Apology

In the last issue I made a bad mistake. In announcing Chris Risbrudt’s retirement I called Chris, Cliff. Chris, please accept my sincere apology for my use of “Cliff” in the last issue.  Best wishes for a successful retirement and many good fishing adventures.

We Lost a Friend and Colleague

We are saddened to tell you of the death of one of our former board members.

Mary Jo Lovick, 67, a resident of Albuquerque, NM passed away March 18, 2011 after a long battle with cancer. She is survived by her husband, Peter Rand; children, Troy Lovick, Heather Lovick-Tolley and husband, Jeff; step-daughters, Tami Duncan and Cindy Rand-Lowe; grandchildren, Ivie, Allison, and Aidan Lovick, Savannah, Kayleigh and Ethan Tolley, Rachel, Ginnie and Katie Duncan; great-grandchildren, Amaya Grace and Jameson Fields; brother, John Mills; sister, Judy Harris.
She enjoyed a very long career in the US Forest Service in which she worked her way up from the lowest ranks to being one of the creators of the USDA EEOC Mediation Program. After retirement in 1994 she went on to enjoy time as a mediation consultant, in real estate sales and was on the board of a number of professional organizations, including Southwest Amigos, National Association of Forest Service Retirees, and NAWBO. She was a beautifully optimistic, energetic, and generous person, whose sense of justice and balance made her an extraordinary mediator, who felt that service to others was the highest calling for a person.

For years she was a single mother who raised two children and proved that a woman with kids could excel professionally. She loved a good road trip and felt that going off the beaten path was sometimes the only way to travel. She was a master planner and organizer who knew her limits in the kitchen. Her greatest joy was being a doting grandmother and felt that holidays were meant to be filled with the chaos of family. She will be greatly missed by all her family and friends. A Memorial Service was held Saturday, April 9, 2011 in Albuquerque, NM.

Steve Yurich Leaves Us

Steve Yurich passed away Thursday, March 31, 2011 in Albuquerque, NM. He is survived by his wife, Audrey; sons, Steven and his wife, Vicky of Greenville, SC, John and his wife, Deb of Seattle, WA, and Rob and his wife, Beth of Phoenix, AZ; six granddaughters; one grandson; and five great-grandchildren. He is also survived by a sister, Anna Saindon of Granby, CO; and two brothers, Mike and John Yurich of Oak Creek, CO.
Steve was born March 10, 1924 in Pinnacle, CO to Frank and Rose Yurich. He served in the United States Marine Corp in World War II, making landings on Kwajalein Islands, Guam, and Okinawa in the South Pacific. After returning home, he attended Colorado State University, earning a degree in Forestry. He started his career with the U.S. l Forest Service in Dubois, WY. His successful career took him many places in the U.S. He held the position of Regional Forester for the Northern Region headquartered in Missoula, MT. Steve finished his career as the Regional Forester of the ten state Eastern Region headquartered in Milwaukee, WI.

He and his wife, Audrey, retired in Bosque Farms, NM. Steve enjoyed his association with many old friends and colleagues. One of his greatest joys was a yearly fishing trip with his sons and grandson, Joseph. He was a member of First Congressional Church. Services were held Thursday, April 7, 2011.

New Board Members

The FSX Retiree Club in California has confirmed two new members of the NAFSR Board of Directors, Mike Rogers for the Southern California portion of the state and Steve Eubanks for Northern California. They will be working with Doug Leisz who has served on the NAFSR since the beginning of the association and with two energetic “youngsters” aboard will be able to ease back and spend more time with his vineyard. But Doug has promised to continue to help us where he can. Doug, thank you for your dedication, leadership and wisdom in the past years and we are pleased you will still be available to NAFSR. Mike and Steve, both retired R-5 Forest Supervisors, welcome aboard and NAFSR is proud to have you join the board.

