Summit County: Forest Service expecting positive change under Obama

SUMMIT COUNTY — Conservationists hope that the incoming Obama administration will boost protection for national forest roadless areas and make other changes aimed at conserving natural resources.

Some shifts in policy will take time to implement, but in some key areas, the changes could be immediate and dramatic, and will be felt on national forest lands in Summit County, according to Andy Stahl, director of a watchdog group called Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics.

The Portland-based organization is comprised of current and former agency employees, and offers cover for whistle-blowers along with closely tracking and analyzing Forest Service policies.

Stahl said standard moves during a transition include the immediate suspension of any rule-making processes and the withdrawal of non-finalized rules.

The most sudden changes could affect a contested set of rules for managing inventoried roadless areas, including about 60,000 acres of White River National Forest land in Summit County.

A national rule adopted at the end of the Clinton era, as well as a different rule developed by Bush appointees, have both been the subject of back-and-forth battles in federal court.

The Clinton rule gives the most stringent protection for roadless areas, based on their importance as watersheds, wildlife habitat and buffers against invasive weeds.

“The Obama administration is much more apt to defend the (Clinton) roadless rule,” said former Deputy Forest Service Chief Jim Furnish, who helped push the rule during the waning days of the Clinton administration.

The Bush rule involved a state-by-state petitioning process. In Colorado, that created allowances for oil and gas extraction, ski-area development and logging.

“The first item on the agenda is what to do with those pending lawsuits,” Stahl said.

Stahl said he expects the U.S. Department of Justice to drop support for the Bush rule and vigorously defend the Clinton rule.

The change could take effect as soon as Obama’s incoming justice department officials sit down at their desks in January, Stahl said, adding that conservation groups already have started lobbying the transition team on key issues.

According to Stahl, the end result is likely to be a reinstatement of the Clinton rule, although that could continue to face court challenges.

Forest planning

Under the Bush administration, the Forest Service also adopted regulations that drastically cut public involvement and environmental studies associated with developing national forest plans.

Agency officials said the goal was to speed planning and implementation, cut red tape and reduce planning costs, but the change widely was seen as a serious blow to resource protection and public involvement.

The planning rule has also been tangled up in court, and was rejected by a federal judge in California last year.

Stahl said he can’t see the Obama administration defending the Bush rule in court, especially given the unfavorable decision by the federal court in California.

Stahl and Furnish said they expect the new administration to reverse course and go back to an earlier version that requires a high level of environmental scrutiny and public participation.

“That should help end the black hole of legal fees,” for the Forest Service, Stahl said.

A critical part of the planning rule that was eliminated by the Bush administration involves a requirement that the Forest Service maintain viable populations of species across forests.

Stahl said that part of the rule is the linchpin for making sure that the agency develops ecologically sound plans.

Several forest plans in Colorado have been caught in the gap between rules. Most recently, the agency issued a draft plan for the Comanche National Grassland in southeastern Colorado that carves out large areas for oil and gas drilling without offering substantial protection for a slew of rare species that live in the remote prairie and canyons.

Oil and gas

Extracting critically needed reserves of fossil fuels from federal lands is an issue that will “challenge Obama’s political footwork,” according to Stahl.

This is the area where the Bush administration left the biggest footprint, and there is bipartisan political support for opening the federal public domain to energy extraction, Stahl said.

Obama is on record as supporting domestic energy development; that could leave some of western Colorado’s wild areas in the crosshairs.

“He’s made some statements about aggressively pursuing natural gas development,” said local wilderness advocate Currie Craven. “It raises the question of how much understanding there is of western land-use issues in the Obama camp. How much of a change (from Bush) is there really going to be, with regard to extracting fossil fuels?”

Much could depend on who runs the agencies at a political level. An undersecretary in the Department of Agriculture is generally responsible for implementing policy, and Stahl said that numerous groups are already lobbying to get certain people appointed to key slots.

Under Bush, the post was held by Mark Rey, a former timber-industry lobbyist who set the tone for his administration by cutting key standards for wildlife protection out of the White River National Forest plan.

Other important issues for Stahl include the exploding cost of fire suppression, that eats up half the agency’s budget.

“The new Mark Rey is going to have to deal with that head-on. That’s the elephant in the room for the Forest Service. It’s unsustainable, and it’s going to bankrupt the agency,” he said.

It’s not clear if the agency will change its position on recreation fees under the new administration.

Stahl said he expects populist western lawmakers to push the administration to cut back on fees, but expects resistance from fiscally conservative “Blue Dog” democrats.

“They think the rec fees are an important part of the Forest Service budget,” Stahl concluded.

Bob Berwyn can be reached at (970) 331-5996, or at bberwyn@summitdaily.com.

Future of the forests

This is the first of a two-part series examining how the inauguration of Barack Obama next month could signal a dramatic change in the federal management of the national forests.

Today: Conservationists hope the Obama administration adds environmental

protections for national forests after back-and-forth battles between the two

previous administrations have been stalemated in court.

Monday: The political moves made at the top of the

Forest Service in Washington likely will trickle down to the local forests and could result in new policies