At midnight tonight, NFMA planning ceases to exist. All forest planners will be furloughed. No more collaborations, assessments, EIS writing, model-building, monitoring, or map-making. Will the sun still rise on Monday morning without NFMA planning? Will the deer still browse and the birds still sing? Will trees still grow, die, burn, and rot without planning to guide them?
Tune in next week to find out.
Andy- I ‘d like to offer a great big THANK YOU to the unsung heros and heroines of the last few weeks and days who have had the patience to deal with days of stressful discussions about who is excepted and not, whether detailers should return home and how soon, KNOWING that there was a high probability that all these lists and cross checks (if someone is excepted but they don’t have a vehicle to drive, or a purchase card or if the computers are shut down, can they really work?).
There won’t be any awards handed out for “best effort devoted to shutdown” but speaking for those of us who minimized our involvement and continued our daily tasks, we fervently and deeply appreciate you. Here’s to you this Friday night!