A timber sale sign is posted in the Tongass National Forest on Prince of Wales Island. The new Forest Service regional forester for Alaska, who takes over in April, was a district ranger on the island. (KRBD photo)

The U.S. Forest Service controls 22 million acres in Alaska, including most of Southeast. It’s overseen by a regional forester, whose staffers manage logging, mining, recreation and fish habitat.

The agency is getting a new top official in April. David Schmid will have to deal with a particularly controversial land management plan that’s under attack.

David Schmid

Schmid began his Forest Service career in Alaska. He and his wife moved here in the early 1980s for his first agency job, in Southcentral’s Chugach National Forest. Later, he worked in the Tongass in Southeast.

“Over the years I think we spent 23 years together in Alaska and just having an opportunity to come back and re-engage with folks and work on Alaska issues has just been a dream of mine,” he said.

He’s leaving his post as deputy regional forester for the agency’s Northern Region, based in Missoula, Montana.

He’ll take over the Juneau-based Alaska Region job from Regional Forester Beth Pendleton, who’s retiring after eight years in the position. She’s spent about 30 years in the Forest Service, two-thirds of it in Alaska.

Pendleton served as acting associate chief of the nationwide agency during the transition to the Trump administration. And recently, the agency’s chief stepped down amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

Despite shakeups at the top, she said there was no pressured to leave.

“My plans to retire were in 2018. So this is per my choice to retire at this time,” she said.

Beth Pendleton

Pendleton oversaw the Forest Service’s Alaska region during development of the most recent Tongass Land Management Plan. It’s been challenged in court and in Congress, largely because it begins the phase-out of old-growth logging.

She believes the plan will survive because it’s flexible and can absorb change.

“We’ve been really focusing on that transition to young-growth harvests and renewable energy. There is an adaptive management component that’s associated with the plan, where there’s room … to further amend the plan in the future if needed,” she said.

She said she’ll bring her replacement up to speed before she leaves the office.

Schmid hasn’t been part of this version of the Tongass planning battle. But he’s familiar with the issues from his days as district ranger for Thorne Bay, on Prince of Wales Island. Before the big mills closed, it was a center of Alaska’s timber industry.

He said he’s dealt with similar conflicts in his current job.

“I think I’ve had something like 75 or 80 objection resolution meetings here in Montana and Northern Idaho and North Dakota. And often times, mostly around tribal planning or large vegetation management, I would say it was almost identical to my experiences in Alaska with some very polarized issues,” he said.

A March 15 Forest Service press release announcing the transition said Schmid will be acting regional forester. But he said he’ll be here for the long haul.

The Forest Service has nine regional offices. Not a lot are overseen by women.

But Pendleton said she’s not unique.

“I would say in the last 10 to 15 years we’ve seen more women and minorities come into some of these leadership positions. And I have had nothing but support and encouragement as I have worked in the agency and as I have served here in Alaska,” she said.

A recent investigation showed a pattern of gender discrimination, bullying, sexual harassment and assault against women in fire crews and some other sections of the Forest Service.

The post New state Forest Service leader has Alaska experience appeared first on KRBD.

Remains of a Tongass clearcut and logging road north of Ketchikan. (Ed Schoenfeld/CoastAlaska)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has named 15 people to a committee providing advice on changes in Tongass National Forest management. The main topic is how to transition to second- or young-growth timber harvests.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack already told Tongass managers to begin changing from old-growth to younger tree harvests.

But that’s not an easy thing to do.

The advisory committee’s charge is to find a compromise that loggers, environmentalists, tribal groups and government agencies can agree on. (See who’s on the committee. Or scroll down to the bottom of this story.)

Other panels have made similar efforts without coming up with a solution. But Tongass Supervisor Forrest Cole says this one can work.

“One of the key criteria for selection was people’s ability to collaborate and find common ground. And I think with our selections, we’ve got the majority of people in that,” Cole says.

The advisory committee is part of the effort to update the 2008 Tongass Land Management Plan.

The directive from the agriculture secretary, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, is to change to a young-growth model within 10 to 15 years. In the meantime, the Tongass is expected to provide enough trees to maintain a viable timber industry.

Cole says that couldn’t be done now. That’s because the oldest young growth is largely outside areas where logging is allowed.

“What we’re going to ask this group to look at is if it’s applicable to bring some of that in. If it is, then we’ll be able to begin harvest or management of those stands without any additional help with regulations. If not, we would be looking at relaxation of some of our management policies,” Cole says.

Committee members are from all sides of the timber issue.

Two are on the board of the pro-development Southeast Conference.

Executive Director Shelly Wright says it will push an alternative land-management strategy. Among other things, it would consider state and Sealaska property, along with Tongass lands.

“It manages the entire forest, rather than just putting circles around specific areas. So the footprint of logging and the footprint of economic development and the footprint of habitat is spread across the land mass,” Wright says.

The Tongass Advisory Committee also includes three environmental representatives.

Southeast Alaska Conservation Council Executive Director Malena Marvin says they will represent her interests well. But she’s disappointed the transition is not happening faster.

“The truth is that Southeast Alaska can’t afford another 10 to 15 years of industrial-scale old-growth logging. It’s not time to transition to another industrial forestry economy. It’s time to transition to supporting local wood manufacturers that are going to be a strong part of our local economy,” Marvin says.

Such differences will become evident during the advisory committee’s work.

The earlier effort, called the Tongass Futures Roundtable, required a large number of people with widely differing views to reach consensus.

Cole says the new advisory committee will have looser rules.

“So we still have a consensus-based approach here. But it’s two out of three of each interest group,” Cole says.

Committee members also include two executives of the Sealaska regional Native corporation. It’s backing federal legislation that would turn Tongass timberlands over to the business.

Others are tribal government leaders, state officials and municipal leaders.

The 15 committee members, plus five alternates, will begin meeting in July. Their recommendations are due the following May.

The committee members are:

• Jaeleen J. Araujo: Sealaska Attorney; Juneau
• Wayne K. Benner; City Administrator, Thorne Bay
• Kirk A. Hardcastle; Commercial Fisherman, Juneau
• Philip A. Hyatt; Small Mill Owner, Thorne Bay
• Lynn Jungwirth; The Watershed Research and Training Center, Hayfork, CA
• Chris Maisch; State Forester, Fairbanks
• Brian T. McNitt; Alaska Conservation Foundation, Sitka
• Eric L. Nichols; Alcan Logging, Ketchikan
• Richard J. Peterson; Executive Director, Tlingit-Haida Central Council, Juneau
• Keith E. Rush; Conservation Forester, The Nature Conservancy, Juneau
• Carol M. Rushmore; Municipal Economic Development Director, Wrangell
• Erin Steinkruger; Tatoosh School, Prince of Wales island and Portland, OR
• Andrew L. Thoms; Sitka Conservation Society, Sitka, AK
• Woody Widmark; Sitka Tribe of Alaska, Sitka, AK;
• Wade Zammit; Sealaska Timber Corp., East Sound, WA

Alternates:

• Leslie A. Cronk; Ketchikan
• Jason R. Custer; Alaska Power and Telephone, Ketchikan
• Robert D. Mills; CEO at Kake Tribal Corpoation, Kake
• Christopher W. Rose; Sutton,
• Kathryn A. Troll; Juneau Assembly member, Juneau

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