Working with the U.S. Forest Service in the UP
How are decisions made in the Forest Service?
How do I find out what Forest Service planning activities are going on?
How can I provide input to the Forest Service?
How are decisions made in the Forest Service?
Most on-the-ground decisions are made at the District level (each National Forest is divided into a number of districts). Each district is headed by a District Ranger, a Forest Service staff person who supervises that district and who usually works there. Some district rangers like to micromanage things on their district and want to sign off on just about every decision except the most minor ones. Others will let their subordinates make more decisions.
The Forest Service does a LOT of planning (some say too much). Those plans are mandated by, for instance, federal legislation such as NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act) or by each National Forest's multi-year master plan (usually referred to as the "Forest Plan"), which that Forest must operate under. Planning is often done by Interdisciplinary Teams (or "ID teams"), which are comprised of a number of Forest Service staff, with each staff person typically having expertise in one of more different fields (timber management, recreation, fish and wildlife, cultural resources, wilderness, etc.). A decade or so ago, members of the general public or of state and other federal agencies would be active, voting members of Forest Service ID teams; now, however, non-Forest Service persons may usually attend ID team meetings and offer their input, but they have no decision-making power. The plan produced by an ID team must be signed by team members and by the District Ranger.
How do I find out what Forest Service planning activities are going on?
There are a number of ways:
1. Recently, the Forest Service has moved from its old Data General (DG) computer system, which had little compatibility with the rest of the electronic world, to a PC-based system. This has not only made things more efficient for the Forest Service (though it has been quite a job to transfer files from the DG system to the PC system), but it has been a godsend for those members of the public who have had to hassle with the Forest Service email system. The changeover to PCs has also meant that the Forest Service is now online, so one can now look on the web to find both lists of projects for which planning is taking place, and for the environmental documents which result from that planning.
Projects on the Ottawa National Forest (western U.P.) are listed on the web in the Ottawa Quarterly, which can be downloaded from the Ottawa's website, which is http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/ottawa/. Just click on the link to Ottawa Quarterly, which will bring up the latest version.
For a brief description of the NEPA process, as well as a number of online planning and environmental documents dealing with projects on the Ottawa, visit http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/ottawa/environment.html. You will find Scoping Letters (which go out early in the planning process to describe a potential project), Environmental Assessments (EAs), which describe the various alternatives looked at by the ID team, and Decision Notices, which document the final decision on the project. If you're not familiar with the process, you may wish to click on one of the EA's (assessment documents) and read through it. They have a standard format which is easily followed. At the moment, there do not appear to be online versions of Draft Environmental Impact Statements (DEISs) available from the Ottawa.
Projects on the Hiawatha National Forest (eastern U.P.) are listed on the web in the Quarterly Report, available on the Hiawatha's website at http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/hiawatha/quarterly.html. The Hiawatha's website came online very recently (as of 2/99), and they have just begun to place a variety of planning and environmental documents on it. There are web pages for Scoping Letters, Decision Memos, Environmental Assessments (EAs), and Environmental Impact Statements (EISs).
Here are a few more useful Forest Service links:
USDA-Forest Service home page
Links to all individual national forests in the U.S.
Find the email address of a Forest Service employee if you know their name
2. Another way to find out what's going on is to subscribe to various electronic mailing lists. The Great Lakes Information Network (GLIN) maintains a list of electronic mailing lists covering the Great Lakes Region. The ENVIRO-MICH mailing list will often supply you with messages alerting you to Forest Service activities which may warrant your input. There are links to other great email lists on the GLIN site, but beware; you may average ten or more emails per day per mailing list, so choose wisely.
3. You can also be alerted to issues of concern by visiting the websites of a number of environmental organizations, or by joining UPEC, Friends of the Land of Keweenaw (FOLK), or other UP environmental groups.
How can I provide input to the Forest Service, and what good will it do?
First, it's important to make several points:
1. The vast majority of Forest Service employees are dedicated public servants, who are very aware that their primary responsibility is to serve the public, and therefore are eager to learn how the public feels about how the Forest Service is doing its job.
2. On many projects, unsolicited public input is minimal, so every person's input counts. On many occasions I (as an occasional Forest Service seasonal employee) have heard fellow Forest Service staff wishing they were receiving more public input on projects.
