Friends of Idaho Watersheds Project

Thanks to Kieran Suckling of the SW Center for Biological Diversity and
Larry Walker of RangeNet for this news item.

TOP FOREST SERVICE BIOLOGIST BLASTS AGENCY MISMANAGEMENT

In a 2-23-98 letter to the Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, the former
head of Threatened, Endangered and Sensitive Species for the Southwest
Region blasted the Forest Service for damaging watersheds, subsidizing
unsustainable grazing and logging, censoring critical reports, and
abusing dissenting biologists. Leon Fager, a 31 year Forest Service
veteran, called for the:

  -resignation of Jim Lloyd, Regional Director of Wildlife, Fish and
   Rare Plants,
  -resignation of John Bedell, Apache-Sitgreaves Forest Supervisor,
  -phasing out livestock grazing on Southwest National Forests, and
  -establishment of an independent scientific committee to review
   damaging effects of livestock on watersheds and sensitive species

See the letter: http://www.sw-center.org/swcbd/resources/fager.txt

See letter by former Deputy Forest Supervisor of the Apache-Sitgreave
National Forest, calling the livestock grazing program a comatose
patient whose plug should be pulled:
http://www.sw-center.org/swcbd/resources/barber.txt

Exerpts from the Fager letter:

"In December, 1997, I retired from the U.S. Forest Service, ending a 31 year career with an agency I once loved.  In my 31 years, I served as a wildlife biologist on the Apache-Sitgreaves and Black Hills  National Forests and Regional Fisheries Biologist for the Rocky Mountain Region. Before retiring, I served as Program Manager for the Southwestern Region's Threatened, Endangered and Sensitive Species Program. I chose early retirement last December because of my growing concerns and frustrations with the Southwestern Region. I could no longer stand by to watch inept leadership take its toll on good employees, natural resources, and public confidence. I would like to share some of my experiences, hopefully giving you insight into why the Southwestern Region has spawned an unprecedented amount of environmental litigation, an angry public, and severely degrading natural resources..."

"Millions of taxpayer dollars are beginning to flow to the Southwest to deal with the undeniable overgrazing problem. I fear the money will be diverted to assure that unsustainable grazing continues at public expense, instead of implementing cost effective, ecologically sound solutions. If there is not a change in leadership personnel and leadership philosophy, this will surely happen..."

"The impact, past and present, of livestock grazing on Southwestern National Forests is the major reason that ecosystems are deteriorating, species are near extinction and watersheds have lost much of their ability to yield high quality and quantities of water..."

"Fundamentally, the role of biologists in this Region is to support the timber and grazing programs. They have little opportunity to design and implement projects to recover listed and sensitive species. The main reason so much energy and money is spent on endangered species now, is that the Region has  been sued numerous times, with more litigation on the way, for its failure to follow the law and protect sensitive species and watersheds. Rather than seeing lawsuits as a sign that something  is wrong with management, Forest Service leaders tend to view them  as attacks on core programs- timber and range. The Region is now "circling the wagons" and spending millions of taxpayer dollars to defend a livestock grazing program that has outlived its value and needs to be phased out as an inappropriate use of National Forests in the 21st century...."

"We have a leadership team which is not accountable for the conservation of public resources, including taxpayers dollars. They do not have a passion for the restoration of degraded ecosystems. They hinder rather than support good biologists. I know of many biologists and one deputy forest supervisor who were forced to leave the Forest Service, transfer, or resign because they spoke out on resource and leadership issues. I know of a Southwest Fisheries Biologist that is barred from working on some Forests and Regional Task. Groups because he criticized the Regions leadership in regards to riparian degradation. I will be glad to furnish their names, if you would like.

The point, is that transferring millions of dollars to fix the grazing program, establishing new management teams, etc. will not solve root problems as long a management continues to be more committed to logging and grazing that protecting species and watersheds."