The Ends Don’t Justify the Means

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Sex in the workplace is a risky proposition at best. Between employees with different status positions, sexual relations are even less wise. When unwelcome or coerced, workplace sex is also illegal. While there’s room to debate whether Tooke acted illegally or broke workplace rules (I don’t think he did) by having consensual sex with a subordinate and supporting her professional advancement, there’s no disagreement that doing so showed very poor judgment. Because Tooke hasn’t been Chief long enough to know whether he’d be missed, I’m ambivalent about his continued tenure.

I’m more concerned with the collateral damage the retired Southern regional forester has done to the government’s confidential system for resolving sexual harassment and other employee-related conflicts and complaints. Ten years ago, the regional forester was Tooke’s superior, as far above him as he was above the employee he was sleeping with. She learned the facts of the Tooke affair, including the disciplinary action taken (a verbal reprimand — not good enough in her view) in the course of her official duties. The fact that Tooke received a reprimand at all is a confidential personnel matter. The fact that the Forest Service investigated Tooke’s sexual activities is a confidential personnel matter. Personnel information of this type is protected by law from disclosure. Whether retired or not, the regional forester had no right to disclose this confidential information to a U.S. Senator. That she could face criminal prosecution or civil damages for doing so is her brief, not mine.

It’s not just Tooke who has been harmed by the regional forester’s zeal to punish a Forest Service bad boy. The “young lady” she expresses concern for has had her privacy violated, too. The “young lady” did not ask to be a pawn in the regional forester’s #metoo tell-all. The “young lady” did not seek to out her former lover, nor did she claim harassment or harm. The government, and its agents (whether retired or not), are barred statutorily and constitutionally (4th Amendment) from investigating her intimate sexual relations or disclosing those facts to a politician or news media.

In her zeal to get Tooke, the regional forester has damaged the cause she claims to believe in. She has impeached the credibility of the Forest Service’s solemn promise that every employee’s personal and confidential information will remain secret — not spread all over tabloid pages, the halls of Congress, or this blog.

I await willieboat007’s response.

Interior: “biggest reorganization in its history”

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January 10 Washington Post story: “Interior plans to move thousands of workers in the biggest reorganization in its history.” In contrast to the OneUSDA initiative, this move would be consequential. The plan may require approval from Congress.

“The proposal would divide the United States into 13 regions and centralize authority for different parts of Interior within those boundaries. The regions would be defined by watersheds and geographic basins, rather than individual states and the current boundaries that now guide Interior’s operations. This new structure would be accompanied by a dramatic shift in location of the headquarters of major bureaus within Interior, such as the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Reclamation.”

…

“If you look at the way we’re presently organized, all the bureaus under Interior have different regions . . . and are not aligned geographically,” Zinke said. For example, a single stream with trout and salmon can fall under the view of five separate agencies, one for each fish, another for a dam downstream and yet another to manage the water, and each generate reports that often conflict.”

This Too Shall Pass- Memories of Chief Thomas’s Bumpy Ride

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Our recent discussions have caused me to reflect on the role of Chief and the expectations of people in the FS. Certainly there is a strong cultural meaning to that position (and not Associate Chief, nor Deputy Chief for Research, nor Regional Forester in Alaska) that perhaps resonates differently in the cultural FS DNA than, say, the BLM Director does to BLM folks. In some ways, perhaps, it resonates more as a wise elder or a spiritual leader than a CEO.

Take a look at this article about Chief Thomas’ bumpy ride. Maybe you will shed a tear, laugh out loud, or say a prayer to or for JWT. For those of you who weren’t there. you might be surprised!

I’ve excerpted the section about what we usually talk about on this blog..note that there are several quotes from our own Andy Stahl.

Thomas dismisses criticism phlegmatically. He hasn’t changed, he says; the critics “just got to know me.”

The timber industry still resents Thomas’ role in the Northwest Forest Plan but has warmed to him personally. Industry lobbyist Crandall says “a lot of people in the industry that work with him respect him and trust him, including me.”

As for the administration, Lyons and White House officials make no bones about their resistance to Thomas’ broad policy proposals that are opposed by environmental groups.

Lyons sat on Thomas’ proposal to streamline forest planning, saying it would dilute the same wildlife “viability” rule that led to the shutdown of federal logging in the Northwest. The rule calls for ensuring that all native vertebrate species remain viable throughout their range. Thomas claims that the rule is impractical and favors using indicator species and their habitat.

Lyons also watered down Thomas’ 1994 Forest Health Initiative, which included more salvage logging than environmental groups wanted. And the undersecretary stymied Thomas’ bid to fold several laws on environmental compliance into one coherent statute, eliminating overlapping and sometimes contradictory language.

