Excerpt
SEVERAL federal agencies have been whipsawed by the environmental movement, but few if any have been as deeply changed by the relentless clash between industry and preservationists as has the Forest Service. Wilderness, clear-cutting, and wildlife controversies have in the past decade burned like wildfire across the nation's national forests, transforming Gifford Pinchot's old gang from idle onlookers to reluctant combatants. Intensified demand among conflicting uses of public forest land has greatly altered the way of life for Forest Service land managers.
Gone are the days when a forest ranger could set resource goals for his district like some fuedal lord ruling his fiefdom. A new forest planning process, begun in 1979 and now half-way into its maiden cycle, has swept out the informal, sometimes folksy, and often arbitrary procedures for setting timber, range, recreation, and other goals. In their place are detailed requirements for economic justifications, environmental safeguards, and massive volumes of data—all brought together in a complex framework designed to establish and then implement goals and standards.
The forest planning process, a requirement of the 1976 National Forest Management Act, has taken the professional forester once and for all out …
Footnotes
Luke Popovich, 1100 17th Street, N.W., Suite 710, Washington, D.C. 20036, writes on forestry and related conservation topics.
- Copyright 1981 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.