Here’s the link:
Since day one, my work as Chief has been to refocus our efforts on the fundamental work that delivers the greatest good to the American people. As we begin this new year together, I want to talk directly with you about the priorities guiding us forward.
Our priorities reflect a back-to-basics approach that centers on the work we know matters most: keeping people safe, protecting communities from wildfire, actively managing our forests for health and productivity, supporting communities recovering after disasters, expanding access to the outdoors, cutting unnecessary red tape, and strengthening the partnerships that bolster our ability to deliver our mission-critical work.
Safety at the core: Safety must always be at the forefront of our minds, so let’s start there. Safety is the foundation of everything we do at the Forest Service. This includes making safety the first and last step of every operation—from fireline to fieldwork. Our work culture must be one of care, where safety goes beyond just avoiding injuries or accidents.
Wildfire readiness and response: To protect lives, property and forests, we will double down on wildfire readiness and rapid response via aggressive, coordinated response to keep fires small. We will focus our investment in interagency, contract, infrastructure and staff resources to match the reality of year-round fires and strengthen communities through partnerships and effective planning. We’ll also reduce wildfire risk with valuable tools we already use by increasing prescribed fire and fuel treatments.
Active forest management—Timber production, grazing and reforestation: We must do more to create resilient forests through active forest management, including fuels reduction through mechanical thinning and prescribed fires. I believe expanding timber production and reducing barriers to grazing are important pillars for keeping our forests open, healthy and productive. Boosting timber production will not just help with our overall forest health but will also support local mills, critical to the success of our forest management work. Additionally, we need to position grazing as a core land management tool by expanding access, modernizing processes and elevating producer voices.
We need to accelerate the reforestation process in areas that have been affected by wildfires and streamline permits and reviews to deliver results faster. The final piece of forest management, I believe, lies in our ability to expand our wood products and energy markets through innovation.
Minerals and energy development: National forests provide more than water and recreation; they’re a foundation for energy security and innovation. I want our agency to unleash American energy and resource potential as part of our multiple-use mission. First and foremost, we must support access to critical minerals essential to energy, defense and technology. We also need to reduce the amount of red tape needed to accelerate responsible exploration and permitting for said resources. Finally, we must also support energy development that complements forest management. I believe that responsible resource use helps strengthen the nation’s economy and resilience.
Disaster recovery: When disasters strike, the Forest Service helps communities recover by repairing trails and other infrastructure, restoring damaged landscape, and restoring damaged forests. Rebuilding and restoration, and being an active part of the community, are integral parts of our mission that I want to not just continue but strengthen. When we help communities and forests affected by natural disasters, we are also helping strengthen relationships and mitigating damage from future disasters. Restoring damaged forests and grasslands benefits us today and well into the future.
Recreation access and infrastructure: Outdoor recreation continues to grow, and millions of people rely on us for access to the places they love. Expanding that access and improving visitor experience is a major priority. We’re modernizing trails, campgrounds, and facilities; improving roads and recreation sites; strengthening on-the-ground engagement; and using tools like Recreation.gov to help visitors plan safe, enjoyable trips. Our goal is simple: more access, better service, and a visitor experience that reflects the pride we take in stewarding our forests.
Deregulation and organizational efficiency: For too long, the Forest Service has been bogged down by excessive processes that hamper innovation and don’t serve the American people. Reducing burdensome processes increases efficiency and delivers results on the ground. I want us all to focus on actions that roll back this red tape. I want to ensure critical projects can be accomplished easier and faster by clearing obstacles that make it hard to do business with the Forest Service. I believe that the people closest to the ground know the forest best, and we should listen to what they have to say about it. We must also work to reduce administrative layers and focus on delivering services more efficiently.
Partnerships and cooperative federalism: And finally, I want to recognize the work we are doing alongside state, tribal and local governments to manage the nation’s forests more effectively. Shared stewardship and local collaboration are essential to improving forest health, wildfire resilience, recreation access and conservation outcomes.
We are all part of this important work. By focusing on the fundamentals, we can do more to support the health and vitality of our forests and grasslands and neighboring communities. These priorities provide us with a clear path forward as we manage America’s forests and grasslands for the benefit of all people, today and into the future.
