As long as I work for the agency, the U.S. Forest Service, I want to make a difference. I will personally promise you that. That is what I want to do,” Gyant assured his rapt audience of nearly 400 loggers, mill owners, lumber company executives, truck drivers, equipment sales people and others packed into Fusaro Hall Thursday, Feb. 7, at the Shasta District Fair grounds in Anderson.
“There is an opportunity for us to get proactive and work together. If we work together, we can get out of all of these lawsuits, protect habitat and species and get enough fiber into our mills,” said Gyant, who toured some of the timber harvesting machinery on display just outside prior to arriving at the breakfast.
“I saw all of those pieces of equipment out there that must cost a half-million (dollars). I know that equipment has to be moving. It can’t be sitting idle on somebody’s low-boy (trailer) out there somewhere if you are going to make payments on it, feed your families, pay the mortgage and keep on top of all of your other bills,” added Gyant.
“You see, I get it,” he continued. “I grew up in a small town on a tobacco plantation. We harvested the yellow leaves every day from 6 a.m. until noon, when it started to get too hot to work. But when we got done with the tobacco, we still had to get the hay up to our dairy cows and milk them because cows never do take a vacation,” said Gyant, now a resident of Vallejo.
Gyant described his job as Deputy Regional Forester as “overseeing the agency’s regional budget, managing timber harvests and transportation systems in national forests, protecting soil, water and wildlife resources, handling NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969), tribal relations and litigation as well as risk management” for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“I signed up for the job I am in and I knew before I took it that it would be a difficult one. But I signed up for the simple reason that I want to make a difference. In 10 or 15 years from now, I want to be able to say that I have made a difference and left things better for my kids,” Gyant said.
Call me a simpleton, but that warms my heart.
Then I’d be one too, 🙂
Barnie Gyant does seem like a nice guy. I do take some issues with his self-described job description, “…managing timber harvests and transportation systems in national forests, protecting soil, water and wildlife resources, handling NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969), tribal relations and litigation as well as risk management.”
Does Deputy Gyant really handle NEPA or manage timber harvests and transportation systems? I really doubt it. I’m sure he gets briefed on an especially controversial NEPA project now and again or may be involved in reviewing or helping establish broad guidance for timber or roads, but the description seems a little too over-arching for my taste. As the NEPA coordinator and travel management lead for the Forest I work on, there is very little or no regional office involvement (except for new requirements and appeal disposition). Still, his quote probably makes more sense to the public than saying, “I go to a lot of meetings and talk about…”
Well, my experience of the role of the DRF was that they are the ones who had to show up and deal with sometimes-cranky organized groups of timber purchasers (and others). If a forest was way out of line on NEPA, the DRF would get involved in hauling them in. DRFs are generally the repositories for incipient problems of all varieties.
In short, if something became difficult, and likely to escape containment by the Forest, the DRF could step in and shield the RF from direct involvement. If your forest doesn’t have much involvement with the DRF, I would say that that is generally a good thing in terms of your being successful at managing issues locally.
It’s the cost of being a leader…speak in broad terms without delving into specifics. Still, thumbs up to Barnie for standing tall in what I’m sure was a relatively hostile environment.