Recently, the General Accounting Office (GAO), the non-partisan, investigative arm of Congress, issued a report looking at lawsuits involving all Forest Service fuel reduction projects from 2006 through 2008. The report is available at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10337.pdf.
According to the report, fuel reduction projects in the Forest Service’s Northern Region – which includes all the national forests and grasslands in Montana, the Dakotas and northern Idaho – were 92 percent litigation-free. Stated another way, this means that 46 out of 50 projects went forward without any litigation. Furthermore, the GAO found that nationwide 98 percent of the projects were litigation-free, while administrative appeal rates dropped 70 percent compared with recent years.
A few weeks after the GAO report was issued, Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell was sitting before a US Senate Committee providing similar news. In response to a question by Sen. Jon Tester regarding accountability, Chief Tidwell stated, “If you look at 2009, it was probably the toughest market that we’ve had with the integrated wood products industry. But we were still able to accomplish close to 97 percent of our timber target in 2009. We also exceeded our wildlife improvement targets and we also exceeded our hazardous fuel improvements targets.”
Given these facts from the GAO and Chief Tidwell, imagine my surprise when I read a recent guest column in the Beacon from the Montana Wood Products Association titled, “Serial Litigators Still at Work.” That’s right, instead of letting the public know that the vast, vast majority of Forest Service projects are litigation-free, or that in 2009 the Forest Service exceeded their habitat restoration and hazardous fuel reduction targets, the public is treated to a disingenuous rant about “serial litigators” from a logging industry lobbyist. Talk about sounding like a broken record!
The findings of this new GAO report and revelations from Chief Tidwell also stand in contrast to what some supporters of Tester’s Forest Jobs and Recreation Act have been telling the public. Over the past year, many FJRA supporters have actively sought to promote their bill by complaining of “gridlock” and giving the impression that all Forest Service projects end up in court or that the agency currently lacks the tools and laws it needs to manage our national forests. In fact, last September Tester went so far as to tell a Bozeman crowd that “lawsuits have stopped forest management cold.”
This new GAO report clearly demonstrates that such statements, while politically popular, are not based on reality. The undeniable truth of the matter is that litigation and appeals are on a significant downward trend. This is due to the fact that people of all different backgrounds – including the WildWest Institute – are successfully working together in open, inclusive and transparent collaborative processes, such as the Montana Forest Restoration Committee (www.montanarestoration.org).
For example, a few years ago the MFRC formed restoration committees for both the Lolo and the Bitterroot National Forests. If, as they say, “the proof is in the pudding,” it should be noted that the Lolo National Forest hasn’t had any logging related litigation in more than two years, while on the Bitterroot only one timber sale has been litigated in eight years. Furthermore, the Forest Service’s Northern Region ended 2009 with more timber volume already under contract to logging companies (300 million board feet) than at any point in the past decade. That’s enough timber to fill 60,000 log trucks lined up for nearly 500 miles. Apparently, with U.S. lumber consumption down over 50 percent and new home construction down 70 percent there just isn’t much demand for wood products these days. Too bad this isn’t part of the story Montanans are being told by Tester, supporters of the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act or logging industry lobbyists.
It will be interesting to see if Tester and supporters of his bill acknowledge the findings of this new report. After all, these findings, coupled with Tidwell’s report on the Forest Service’s 2009 accomplishments, should be great news for anyone wanting to see bona-fide national forest fuel reduction and restoration activities move forward.
Or will supporters of the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act just continue sticking to their well-crafted talking points, complaining about all the supposed “gridlock,” while they push ahead with their plans to have Congress mandate unsustainable logging and cause significant Forest Service budget shortfalls, leading to what the head of the U.S. Forest Service described as the “Balkanization” of America’s National Forest system? Stay tuned.
Matthew Koehler is the executive director of the WildWest Institute.