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Mapleton RD, Siuslaw NF, 1970: I’m running timber sales, getting roads built, and road credits were essential to paying for stumpage. District engineer produced a monthly report for the 25th of the month of % of road built. On the first of the following month, we (timber purchasers) got road construction credits allocated that allowed us to haul an equal value of timber to market and have cash flow. One little old gray haired lady with a mechanical calculator and district engineer l reports got the road credit report for the month in the record by the last day of the month. Never failed. Then the process was “improved” and changed to her reporting to the SO, computer in the SO, and instantly, we lost 3 weeks of working and no cash flow credits for 7 weeks of work. The new and improved USFS. I was maybe 27 years old. Over the next 20 years that process red tape road chaos never got better. All sorts of federal DOT standards suddenly were how spur roads were to be built. And all excavations of all full bench roads had to be placed in a compacted fill. Where? Designated place, of as fill over culverts and small gullies. Why? Only place for several miles that was not slide and slippage prone. Only made roads more expensive. And then over that 20 years and the sudden Clinton NW Forest Plan and the only work for a track hoe and dump truck was “obliterating roads and removing culverts.” How you return a full bench road to natural is beyond my comprehension. Destroying the then $100,000 a mile road seemed patently insane. Now there is no road to get to a potential thinning in 55-80 year old regrowth. The road beds were ripped by D-8 cats. Now have mature alder growing in the full bench with no surfacing. $4 diesel and still 40 miles one way to a hard rock pit and crusher. Not to worry. All federal timber is bought on the federal agency cruise estimate and there are no more road credits. Purchaser has to build the road at their cost using their engineering design within federal parameters. Loser? The county the timber originates in. With road credits considered a “sale,” 25% of the stated road credits went to the county of origin. I spent my time trying to make my Democrat Congresswoman understand the county was losing and how would she fill that hole in the county budget? Her reply was the timber buyers don’t need to be subsidized. OK. Stupid is stupid. So lump sum timber sales with road reconstruction and spur construction. The USFS cubic cruise is over counting how much of the wood can make lumber. From that is the log cost to saw a thousand board feet of log into lumber. And the cost to get the log from the stump to the mill, including the road construction and repair costs for that process for the mill forester’s cruise data and those mills still surviving have reams of data in digital files. They weigh every load. Then must scale every load unless it is on a company BINGO random deal where each load draws a number and every # 10 gets scaled. Laid out on the ground. Sampling. Which is reliable on even age conifers from a known area. Data obtained over decades of log loads from millions of acres of timber that adds volume by growth each year. The cost of the log to the mill is measured in lumber produced and at what cost. Cost is backed up to the foresters’ salaries. The mill operating costs. The mills ability to recover the most from every piece through the mills. Hard nosed and competitive. Or die from ill advised investment or no investment in cutting edge maximized modernization with the best of new innovation.
Federal planning ? Foresight?? No there, there. Governments, bureaucracies change on a two, four and six year schedule. All political and now “political” translates to “emotional” with little if any critical thinking now involved. And, after 40 years of no
logging, there are no sawmills or veneer lathes on the Oregon coast from Tillamook to Coos Bay. Inland, RSG, Stimson, Hampton, Sierra Pacific, Hull Oakes, Zippo Log Mill, Starfire, two Weyerhaeuser 24/7 around the clock dimension doug fir mills, Murphy Co veneer and Roseburg FP. All within a few miles of Interstate 5. And UPRR. I know I have missed some mill far from my area. All run primarily on private log sources. 80+% of Oregon wood products are harvested on private land, and more than 80% that on land in ownerships of 5000 acres or more. 6 million acres “large” and 4 million in ownerships of 1-4999 acres producing 10% of the wood. <20% of the overall log production comes from the 17 million federal acres. 