’em” Joni Mitchell 1970
Forty one years ago they were singing songs about the environment, why has it taken so long? Why did it get to be a worse problem??

What do you think? How should the FS consider comments from people who click buttons based on info they read online?

Rural lawmakers fear planning rule will crimp timber harvests, spur lawsuits: ENN story

FORESTS: Rural lawmakers fear planning rule will crimp timber harvests, spur lawsuits (05/05/2011)

Phil Taylor, E&E reporter

The Forest Service’s proposed planning rule could open the door to special-interest lawsuits and does little to ensure timber harvests will increase across the nation’s millions of acres of national forests, House lawmakers from rural districts warned today.

Both Republicans and Democrats said they are concerned the agency’s planning rule — a sweeping proposal announced in February to manage more than 198 million acres of national forests and grasslands contains problematic requirements to maintain viable wildlife populations and is too vague about the role of timber production (E&ENews PM, Feb. 2).

Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.), chairman of the Agriculture Committee’s Conservation, Energy and Forestry subpanel, said the Forest Service runs the risk of “mission creep” by implementing requirements in the new rule to catalog invertebrate species and incorporating climate change language that is likely to invite legal challenges.

Oregon Democrat Kurt Schrader added that the agency appears to be morphing into a hybrid of the National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service, thrusting species viability above the needs of rural economies that depend on multiple-use of forests.

“The original mission of the Forest Service has been lost,” he said at a hearing on the rule. “The law requires species diversity, not viability.”

The lawmakers’ comments underscore the tricky balancing act the Forest Service faces in crafting a rule that will satisfy the numerous groups that use the forests, including timber companies, miners, hikers, ranchers, water users and wildlife.

The agency’s draft proposal — which promises to speed planning efforts, incorporate best available science, engage the public and ensure forests’ resilience to climate change, pests and other threats — has also come under attack from some environmental groups that argue the rule fails to set specific guidelines for ensuring species viability and gives too much discretion to local forest managers to decide which resources are preserved (Greenwire, Feb. 11).

Harris Sherman, the Forest Service’s undersecretary for natural resources and environment, said today the proposal was developed from the “bottom up” based on roughly 40 public meetings and 26,000 comments. It is supported by top scientists within the agency and is expected to last several decades.

“What we’re attempting to do here is establish a new rule that is effective,” he told the House panel. It is modern, it is efficient, and it will serve the public well.”

Sherman emphasized that the draft rule — which is open to public comment until May 16 — is designed to restore the health and resilience of national forests suffering from decades of mismanagement that has led to increased diseases and invasive species, more frequent and intense wildfires, and degrading water quality.

Trimming the planning process from eight years to between one and three years, he said, should help catch more threats, including pests such as the mountain pine beetle, which has ravaged 40 million acres across the West.
Concerns about litigation

But lawmakers pressed Sherman to explain why the rule does not explicitly promote an increase in timber production at a time when rural economies are reeling from unemployment and lagging tax revenues.

“Why in the world should Wisconsin be importing timber from Canada rather than harvesting timber that is rotting in our national forests?” said Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.).

Sherman said timber, as a multiple use, is expressly recognized in the draft plan, and added that the Obama administration predicted a slight increase in timber production in its new budget. “We will continue to see an upward effort to produce timber on our national forests,” he said.

Other lawmakers questioned whether the inclusion of climate change language and new requirements for agency managers to catalog invertebrates such as insects will overburden an already cash-strapped agency and offer new opportunities for special-interest lawsuits.

“Some have embraced the ideology that preventing human access to these lands is the best way to keep these forests healthy,” said Thompson, whose district includes the Allegheny National Forest. “With that in mind, I am concerned that this proposed planning rule is complex and will face the same sort of litigation that has hamstrung previous attempts to formulate a rule.”

Thompson added that timber harvests provide hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic productivity, in addition to thinning overgrown forests and allowing optimal absorption of greenhouse gases.

“Indeed, the rule makes reference to climate change,” he said. “If this is an important issue, I can think of nothing more effective than taking care of our forests and harvesting a sustainable amount of trees.”

Sherman acknowledged that litigation has hampered past management efforts, but said the agency extensively studied past litigation and judicial decisions and believes the new rule will keep the agency out of the courts.

He was also pressed to explain how forest managers would implement the science-based guidelines prescribed in the draft rule considering the budget limitations facing the agency.

“This is not a call for original research or Ph.D. theses on various issues at all. It is a call to go to reliable, available information,” he said. “There may well be competing science on a given issue, and it is up to our local responsible [forest manager] to review this issue and explain how they handle these materials.”

But John Shannon, vice president of the National Association of State Foresters, said that while it is laudable that the agency is giving deference to local forest employees who know the lands best, the proposal’s best available science standard could introduce legal challenges and increase the workload for responsible officials.

“We need to give some deference to the professional opinions of those local forest employees,” he said. But “disputes over competing science have significant potential to further delay the planning process.”

This was summarized in this blog post “Forest Service plan draws fire from rural members of Congress from both parties” here on the Rural Blog.