4. One group of individuals who are extremely conscientious about making sure the Forest Service hears what they have to say are members of the timber industry.
5. When members of an ID team vote on how a project will be implemented, pro-environment comments from the public actually do bolster the arguments made by Forest Service recreation, wilderness, and fish and wildlife staff, and may help swing votes in favor of the environment, wilderness, non-game species, and low-impact, non-motorized recreation.
6. Face-to-face contact with Forest Service staff, followed by written comments, are almost always more influential than written comments alone.
7. Don't worry if you're not an expert on the Forest Service or even forests in general. Don't be afraid to say what you feel even if it's very general. The Forest Service is obligated to consider your comments, even if you're simply saying "I don't like clearcutting" or "You need to make more hiking trails." Here are some ways you can make your two cents heard:
Visit a district office or the supervisor's office of the Ottawa or Hiawatha. This can be a pain, of course, since they're seldom open other than normal working hours. Occasionally they have staff there on weekends, but this is typically only during firearm deer season or when staff are on standby during times of high fire danger. Recreation and wilderness staff, though, are sometimes in and out on weekends, especially in the snow-free season. Call or email ahead to check.
Learn how the planning process works. The following, from the Ottawa Quarterly, will help you do that, and will give you ideas on how and when to provide input into project planning:
FOUR STEP PROJECT PLANNING PROCESS
The best way to help shape a resource project (be it a wildlife, fisheries, or timber sale) is through participation in the planning process.
Step I - Scoping. We invite the participation of affected or interested persons, governmental agencies, and organizations to help identify issues related to proposed action. This process helps determine the range of issues to be addressed, identifies the significant issues and extraordinary circumstances that relate to a proposed action, and shapes the alternative to be analyzed. Diverse input helps to formulate a more well rounded decision.
Step II Environmental Analysis.This step determines the effects of the alternatives built to satisfy the purpose and need of the project. The resource purpose and need which signals the start of a project also determines the number and shape of the alternative proposals developed for a project. Often all resource needs can be addressed in a single proposal, or alternative. Each alternative discusses the resources being impacted and determines the measures needed to make each alternative feasible. Here issues raised during scoping help determine the focus and intensity of the analysis. Moreover, comparisons between alternatives are developed, short and long-term effects are listed; all done to provide a clear choice among the options available. A draft assessment listing the preferred alternative is made available for a 30-day public comment period. Comments are then incorporated into a final assessment, setting the stage for development of the decision document.
Step III - Decision. A decision document describes the decision that has been made, identifies the specific location of the action to be implemented, references or lists any required mitigating measures, and explains the rationale used to make a decision. It also discloses: public involvement and the scoping process used during the analysis; other alternatives considered during the findings required by law, regulation, or policy; the date when the project will be implemented; who can be contacted if there are questions; the administrative appeal process; the name and title of the deciding officer; and the date of the decision. Project decision notices are then published in the newspaper(s) of record.
Step IV - Project Implementation and Monitoring. During project implementation, monitoring is done to determine if we did what we said we were going to do. Information collected helps us monitor our progress in implementing the Forest Plan, reduce management costs, and validate and improve our decision making process.
Get on Forest Service mailing lists. If you're on a list, you'll automatically receive scoping letters for the projects you're interested in. Most of the time, it's best to contact individual districts to get on these lists. Here are some examples of what you might do: a. contact all the districts that have designated wilderness and ask to be put on the mailing lists for all projects dealing with wilderness or are in areas adjacent to wilderness. If you don't know which districts those are, contact the Ottawa and Hiawatha supervisor's offices and ask. b. Do as in a., but get on the mailing list for all projects that involve timber harvesting in designated old growth forests. c. Pick a certain geographic area you're interested in and ask to be on the mailing list for all projects in that geographic area. Each Forest Service district is divided into compartments for management purposes. Districts will send you maps showing where compartments are located. You might also define the limits of your area of interest by using road numbers. d. Be realistic in your requests. It takes a lot of time and effort to conscientiously look at all the material you'll be sent. Don't ask to be put on the mailing list for all timber sales, for instance, unless you're prepared to spend many hours a week reviewing them.