Katie McGinty, Clinton’s top environmental adviser, said Thomas is correct to suggest that “it is time to start looking at” a revised and streamlined environmental compliance statute.

But she doesn’t want this Congress to do it.

“It would be a dangerous prospect at the very least to unleash many of these members on environmental laws,” she said in an interview. “They’re not going to improve the laws, but to repeal them.”

….

But Thomas’ Forest Service gets low marks from advocates on both sides. Environmental groups say it has slid back toward destructive logging. Industry officials charge that it is unable to make decisions and is nearing collapse.

“Decisions are being made by the political system or the legal system,” said Crandall of the AFPA, which has aggressively used both. Agency officials, he said, “are losing their authority to make decisions.”

“If things don’t change,” Crandall said, “the Forest Service as an agency, as we know it today, isn’t going to survive this.”

The strife should come as no surprise to Thomas. Before becoming chief, he wrote that “land-use planning based on an adversarial approach inevitably produces results that please none of the participants.” And in a passage that seems even more appropriate today, he wrote:

“The fighting goes on and even accelerates in frequency and intensity. The people and the forest are bruised and battered in the process. The gladiators never tire of the fight — it is what they do.”

My favorite quote, as a person who spent many cubicle hours working on Ecosystem Management was “Never before in my memory has a term of public discourse gone from virtual anonymity to meaninglessness without an intervening period of coherence,” from Mark Rey,

Anyway, remember that quotation from Santayana “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”? I’d say “those who cannot remember the past find it easier to say “this is the worst ever”. We all survived it, despite what Doug thought at the time. Please feel free to post your own reflections or memories.

Loggers lose attempt to remove coho salmon from California’s endangered list

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On remand from the California Supreme Court, the Central Coast Forest Association and Big Creek Lumber Company lost again in the state appeals court.  They have been arguing that coho salmon did not occur naturally in rivers south of San Francisco, and that hatchery coho were harming native steelhead.  The state Fish and Game Commission had found otherwise.

From the judge:  “Petitioners have not offered sufficient evidence that the current inhabitants of the streams south of San Francisco are directly the result of out-of-state hatchery stock,” he wrote. “Moreover, the Commission relied on recent genetic data, the results of which rule out the claim that hatchery fish replaced the native stock south of San Francisco.”

From an environmental intervenor attorney:   “The petitioners/plaintiffs are timber companies, not advocates for steelhead,” he said, noting that the appellate court’s ruling blames timber harvesting in part for the decline in coho populations.  “It seems pretty transparent that their interests lie in reducing restrictions on timber operations, not protecting salmon or steelhead,” Evans added. “Protections for waterways that contain coho salmon would also benefit steelhead trout in those same rivers. So, in essence, greater protections against sediment, erosion, roads, and increases in water temperature due to timber harvest would benefit both salmon and steelhead, which have similar ecological needs.”

From the plaintiffs’ attorney:  “It’s sad to see the deepening corruption of science in California. It’s just another layer of regulation and stupidity,” he said. “This decision is sinking California into a pit of idiocy from which it will never return.”

It sounds to me like it’s just typical judicial deference to a professional agency’s interpretation of science.  And for lumber companies to say they are only concerned about the fish – that sounds a little “stupid” (but whatever it takes to try to win the case, right?).

 

Legalizing Marijuana and Impacts on The PSICC National Forest

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Post-fire rehab coming to California?
For my California NCFP friends: hope this doesn’t happen to you…(my italics). This is from an editorial in the Colorado Springs Gazette here that touches on some of the problems we are experiencing here. I personally agree with legalization, but we can’t pretend that unexpected problems don’t exist, and we need to consider that some of the massive amounts of money that this new industry is generating should be used to help (duh!).

Dave Condit, deputy forest and grassland supervisor for the Pike-San Isabel and Cimarron-Comanche National Grasslands, recently accompanied Forest Service officers on the raid of a Mexican cartel’s major grow operation west of Colorado Springs. It was among at least 17 busts of cartel operations in the past 18 months. He describes the type of operation mostly based in Mexico, before legalization made Colorado more attractive. Condit said the agency lacks resources to make a dent in the additional cartel activity in the region’s two national forests.

“It was eye opening to put on the camouflage and sneak through the woods at 4 in the morning,” Condit told The Gazette’s editorial board Friday. “I had no idea the scope of these plantations. These are huge farms hidden in the national forests. The cartels de-limb the trees, so there is some green left on them. Other trees are cut down. They fertilize the plants extensively, and not all these fertilizers and chemicals are legal in this area.