Region 3 and Region 8 Fire Sieges

The Southwest Region and Southern Region are experiencing what may be record setting fire seasons in terms of national forest and private lands damaged by fire. From Florida to Arizona wildfires have been burning through large areas of forests and desert areas, approaching 1,000 sq. miles of burned land in Arizona. People have been evacuated from their homes and a number of homes and other structures have burned. In Arizona the Wallow Fire is now the largest fire in state history at over half a million acres. This is an ongoing bad fire situation. Two Florida firefighters were killed in a burn over on June 20. For more information about the fire situation go to the National Interagency Fire Center: http://www.nifc.gov/ . Another good source is independent Wildfire Today: http://wildfiretoday.com/
We also want to note the effort Corbin Newman and his staff made to share fire information and personal thoughts about the fires with retirees. Thank you.
We’ll report more on the fire siege of 2011 in future issues.

Thanks for Aspen Restoration Help

NAFSR joined forces with the National Forest Foundation to help restore Aspen trees to the forests in Northern Arizona. Here is an excerpt from a thank you letter we received for NAFSR help:

“Your financial help in 2010 enabled Friends of North Arizona Forests to repair more than six miles of exclosure fences.  As a matter of necessity, we developed some new "handy-man" techniques.  Those innovations have been collected into an illustrated document entitled Raising Exclosure Fences Efficiently We submitted a notice about the document (and the document itself) to Tremblings, the publication of the Western Aspen Alliance. To conclude a long story, the "Acknowledgements" section of the document expresses our thanks to NFF and NAFSR for their support. “

NAFSR Membership

Remember when you got your dues notice and you intended to get the check in the mail? Most of you did, but there are about 90 of you let it slip by. So look at your check register and when you can’t find the record of sending in your membership money, do it right then. No procrastination, take pen in hand and with your best penmanship, get that check off to John Combes, Box 793, Lincoln, CA  95648. No question money is important, but of even more importance are your wisdom, skills and dedication to America’s forests.  No waiting until tomorrow, sit down right now and get your membership renewed!!!!

Equal Access to Justice Act Reform Legislation Introduced

In your editor’s opinion, the time to revise this Act has come. While the original intention of the law had merit, its use in the natural resource areas has often been abused. For more information about the act and its problems see:  http://www.buddfalen.com/

WASHINGTON, D.C. –, U.S. Representative Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Vice Chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, and Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Chairman of the Senate Western Caucus jointly introduced the Government Litigation Savings Act, legislation that prevents abuse of the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) by large environmental groups and others who frequently challenge the federal government in court. 

The Government Litigation Savings Act, authored by Lummis, will reduce the taxpayer’s burden to pay for attorney’s fees.  The legislation also returns EAJA to its original intent by instituting targeted reforms on who is eligible to receive EAJA reimbursements, limiting repeated lawsuits, and reinstating tracking and reporting requirements to make EAJA more transparent.  Under the Government Litigation Savings Act, veterans, social security claimants, individuals and small businesses will still enjoy full access to EAJA funds.

The bill has been endorsed by over 85 agriculture, sportsmen, recreation, and energy groups. 
“When the government stopped tracking EAJA payments in 1995, it was a dream come true for radical environmental groups. Lack of oversight has fueled the fire for these groups to grind the work of land management and other federal agencies to a halt -- and it does so on the taxpayer’s dime. Americans have unwittingly funded these obstructionist political agendas for far too long at the expense of individuals, small businesses, energy producers, farmers and ranchers who must pay out of their own pocket to defend the federal government against relentless litigation,” Lummis said. “This common sense legislation would help restore integrity to EAJA and return the program to the original intent of Congress.” 
 

“For far too long, special interest groups have funded their anti-multiple use agenda with Americans’ hard earned taxpayer dollars,” said Barrasso.  “It’s absolutely absurd that Washington pays outside groups to repeatedly sue our government.  It’s time to halt the endless cycle of reckless lawsuits and fix this broken system.  Our bill will protect taxpayer dollars and restore accountability and transparency.”

Background: 
 
EAJA was passed as a permanent appropriation in 1980 in order to help individuals; small businesses and non-profit organizations with limited access to financial resources defend themselves against harmful government actions. EAJA allows for the reimbursement of attorney’s fees and costs associated with suing the federal government. When operating correctly, EAJA allows plaintiffs who sue the federal government to recover part of their attorney’s fees and costs if they “prevail” in the case. 
Congress and the agencies halted tracking and reporting of payments made through EAJA in 1995. 
  
