We ran this news earlier, but now David Frey at New West has a comprehensive article on the nomination.
HOMER WHO? Obama Stuns with Forest Service Nominee. “With little forest credentials, is Wilkes the right man to oversee the Forest Service?” By David Frey. New West.
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Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan’s Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of “Hiking Idaho.” He also wrote “Beyond the Tetons” and “Backpacking Wyoming’s Teton and Washakie Wilderness.” He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
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Of course we are coming off a particularly active period in which the old Undersecretary (Mark Rey) played a high profile in setting Forest Service policy. Technically, the Forest Service is headed up by the (supposedly) non-political Chief of the Forest Service, who has traditionally been a career Forest Service employee. It will be interesting to see how the dynamics between the professionals in agency and the political appointments shake out. I know very little about the current Chief, who was appointed in 2007 and is I think from Montana.
Chief Kimbell is a career bureaucrat. She has done more in the last two years to dismantle the forest service than any other chief. She was found liable in the civil case against her for retaliating and harassing employees of the Bighorn National Forest. For her fervent work there, she got a slot in the Washington office. She then replaced Dale Bosworth when he didn’t want to play Bush’s or Rey’s (a timber lobbiest) games.
Wilkes has his hands full with Kimbell. She is no one to turn your back on. Wilkes comes from NRCS; an agency that placates and pays off farmers to NOT cultivate parts or all of their property. We’ll see if Wilkes can rein-in Kimbell and her devious ways. Or whether he will even encourage her and her minions to further turn the forest service into the Girl Scouts. Time will tell. Personally, I think we’re screwed.