“This is different than anything we have experienced in the past. These massive plantations are not the work of someone moving in from out of state who’s going to grow a few plants or even try to grow a bunch of plants and sell them. These are massive supported plantations, with massive amounts of irrigation. The cartels create their own little reservoirs for water. These operations are guarded with armed processors. They have little buildings on site. The suspects we have captured on these grows have all been Mexican nationals.”

Condit said the black market invading Colorado’s national forests has grown so large the entire budget for the Pike and San Isabel forests would not cover the costs of removing and remediating cartel grows in the forests he helps supervise.

“There’s a massive amount of resource damage that has to be mitigated,” Condit said. “You’ve got facilities and structures that have to be deconstructed. We would need to bring in air support to get materials out of there. There are tens of thousands of plants that have to be destroyed.”

Condit hopes the Colorado Legislature will channel a portion of marijuana proceeds to the Forest Service to help pay for closure and reclamation of cartel operations.

“For every plantation we find, there are many more,” Condit said.

Authorities captured only two cartel suspects in the raid Condit witnessed, and others escaped by foot into the woods.

“This operation had a huge stockpile of food. Hundreds and hundreds of giant cans (of food), and stacks of tortillas two or three people could not consume in months,” Condit said. “So it appeared they were planning to bring in a large crew for the harvest. I wouldn’t have thought you could hide something like that in our woods, but you can.”

Officers seized a marijuana stash and plants worth an estimated $35 million that morning. Merely destroying the plants presented a significant expense.

“Whether you’re a recreational shooter, a weekend camper, or you’re going to walk your dog in the woods, you should be concerned,” Condit said. “Some of these people have guns. If you stumble into $35 million worth of illegal plants, I’d be concerned. We are concerned for our own personnel.”

Litigation weekly – December 22 and 29, 2017

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Litigation Weekly Dec 22

The Allegheny National Forest was not liable for trespass when it delayed the extraction of oil and gas by the subsurface rights owner.  (W.D. Pa.)

The 10th Circuit held that the BLM could not adequately represent the interest of environmental groups when defending an energy industry challenge to its Mineral Leasing Act policies.

(New case.)   Plaintiffs challenge the expansion of the West Elk Mine on the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forest into a designated roadless area, based on NEPA.  (D. Colo.)  (The request for a temporary restraining order was subsequently denied.)

(Notice of intent.)  Alleged violation of Clean Water Act discharge permits for mines on the Tahoe National Forest.

Litigation Weekly Dec 29

The Ouachita National Forest properly denied a special use permit to construct a road to private property surrounded by a wilderness area.  (E.D. Okla.)

(Update.)  Plaintiffs requested dismissal of their case against the denial of mineral leases by the Superior National Forest.  (D. Minn.)

(New case.)  This is a dispute about the process for contracting with an entity to operate a shuttle service on the Coronado National Forest for which the plaintiff is the previous contractor.  (D. D.C.)

Idaho Collaboration: “Lawsuits and appeals are no longer what hold up timber projects. The problem instead is money”

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A) A few excerpts from an 12/27/17 article describing a situation where local collaboration has, to date, prevailed over legal suits to stop the Pioneer Fire Salvage Plan. The battle isn’t over but the prospects look good.

1) “Loggers are racing wood-boring insects and decay to salvage as much timber as they can from the 190,000 acres that burned across the Boise National Forest in last year’s Pioneer Fire, before the wood loses its worth.

The U.S. Forest Service planned to harvest 70 million board feet of timber from about 7 percent of the area burned in the massive wildfire. But insects, fungi and rot have deteriorated the standing trees so much that it will be lucky if it can get 50 million to 60 million board feet”

2) “Under the banner of the Boise Forest Coalition, these groups helped the Forest Service write a restoration plan that will use the proceeds from the salvage logging to pay for a variety of projects. On the list are efforts to protect and restore water quality in the South Fork Payette River and area streams; limit erosion; and reopen trails, roads and campgrounds.

This approach put loggers and conservation groups like the Idaho Conservation League on the same side as they helped the cash-strapped agency write up a plan that would meet environmental laws. So when other environmental groups like Wildlands Defense, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Native Ecosystems Council sued to halt the project, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill allowed the logging to continue, noting in November the coalition’s approval of the project.

“We all want to see a healthy forest and clean water and appreciate that the court agreed that the project should move forward,” said Alan Ward, chairman of the Boise County Commission and a member of the coalition.”

3) “Statewide, four timber projects endorsed by collaborative groups over the past two years have later been challenged in court, and all four held up. Fuels treatment in Idaho rose from 53,000 acres in 2016 to 79,000 acres in 2017.

