Beating up on the wrong villain
IN DEFENSE OF THE NATIONAL FOREST FOUNDATION
By Kelly Andersson
Subaru and the National Forest Foundation are teaming up to help fund conservation projects, according to a story in the Sept. 1 issue of the Register-Guard, the daily newspaper in Eugene, Oregon. The joint project will help boost dwindling Forest Service budgets for conservation and habitat projects. So what's wrong with this?
The story, by reporter Lance Robertson, is headlined Subaru, Forest Service plan opposed. The plan is not a Forest Service plan. And it seems to be opposed by only AFSEEE's Andy Stahl.
Robertson just can't seem to do a story without demonizing the Forest Service. No matter the topic, the news, or the issue, he's got to somehow make the agency into a villain. In this story, he went out of his way to quote Stahl, who says that "agency employees shouldn't be hawking cars." Well, they shouldn't and they're not, but I guess Stahl and Robertson figured that was a twenty-five-dollar quote.
T hey really went over the line, though, in their uncalled-for and uninformed criticism of the National Forest Foundation.
This foundation was created by Congress as the official nonprofit group that works with the Forest Service and provides funding for projects the agency can't afford. The Forest Service is prohibited by law from soliciting outside funding, and the foundation is expressly permitted to fulfill that function. As timber receipts have dwindled over the years, and as recreational use and costs have climbed, and as staffing and other program cuts within the agency have hampered the Forest Service's ability to be all things to all people, the foundation has stepped in to make a difference. Forging partnerships with corporate and individual donors and other organizations, the foundation has amassed an impressive collection of completed and ongoing projects.
In my mind, the most admirable of the foundation's activities is its Firefighter Fund. This fund provides financial support to injured firefighters, and to the families of those killed on the fire line. The fund has helped pay for funeral expenses, travel to memorial services, and other benefits for survivors. In 1995 almost $42,000 was distributed to assist eleven families. This fund would not have been possible without the partnership of Northwest Contractors, a firm that provides dry goods commissary items such as shirts, boots, socks, and gloves to firefighters at wildfire sites. They have contributed more than $80,000 to this fund.
Retired Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas told me about the foundation last March, when I interviewed him for our magazine. He recalled how the foundation came forward to assist the survivors and families of the firefighters killed on Storm King Mountain in 1994. "Some of those South Canyon kids lost all their gear," said Thomas. "There were people who were making a $500 effort to decide whether to pay for a $150 pair of boots. The National Forest Foundation stepped in and helped us pay the difference between what I thought were legitimate claims and what the rules would allow. That's one bunch that never let me down when I needed help."
The foundation also funds a Firefighters' Scholarship, which they established this year for firefighters or dependents of firefighters who are disabled or killed in the line of duty fighting forest fires.
The foundation is establishing agreements with corporations based on the connection between people who visit the national forests and the corporations' products. Such partnerships can promote both entities while generating funds for foundation programs. Why do Stahl and Robertson have such trouble with this? Taxpayers, environmental critics such as Stahl, and media critics such as Robertson have yammered for years that the Forest Service needs to cut back on timber harvest. The agency has done that. But what about the resulting drop in revenues and the concurrent increase in demand for recreational use? Do the math, and you'll recognize the inescapable fact that the money has to come from somewhere. The pittance in recently-established trail fees just isn't going to cut it. Congress is not going to plow millions into habitat and conservation like they did the timber programs. Andy Stahl and his ilk are not going to help fund ecosystem improvement. It's not known whether Robertson can build fence or run a hoedag. Probably neither of them can afford the kind of money needed to fund conservation projects. Corporate money is the answer, and the foundation gets it and puts it to work.
So what does this National Forest Foundation do with the funds it generates? The foundation has made and improved exhibits at visitor centers around the country. It's upgraded campgrounds and picnic areas and sensitive habitat. In a California project, for example, the foundation renovated the Lake Tahoe Stream Profile Chamber, which provides a view of the stream environment by diverting a section of stream through a panel of aquarium-like windows. The center attracts between 300,000 and 400,000 visitors annually.
The foundation also rallied for Yellowstone cutthroat trout, facing extinction in Montana, where they occupy only 10 percent of their previous habitat. To help maintain this genetically pure species, the foundation funded a habitat restoration project on the North Fork Willow Creek of the Gallatin National Forest. A 20-acre fence was built along the creek to control cattle grazing, 3000 willow slips were planted to stabilize eroded streambanks, and 10 in-stream habitats were constructed. When's the last time Lance Robertson or Andy Stahl pulled off a project like this? Where do they get off criticizing a foundation that does this sort of work?
