U.S. Forest Service Admits to Errors; Northern Goshawk Decision Appealed Under Federal Data Quality Act(pdf)

W. K. Olsen & Associates, L.L.C.
247 Falls Creek Drive
Bellvue, CO 80512
Contact: William K. Olsen
Phone: 970-495-1719
Email: wolsen@peakpeak.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 10, 2003
FORT COLLINS, Colorado - A U.S. Forest Service decision rejecting a challenge of the agency's northern goshawk management recommendations for the southwest has been appealed. The recommendations place limits on forest management practices and forest utilization on National Forests of the southwest, and have been cited extensively to support forestry restrictions across the west.
Petitions requesting corrections to the goshawk management recommendations were filed in January under provisions of the Federal Data Quality Act. The Forest Service released its initial decision on July 25th. The petitioners include the Coalition of Arizona/New Mexico Counties, the Washington Contract Loggers Association, the Northern Arizona Loggers Association and W. K. Olsen & Associates, L.L.C. of Colorado.
For the Forest Service research publication GTR-RM-217, "Management Recommendations for the Northern Goshawk in the Southwestern United States", the challenge documents extensive errors and violations of quality standards mandated by the Data Quality Act, and the petitioners have requested retraction of the publication.
The petitioners have also requested the correction or retraction of additional dependent documents, including the USFS "Record of Decision" incorporating the goshawk recommendations into National Forest plans in Arizona and New Mexico; a northern goshawk assessment for Southeast Alaska; and, specific documents disseminated by the Black Hills National Forest in South Dakota.
The Data Quality Act, signed into law by former President Clinton, allows for correction requests to be filed with federal agencies through a petition process. The northern goshawk petitions were the first filed with the Forest Service under the new law.
The Forest Service admitted to validating multiple errors in the goshawk recommendations. However, the agency failed to address any of the specific quality violations documented by the petitioners, concluding only that there was "no substantive merit" to the quality violation claims.
The Forest Service, by failing to describe and explain its findings, caused the petitioners to conclude in the appeal that "the documented errors and quality violations in our RM-217 petition remain unrefuted and unchallenged by the Forest Service."
Under USDA guidelines, the Forest Service must complete its appeal review by October 20th.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The northern goshawk petitions are posted on the USFS web site at
http://www.fs.fed.us/qoi/disclosure.shtml
Copy of the request for reconsideration (appeal)
http://www.peakpeak.com/~wolsen/ghawkdocs/ghawkappeal.pdf
Extent of Errors and Quality Violations in GTR-RM-217
Impacts of the Goshawk Recommendations in the U.S. Southwest
http://www.peakpeak.com/~wolsen/ghawkdocs/ghawkerrors-impacts.pdf