Part of the reason for success has been the use of “Good Neighbor” authority by the state of Idaho. Using a state fund, state foresters prepare timber sales after the Forest Service completes environmental reviews. This has increased how many projects can be offered even as federal staffs become smaller.”

B) A few excerpts from the background story from May 6, 2017

1) “Even before fall snow put the fire out last year, Peterson and John Kidd, his counterpart in the Lowman District, were overseeing rehabilitation projects to prevent landslides, mud flows and severe erosion. Such events can take out the roads that are major recreation arteries into the places Treasure Valley residents go to camp, collect mushrooms, hike, hunt, fish or ride off-road vehicles.”

2) ““It also gives us the ability to have some funding for the reforestation and other things, like culvert replacement,” said Kidd. “If we didn’t do this salvage right away, we would probably be dealing with this for the next 20 years. (Restoration) takes manpower and that takes funding, which we might not have down the road.””

3) “Many of the trees to be harvested are near roads and trails and are considered a hazard to the traveling and recreating public. If not cut now, those hazards might last 10 years.

Morris Huffman, a forest consultant who served on the Boise Forest Coalition, said uncut burned trees could fall and close corridors like Clear Creek Road for years. Clear Creek provides access to Bear Valley Creek, one of the headwaters of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River popular with campers, hunters and anglers.”

4) “In addition to logging and tree planting, the projects include decommissioning and removing unneeded roads; thinning overgrown forests; trail work; spraying to control noxious weeds; road maintenance; and water quality-improvement projects such as culverts and water bars.”

5) “Not everyone is eager to see such aggressive action following the fire. There is ecological value in leaving the forest alone after a burn. The Northwest forest ecosystem evolved in fire, and bird species like black-backed woodpeckers, for example, rely heavily on snag trees left standing after a burn.

Jeff Juel, an environmental consultant from Missoula, Mont., who works for environmental groups that oppose salvage sales, argues that the less done after a fire, the more resilient the area is to future disturbances. He opposes the agency’s emergency declarations justified by the need to sell timber to help the local mill and workers. He wants a full environmental review instead of the shortened one the Forest Service is doing.

Jonathan Oppenheimer, government relations director for the Idaho Conservation League, agrees with Juel on the overall benefits of allowing natural renewal following a fire. But he’s a member of the Boise Forest Coalition and worked closely with partners like Roberts and the Forest Service to “make sure that those high-quality and sensitive resources are protected.””

Prescribed fire in wilderness

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The Ten Cent Community Wildfire Protection Plan led to a fuel treatment proposal on the Umatilla and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests that included prescribed burning in the North Fork John Day Wilderness Area.  Objections included alleged violations of the Wilderness Act.  The objection decision included the following description of the process and requirements to conduct prescribed burning in wilderness.

The first two conditions that must be met are that “use of prescribed fire or other fuel treatment
measures outside of wilderness is not sufficient to achieve fire management objectives within
wilderness”. FSM 2324.22. A Minimum Requirements Decision Guide (MRDG) was prepared that determined that use of prescribed fire or other fuel treatment measures outside wilderness would not be sufficient. FEIS at 404. The second condition that must be met is that “an interdisciplinary team of resource specialists has evaluated and recommended the proposed use of prescribed fire”. FSM 2324.22. The proposal was developed by a team of interdisciplinary specialists. FEIS at 3. The third condition that must be met is that “the interested public has been involved appropriately in the decision”. FSM 2324.22. The public was provided opportunity to comment on the proposed action and draft EIS. Draft ROD at 8-9. The final condition that must be met is that “Lightning-caused fires cannot be allowed to burn because they will pose serious threats to life and/or property within wilderness or to life, property, or natural resources outside of wilderness”. FSM 2324.22. The MRDG documents the current situation in which natural ignitions in wilderness are suppressed to protect life, property, or natural resources outside of wilderness, including adjacent private residences and communities. FEIS at 403. The final condition to be met is that there must be objectives, standards, and guidelines for the use of prescribed fire specific to the wilderness area in a forest plan, interim wilderness management plan, or fire management area plan. FSM 2324.22. The North Fork John Day Wilderness Action Plan specifies that vegetative changes resulting from prescribed fire would not be considered unacceptable changes in forest cover or visual/scenic quality. LRMP at B-2, FEIS at 215.

