Groups urged to work together on national forest issues

KAMIAH - Former Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth said trying to make a decision using the agency's public involvement process is like driving a bus where all the passengers have a brake.

If the driver tries to turn right, somebody steps on the brake. If the driver turns left or goes straight, the brake gets pushed. In the case of the Forest Service, the figurative brake is an appeal or lawsuit launched to stop an agency action. The passengers represent the public and all its diverse interests.
"Until the people on the bus all decide where they want to go, the bus doesn't go anywhere," he said.

Bosworth made the remark while speaking to members of the Clearwater Basin Collaborative in Kamiah Wednesday.
The collaborative is a diverse group of people with interests in the management of the Clearwater and Nez Perce national forests. They are trying to fashion an agreement that solves previously acrimonious land management issues, while protecting sensitive landscapes and species, helping local timber economies and fostering diverse recreational use of the land. Collaborative members have been meeting for more than a year and trying to parlay mutual trust into just such an agreement.

Rick Brazell, the new supervisor of the Clearwater and Nez Perce forests, also attended and spoke at the meeting. Brazell cited collaboration on the Colville National Forest, his former post, which has seen an unprecedented period of calm punctuated by no appeals or litigation over major projects during the past six years.

Brazell told the group he couldn't take credit for the Colville's track record. Instead he gave credit to a dedicated collection of people who worked with the agency to build consensus on major projects.

"It was folks like you around the room that made that happen," he said. "What you have going here has the potential to be so great. It takes a lot of work up front. It takes a lot of energy but at the end of the day we get more done."

Bosworth, who served as district ranger at Powell in the 1970s and later as regional forester at Missoula, Mont., said he has been hearing about the Clearwater Collaborative from members Dale Harris of the Great Burn Study Group and Orville Daniels of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.
"I was sort of in disbelief. I said 'Really, we are talking about the Clearwater?' "

He, like many of the participants, lived and worked through decades of strife among competing interests on the two forests.

"If it can be done here on the Clearwater, it can be done anywhere in the country," he said.

But Bosworth cautioned collaboration is difficult and time consuming. He said participants have to be in it for the long run and they have to build respect for other members of the groups and their goals and desires.

"Without respect, you really can't get anywhere with collaboration," he said. "I think that is why it takes so long."
During a question-and-answer period of the meeting, several collaborative members asked Bosworth and Brazell how to turn consensus around a table into action on the ground. Bosworth said if true agreement is reached the action will happen. He also said money will flow to forests that can get projects accomplished.

"I believe money still goes where success happens," he said. "I think success breeds success and success breeds money. Who wants to send money to a place that just does more planning?"

Others asked if they could count on a buy-in from Forest Service employees, who they feared might stall or delay projects they might not agree with. For example, Heather Leach of the Idaho Department of Labor at Orofino asked if anything could be done if a district ranger refused to implement a project the group and Forest Service leaders had agreed upon.

"In my view, if we come to an agreement and a district ranger doesn't want it to happen, I'm going to get a new district ranger," Bosworth said.

His answer brought laughter from the group members who quickly turned to Brazell for his interpretation.
"What he said," shot back the forest supervisor.

He followed up by saying it's his job to create an environment where the idea of collaboration is accepted within the agency. But he also said Forest Service leaders have to be the ones that make decisions.

Daniels, a former Forest Service employee said agency employees often feel like they have hundreds of bosses pulling them in different directions. If the public presents a clear vision of what they want the forest to look like, agency employees will appreciate it.
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Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273.