According to research by a Wyoming law firm, 14 environmental groups have brought over 1200 federal cases in 19 states and the District of Columbia, and have collected over $37 million in taxpayer dollars through EAJA or other similar laws.  Those numbers do not include settlements, and fees sealed from public view. An independent study from Virginia Tech University discovered similar findings as a result of a comprehensive Freedom of Information Act request of five Federal agencies. The Virginia Tech study also revealed that two of these agencies could provide absolutely no data on EAJA payments.

A Forester’s Reflections

Recently an essay written by Barry Wynsma, a “short timer” forester on the Idaho Panhandle NF started moving around the Internet and was published in Evergreen Magazine’s on line edition.  Barry told us he wanted to express his concerns before retiring rather than appear to be waiting till he had left to voice his opinions. Here in the Northwest the reaction to his essay have been positive from both people inside and outside the Outfit, and we thought NAFSR members would find Barry’s comments of interest.   

Note: The opinions I’m about to express are my own and do not represent the agency I work for.

As I near retirement following 33 years working for the U.S. Forest Service on two Forests and two Districts in Idaho, I feel that I have been blessed by being able to work as a caretaker of our Nations’ forests. I hope that I’ve made at least a small contribution to maintaining the health of our forests while serving the public needs for forest products and services.  I have many fond memories of my time with the agency and the people who work within it.

When a 2009 survey of federal agency morale and ranking of the “Best Agencies to Work” came out (http://bestplacestowork.org/BPTW/rankings/detail/AG11), I was dismayed, but not surprised to see that the Forest Service was ranked #206 out of 216 agencies. 

The same survey conducted in 2010 raised the ranking to #203.  Leadership was among the largest reasons for the low morale among employees.

I’d like to provide my thoughts about what causes low morale.  I’d also like to offer real life examples and suggestions on how leaders have created high morale and also how they can improve agency morale.

Over the course of my career and to the best of my recollection I have worked under the leadership of at least six Chiefs, five Regional Foresters, five Forest Supervisors and ten District Rangers.  From my own perspective, some of these leaders excelled in their position and commitment to federal land management while many were average and a few, my opinion, should never have been put in a leadership position.

What I’d like to do is provide a list of leadership qualities and actions that I believe makes an excellent leader.  I have either worked directly for or witnessed individual leaders that have displayed at least some of these excellence attributes. I can personally attest that working for these kinds of leaders helped to boost my confidence in agency leadership and made me proud to be a part of the Forest Service team.  In honor of one of my favorite rangers, I’ll do this using “bullet statements”.

• An excellent leader focuses on the Forest Service Mission of Caring for the Land and Serving the Public.  This requires a strong commitment to actively manage our forests, and a true leader understands that they will have to overcome both internal and external barriers to accomplish this mission.

• An excellent leader supports the people that work for them and gets to know them on a personal level.  “Family meetings” don’t count.  Excellent leaders take the time to visit their employees one-on-one in order to understand what their job really entails and what they need from you as a leader to make them successful in accomplishing the agency mission.

• Excellent leaders provide guidance to their employees in how to do their jobs effectively and efficiently, without wasting taxpayer dollars by allowing them to conduct excessive analysis and report writing.  Excellent leaders lead by example whenever possible.

  Excellent leaders don’t micro manage.  They trust their people and empower them.  Excellent leaders let employees think outside the box and allow them to try new ways to accomplish work.  Excellent leaders embrace failure as adaptive management but don’t allow employees or themselves to repeat the same mistakes.

• Excellent leaders get to know the community they live in and work for.  Attending public meetings don’t count.  Most leaders have access to a government vehicle and a license to drive, and excellent leaders load up and drive into their community and visit the forest products businesses that are located in their community.  Excellent leaders ask to tour these facilities so they can better understand what is needed to keep them operating in their community.  Excellent leaders use this knowledge to formulate a management plan for their district, forest or region that meets the needs of their community and the piece of national forest that they are the caretakers of.

• Excellent leaders don’t compromise when it comes to forest management.  Some public “stakeholders” have ideals about public land management that oppose the agency mission that has been mandated by laws.  Excellent leaders do the right thing for the land, not what they think they can get away with without being appealed or litigated.  In my opinion, collaborative groups have been created as a need to discuss the terms of surrender to those environmental groups that are holding community’s welfare and the forests health surrounding them hostage.  These groups are not on equal footing with all other collaborative members due to their penchant for appealing and litigating projects when they don’t “get their way”.  I believe that leadership and Congress need to equalize this imbalance.

