Public weighs in on U.S. Forest Service land management rule

If the foundation of a human being is the soul, the institutional core of the U.S. Forest Service is its Rule. And the race is on to rewrite a planning rule that has governed - some say shackled - the Forest Service for nearly three decades. About 130 people packed 15 appropriately round tables for the Forest Service's "planning rule roundtable" meeting on Tuesday. They came with heads and briefcases full of ideas for how to manage 192 million acres of public land. The Forest Service operates by a national rule, which governs how regional forest management plans are written. Those in turn control local activities, from timber sales to trailhead repairs. The last two planning rules from 2005 and 2008 were both derailed in court. For this third attempt, Forest Service planner Jessica Call said a much larger public process has been added. Forums of scientists pitched their ideas of what environmental drivers will have greater or lesser effects on the forest, such as bugs or climate change. Community roundtables like the Missoula event were for collecting more human ideas, such as how amendments and appeals of Forest Service policies should be handled...more

If the foundation of a human being is the soul, the institutional core of the U.S. Forest Service is its Rule.

I like that analogy. Humans - souls. Feds - rules. That explains a lot of things.