1 million is state and local government owned.. Nobody is buying the public porn timber sale game that merely ties up capital and is parasitized by the EAJA NGO funding arm of the Justice Dept. that has zero accountability as it mimics the welfare fraud, War Dept supplier fraud, and even the Congress gets in on that with the FEMA skim of their "expenses" of the top of the "Victims Aid" of $5.45 Billion bespoke bill to victims of the Hermit's Peak-Calf Canyon 2022 escaped prescribed fire from the Pecos Wilderness of the Sante Fe NF. The burbling last gasps of the Pelosi House and Schumer Senate pre election grift in the run up to the 2022 mid term elections. Gee. Just another Chief Moore conflagration on his pyromaniac reign of "fuel treatment" by "unintended ignitions" which I think is disingenuous, at the least. It was a set fire in dry fuels and with adequate wind and weather forecasts. OK to meet fuel treatment goals with conflagrations, but immoral to sell timber and harm species on 30 acres?s Spotted owls and fire? Flying fire bombs. Deer? Elk? running fire spreaders, hair on fire. The survivors are appaloosa for life. Spotted. And when the fire from the wilderness crosses onto private land, the US Government has NO tort liability. Private property fire trespassed onto federal land and the private suppression and asset loss liability is limitless. In Douglas county now is USFS vs Pacific Power. $1 billion sought. The path to nationalization of AI and energy. Break the "investor owned public utilities" and demand AI build out its own energy supply. Wyoming is where one AI operation is under construction that will use 1.8 Gigawatts. Bonneville Dam produces .585 000 Giga watts. The Jade Project near Cheyenne intends to ramp up over time to need 10 Gigs. BPA hydro, nuclear and wind output is a daily 7 Gig. Certainly WY has coal enough to create that much energy and more. By the time US energy is built and transmission lines run through new rights of way in federal lands, China will be closing coal fired power as they will have built out wind and solar in the plants exporting the same to the US. Planning. One party dictatorships have longevity. We have 2,4, and six year changes that stop progress while realignment of purpose is sought. No planning past the 2, 4, and 6 year election cycles for House, POTUS and Senate terms and results creating majorities and minorities.
So goes the USFS, Dept of Interior, and the outcome of the responsibility for the "unclaimed public domain." AI energy and limiting wildland fire: You can't get there from here.
I find it extremely telling that there is no (zero!) mention of the value of national forests as wildlife habitat, yet abundant support for grazing an Asian introduced species. This is what happens – sadly – when one’s view of the world is focused only how the forests can benefit humans.
And also troubling that there is no acknowledgement of forests as buffers against climate change.
Glenn, I think it’s implicit that forest that are living, as opposed to burned in high intensity wildfires, are better buffers to climate change. I think the Chief said that in his podcast interview with Nick Smith we posted earlier.
The omission of some of the statutory multiple uses – watershed and wildlife and fish – is stark. The effect of prioritizing everything else is to be “implicit” that you’ll do only the minimum (or less if you can get away with it) for the things that are not a priority. I’d say that healthy ecosystems, with healthy wildlife and fish populations (and watersheds), do benefit humans.
Until agency leadership starts offering timely and transparent communications (we’re currently getting all our direction via rumor and innuendo), restores hiring at all levels so that each of us isn’t attempting to do multiple jobs, and provides some job security for RO/WO employees, everything else rings extremely hollow. I’ve never seen morale so low in my career, from district level on up. We don’t feel respected, we don’t feel valued other than as cogs to churn out timber and minerals, and the sorry attempts to help (I’m looking at you, Katie O’Connell sending out workforce support trainings on topics such as ‘positive thinking’) just make things worse. No one is going to strive to attain these priorities in the current environment. No one is innovating or going above and beyond unless it’s to help their struggling colleagues. We’re just trying to survive and frankly it ain’t going well!
A.- we respect and value you FWIW.. it should be worth something. I wish we could do something to help. I know I would make myself available via ACES and probably others would as well. Although I would guess things will be clearer and hiring would start up again after the reorg plans are made public.
Such are the perils of working for the government…remember: when you are on the public payroll your position is inherently political. Just one election away from expansion or termination. But you are shielded from the economic realities that those working in the private sector live and die by, so at least you have that.
Hollow statement from the chief. Maybe he can do another 4 min all employee video. He has the same leadership Randy did and the outcome has been the same. No decision making, hiring freeze, no directed reassignments, no rif, no plan to get more resources to the ground. The RO/WO leadership remains out of touch and moves like a snail stuck in molasses. FS is stuck in a quagmire and lacks the upper leadership to do the necessary work. People can deal with change but the lack of forward progress on reorg is astonishing but expected.