• Although lobbying Congress is not a permitted activity for employees and leaders while they are representing the Forest Service, excellent leaders inform Congress and the Administration that natural resource management laws have grown into a malignant morass of conflicting rules and regulations that have killed the ability of the agency to perform it’s mission.  Agency leadership needs to continuously request help from Congress to provide legal solutions that will restore the agency’s ability to actively manage the public forests once again.  If leaders can’t accomplish this when they are “on the clock”, they need to do it on their own time by writing or calling Congressional representatives and by writing letters to the editor in their local newspapers or online websites.

• Start a national public education program that shows new forestry at work.  Don’t be afraid to display loggers and logging equipment cutting down trees and making forest products, including renewable energy from biomass.  The agency can utilize existing forestry education websites such as the Evergreen Foundation to submit public education articles.

• Ranger Districts are the engines of the agency.  When it comes to budgets, fund the districts first and make sure they have the personnel needed to accomplish on-the-ground work.

• To save taxpayer dollars, eliminate Supervisors Offices and restructure into a Washington Office, Regional Offices and Districts.  With today’s communications technologies, I believe the need for Supervisor Offices is obsolete. However, the need still exists for District Offices to remain in order to manage our forests and provide services to the communities, such as maintaining roads, campgrounds, trails, issuing forest product permits, etc.  Savings from closing down Supervisors Offices can be transferred to District Offices that can use the funds to more fully staff the districts.

• Hire more foresters, forestry technicians and interdisciplinary resource specialists needed to support forest management.  These are the folks that actually help generate money for the taxpayers through timber sales and at least help to reduce the cost of management.  If we actively manage more acres we will generate more money, increase fire resiliency of our forests, reduce the level of fire suppression costs and increase fire fighter safety.

• Without strong land management leadership, the health of our communities and our forests will decline, along with agency morale.

These are just a few suggestions of how I think morale and leadership within the Forest Service could be improved.  My hope is that people in leadership positions will take these suggestions to heart and take actions that will result in raising our current rating from #203 to #1.

Barry Wynsma,
Forester
Idaho Panhandle National Forest
Bonners Ferry, Idaho

Lynn Sprague Named Executive Fellow at NMFSH

Missoula, MT – The National Museum of Forest Service History (Museum) has named Lynn Sprague to the post of Executive Fellow. Sprague’s selection comes as the organization develops plans for the permanent and traveling exhibits and programs to be presented at the National Conservation Legacy and Education Center in Missoula, Montana.

“Lynn Sprague has long been a leader in our organization as a volunteer and past board member. His leadership in the Society of American Foresters, experience as a smokejumper, work with the mining and energy industry and career in the U.S. Forest Service will guide our development of partnerships,” said Gray Reynolds, Museum president.

The Executive Fellow position was established to complement the work of the Museum’s Vice-President and Executive Director. As planning for the Center ramps up, the Board sought an experienced leader to garner input and collaboration from organizations whose relationship to the Forest Service is connected to the Agency’s multiple-use mandate.

The Institute for Prevention of Catastrophic Wildfires   
Led by NAFSR members Larry Alexander and Bruce Courtwright, from the Scott Valley in California, the institute was formed to develop effective community based programs for the reduction of disastrous wildfires. An outgrowth of the locally oriented Fire Safe Council program in California, the Institute held its first conference about fire loss reduction options at College of the Siskiyous in Weed California the first of June.

Close to 100 local community leaders along with federal and state forestry and fire leaders spent a day and half developing an action plan to tackle fire problems. Jim Hubbard, FS Deputy Chief, Larry Laverty former Asst. Secretary of Interior spoke to the conference and were joined by Congressman Wally Herger via telephone from Washington, DC. The final action plan will emphasize the essential role of local businesses and citizens in the fire reduction work, and the importance of activities that also pay their way and help the economy of rural communities. The Institute concept is anticipated to be tried by other communities in the West later this year.

The Lookout is published by the National Association of Forest Service Retirees, editor John Marker can be contacted at 6681 Highway 35, Mt. Hood, OR, 97041, jf37m@aol.com or 541-352-615