The National Forest Foundation is an outstanding
organization, rivaling some of the more pro-active and longstanding
conservation groups in the country. Some of the other projects that the
foundation has funded include:
- Information kiosks, interpretive trails, an amphitheater, and improvements to the historic Harvey West Cabin on the Eldorado, habitat projects for rainbow trout spawning on Reyes Creek on the Los Padres, instream fisheries habitat on the Little Truckee on the Tahoe, and maintenance of trails protecting wilderness resources on the Shasta-Trinity in California.
- Recreational and interpretative trails at English Point Educational Center on the Idaho Panhandle, a Henry's Fork trout restoration project on the Targhee, and yew reforestation on the Nez Perce in Idaho.
- Restored waterfowl wetland habitat on the Kisatchie in Louisiana.
- Restored remnant dry sand prairie for recovery of the Karner Blue Butterfly on the Hiawatha in Michigan
- 120 miles of trail and rehabilitated CCC campground for the Maah Daah Hey Trail on the Custer, interpretative guide service for the visitor center at Earthquake Lake, and a wildlife viewing site with interpretative trails and picnic area for the Ghost Village eagles' nest site on the Gallatin in Montana.
- Improved and rerouted trail around sensitive areas, replacing bog bridges, interpretative signs, with inventory and documenting of alpine flora on the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire.
- Prescribed burn to improve wintering habitat for elk and removal of cattle from riparian corridors on the Santa Fe, replacement of vehicle and reward for the arrest and conviction of persons who bombed the district ranger's vehicle and the Carson Ranger District building on the Toiyabe in New Mexico.
- Oregon Dunes wetland enhancement, with construction of three ponds to reestablish early serial stage wetlands and increase year-round water sources on the Siuslaw, the Riverkeeper-Salmon River fish habitat restoration project on the Mt. Hood, Youth Forest Camp scholarships for post-secondary education at Central Oregon Community College, Clark Atlanta University, Sarah Lawrence College, and Lane Community College.
- Hall Bat Barn interpretive project to prevent loss of significant bat maternal colony on the Allegheny in Pennsylvania.
- Restoration of Atlantic salmon habitat on the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont.
- Improvement of fish/wildlife habitats and forest health conditions on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem CCS project on the Bridger-Teton in Wyoming.
These projects would not happen without corporate support. The Archer Daniels Midland Foundation's contribution of $100,000, along with $65,000 from the PepsiCo Foundation, this year helped underwrite ongoing conservation projects. An additional $60,000 from Pepsi and funds from the Environmental Resources Management Foundation provided disadvantaged youth the opportunity to work at Youth Forest Camps on the Mt. Hood National Forest in Oregon, George Washington National Forest in Virginia, and Pike National Forest in Colorado. Ongoing trail maintenance and construction on the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail were made possible by the donation of (among other things) a jeep from Chrysler Corporation. Chevrolet-Geo supported the planting of trees on the Mt. Hood National Forest, and InaCom Information Systems donated computer equipment that will help the foundation place kiosks in eleven major Forest Service visitor centers. Over the past three years, more than 168,000 trees have been planted on national forests through foundation support.
The National Forest Foundation has a website at www.nffweb.org with outstanding design provided by Interactive Outdoors of Aspen, Colorado. You can check out the dozens of other foundation projects at www.nffweb.org/html/project.html.
You can contact the National Forest Foundation at 1099 14th Street NW, Suite 5600W, Washington D.C. 20005 (202)501-2473. Membership is only $20 per year, and you'll receive a newsletter and other cool stuff, in addition to the satisfaction of helping fund projects. Send your $20 to the National Forest Foundation, Membership Services, P.O. Box 1256, Norfolk, VA 23501. What the heck, call up Stahl and Robertson and tell them to do it, too.
One of the tenets of the National Forest Foundation is that people can work together for the common good. Lance Robertson and Andy Stahl evidently don't subscribe to this novel theory, not if it includes government agencies and those nasty greedy corporations. Robertson and far too many of the media seem to thrive on conflict and criticism, while ignoring the good that comes of compromise and cooperation. Stahl and far too many of the environmental community make their living on conflict. If AFSEEE and other such groups couldn't find conflict in the management of the national forests, Andy would be looking for a new job.
It's true that Americans have a tough time swallowing partnerships and projects in which corporations and government team up for the good of all of us. Environmental groups have bitched for years about below-cost timber sales, but they don't make any noise about below-cost recreation programs or habitat projects. How many of their tax dollars actually funded any of these projects last year? Stahl and Robertson ought to take a close look at what this foundation has accomplished, and consider the value the organization provides to the land and to the wildlife and to the citizens of this country. Until and unless they propose a better source of funding for such projects, they should resist criticizing team efforts between natural resource agencies and corporate partners.
Kelly Andersson is Contributing Editor of WILDLAND FIREFIGHTER Magazine. She is not now, nor has she ever been, an employee of the Forest Service. She is not now, nor will she ever be, a member of AFSEEE. She is, however, a member of the National Forest Foundation.