Keep your eye on the prize

I recently asked a retired U.S. Forest Service employee what he thought about the current effort to restructure the agency so that it is better aligned with the Trump Administration's DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] goals.

"Restructuring isn't needed," he replied. "What is needed is reorganization from within. Keep the basic structure but reorganize to do fewer things but do them well instead of a million things done mediocrely."

I ask for some examples.

"The Forest Service has not operated from any available roadmap for many years.," he said. "It's like spit on a griddle. The roles for Districts, Forests, Regional offices and the Washington office are not well defined.

In our back and forth email exchange I said I thought DOGE used a meat cleaver when a scalpel would have netted a better result for the Trump Administration.

"You are correct," he said. "Reorganization requires building in sharp and measurability. Objectives need to be clearly understood and sharply focused. Get rid of needless positions in the agency trhat do not match the sharp specific objectives and targets. Reorganize to accomplish. Hold people accountable for measurable goals."

"What else?"

"Build leadership that works with the public. Focus on long term natural resource needs. Dump the feel good political crap that doesn't benefit federally-owned forests or people who are dependent on them."

I ask the 64 dollar question that's been on my mind for several years...

"Do you think that the things you accomplished during your many years with the Forest Service are swirling down the drain?"

"Yes I do," he replies. "The U.S. Forest Service was once one of the most admired organizations in the world. If the public really cares about the fact that more than half of their 193 million acre federal forest estate is dying, dead or burnt to a crisp the Forest Service needs to be reorganized like it was before the Clinton years and the 1990 spotted owl listing."

My reply: "The uninformed (and often entitled) will claim that all the Forest Service wants to do is chop down all the trees."

"Not if it's done right," our Forest Service retiree says.

"How so?"

"The Trump Administration advocates for consolidating Regional offices. It's a terrible idea. The agency needs RO's to guide individual National Forests. Forest Supervisors and District Rangers don't have the time or experience required to handle litigation strategies, planning protocols, Endangered Species stuff or work with States, NGO's and Congress."

"Did you work at the Regional level during your career?"

"Region 9 and Region 2," he replies. "Ninety percent of the people we had at the regional level had worked on Districts or Forests at the field level. Lot and lots of experience. It all went away during the years Jim Lyons was the Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment - during the Clinton years - and it went on steroids with Obama and Biden."

Evergreen cut its teeth on the 1987 Silver Fire on southern Oregon's Siskiyou National Forest. The lightning causes conflagration scorched 110,000 acres. The late Ron McCormick was then the Forest Supervisor. He was credited with leading the effort to salvage 160 million board feet of fire-killed timber from 9,500 acres but he could not have done it without the solid support of the Region 6 office in Portland or the team they assembled to develop an Environmental Impact Statement that passed muster with the left leaning Ninth Circuit Court.

Much of what was not salvaged following the Silver Fire burned again in the 500,000-acre Biscuit Fire in 2002 and the 197,000-acre Chetco Bar Fire in 2017. But for a change in wind direction, Chetco Bar would have burned Brookings, Oregon to the ground.

All three fires were started by lightning.

"The Silver Fire demonstrates what is possible when you have the right organizational structure in place," our Forest Service retiree observed. "When I was a District Ranger I had my own budget, human resources office, contracting authority and workforce. None of the Rangers have this today. The Beltway took it away from them. The model Evergreen favors is gone. Even if you magically restored the authority I had under the old District Ranger model, they are ill-equipped and inexperience to handle it."

"Is this is why you say the Trump Administration should have had a strategy before they dismantled everything?"

"Yes, it is," he answered. "The President is on the right track in his support for increasing timber harvesting levels, dismantling the 2001 Roadless Rule and shelving unworkable managed fire efforts, but you can't just make a bunch of grand pronouncements and expect to fix anything that needs fixing. It takes work. Reorganizing the workforce is key. Round and square pegs in the right holes.

"A chain of command structure?"

"That's correct. You have to have a strategy and an effective command structure with Sergeants, Lieutenants, Captains, Majors, Colonels and Generals. Proven results starting with the Revolutionary War. This is why Gifford Pinchot - the first Chief of the Forest Service used the military model in creating the Forest Service. It works. But now it is being dismantled. Why?

In Part 2 of this interview we will trace the evolution of what happened beginning with the Clinton years and the Northwest Forest Plan.