Finally, policy specifies that manager-ignited fire should not be used where lightning-caused fire can achieve wilderness fire management objectives. FSM 2324.22. The history of fire suppression in the North Fork John Day Wilderness and resulting fuel loading have led to the current situation in which lightning-caused fires are not likely to achieve the second wilderness fire management objective (“Reduce, to an acceptable level, the risks and consequences of wildfire within wilderness or escaping from wilderness.” FSM 2324.21). FEIS at 403. Currently, these risks and consequences within wilderness include the likelihood that “when a fire does occur, it will be of high severity consuming most vegetation and soil cover” and “could potentially remove cover for big game, produce an influx of sediment into anadromous fish spawning habitat, and increase water temperatures due to loss of shade” as well as limit opportunities for primitive recreation. FEIS at 215, 403, 406 and 436.

The decision was then modified to eliminate the wilderness burning, and the rationale was “once areas outside the wilderness are treated, agency administrators may select to manage natural ignitions differently (e.g. confine and contain strategy) inside the North Fork John Day Wilderness to further meet the project purpose and need and improving the naturalness component of wilderness character.”  The bottom line is that a “minimum requirements” analysis could allow intentional burning of a wilderness area without violating the Wilderness Act, but the objection process overruled those findings in this case and found that it was not necessary.  Given that suppression is allowed in wilderness areas, I don’t automatically see a problem with using prescribed fire to offset that (so I guess I’m not a wilderness purist).  (And someone might even say that logging could be good for wilderness.)

Does Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke Want to Log America’s National Parks?

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It sure sort of, kind of, sounds that way.

Check out this piece from Outdoor Life:

The Sprague Fire that burned the [Sperry] chalet was part of a wider trend last summer that saw the worst fire season in Montana in 30 years. As we walk, Zinke points to the dense stand of Douglas fir on the slopes above [Glacier National Park’s Lake McDonald]. It’s an uninviting desert of same-aged trees, too thick to hike through, a monoculture unbroken by a larch or an aspen.

“Those trees are a fire waiting to happen. We spent $2 billion on fire suppression this year. We can’t afford to keep doing that. The first step in fire management has got to be prevention. The reality is that our climate is changing. We are having longer fire seasons, and fires are bigger and burn hotter. So we need to reduce the fuel load. We need proactive timber management, including using prescribed burns in times of the year when it makes sense.”

“Are you recommending that we log our national parks?” I ask Zinke. National parks are among the most restrictive of the many designations of land use in the Department of Interior’s 500-million-acre real-estate portfolio, a fifth of the nation’s land mass. You can’t hunt in national parks, there’s no resource development, and many other activities are categorically prohibited, including commercial logging.

His answer — I think — is contained in a looping, obtuse answer that characterizes much of our day-long conversation. The Secretary of the Interior tells me that in his meeting with Glacier’s administrators, he raised the question of timber management inside the park. Zinke wants to see more cutting and thinning, both to reduce the intensity of wildfire and to boost biodiversity in critical ecosystems.

“I had a parks administrator tell me that timber management wasn’t his priority, that his priority was managing visitors. I told him, ‘Then what do I need you for? If managing visitors is your only job, then all I need is a ticket-taker at the entrance gate.’ So many people get into park management because they’re preservationists. I’m a conservationist, and that means actually managing what we’re stewards of.”

Does wildfire create home sweet home for bees?

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In case you haven’t heard, bees are in serious trouble all around the world. If you like to eat food, that’s a big concern.

Turns out, researchers with Oregon State University are also finding that with increased wildfire severity they are also noticing a higher abundance of bees.

I have to wonder if that higher abundance of bees would also be found on corporate and industrial timber lands, which are often sprayed heavily with a cocktail of various pesticides and herbicides. My guess is not.

Get the full scoop here. Below are some snips:

“We’re looking at a few different (habitat) characteristics. And one of the big ones is canopy cover. In the moderate-high and high fire severity categories, there’s pretty low canopy cover. So you get more flowering plants that come in,” Oregon State University researcher Sara GalbraithGalbraith says.

In these places where more than 50 percent of the canopy burned, it’s also warmer and there’s potentially more nesting habitat. These aren’t hive-dwellers; these bees look for mineral soil to burrow into.

“The story so far has been pretty straightforward,” she says, “in that we’re finding that with increased disturbance at our sites — so increased fire severity — we get higher abundance of bees. And we also get more bee species.”…

“We have millions of acres of forests in Oregon that we’re managing. And at this point, we don’t have really good information about how those management practices influence bees. If I do ‘X’ how does that influence the number of bees and the species composition?” – Jim Rivers of the OSU Forest Animal Ecology Lab…

Study lead Sarah Galbraith is beginning to think about this possibility. She thinks there could be a critical link between native bees that live in forests and nearby farmland.

“By protecting our pollinators in the forest, we are potentially protecting our food security now and into the future.”