Chattanooga Times Free Press
Monday, June 16, 2003

Agency mismanaging Appalachian forests, whistleblower claims
By Allen G. Breed The Associated Press

A U.S. Forest Service archaeologist is accusing the agency of mismanaging
its Southern Appalachian holdings, and he’s using its own 100-year-old
surveys to back him up.
  In a whistleblower action filed Friday, Quentin R. Bass II argues that
the agency has illegally ignored the true nature of the region’s forests to
justify increased logging and prescribed burning on 3 million acres in
Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and Virginia.
  It is basing its management strategy on the results of widespread
clearcutting that occurred before the government acquired the land, he
claims.
  "By ignoring the great weight of the past prior to the 20th century, our
use of the forest and the effects of this use has become confused as a
‘natural’ process," Bass wrote in a disclosure document filed with the
agency’s Office of Special Counsel.
  Relying on data collected in the early 20th century by its own
ecologists, Bass argues that most of the region’s forests were naturally a
stable ecosystem dominated by tall, old, "uneven-aged " trees. Bass argues
that the Forest Service is treating these lands more like Western forests,
where controlled burns and thinning out of trees are needed to keep the
woods healthy and prevent wildfires.
  He submitted his findings as part of the management plan revision for
Tennessee’s Cherokee National Forest, but said they were largely omitted
from draft plans and environmental impact statements for Cherokee and four
others undergoing revision.
  "It runs almost directly contrary to how they have been managing the
forest and how they are proposing to run the forest in the forest plan,"
said Doug Ruley, an attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center in
Asheville, N.C. "They’re saying, ‘We’re the ones who asked you to put this
together, and now we’re not interested because it’s highly inconvenient."’
Terry McDonald, a spokesman for the Cherokee forest, said officials had no
immediate comment on the complaint.
  The other forests covered by the complaint are the Chattahoochee /Oconee
in Georgia, the Jefferson in Virginia, the Sumter in South Carolina, and the
Talladega and Bankhead in Alabama.
  Bass said the old surveys in Appalachia reveal a "permanent, uneven-aged
or ‘all age’ forest, which reflected a state of dynamic equilibrium and
maintained itself through single-tree falls or smaller disturbances."
  "The natural forest types of the Southern Appalachians and the resulting
terrestrial and aquatic plant and animal species are determined by the
permanent environmental characteristics of the land itself, not by
successional changes over time," his complaint said.
  By failing to include his findings in the land management plans presented
for public comment, the agency has violated federal laws and regulations,
Bass argues.
  The general counsel’s office has 15 working days to determine whether the
disclosure should be referred to the secretary of agriculture who would have
60 days to respond.