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So, what exactly does a former community organizer from Chicago know about grizzly bears and board feet, or salmon and hydropower? That's the question in the West, where towns surrounded by federal lands eagerly watch President-elect Barack Obama's picks for leadership posts in both the departments of Interior and Agriculture. The U.S. Forest Service, in particular, has proved susceptible to politics in recent decades, with each administration redefining the agency to some degree. Currently, a former timber industry lobbyist - Mark Rey - oversees the Forest Service as undersecretary of Agriculture. Obama has not announced his short list for that job, but among the names to have surfaced is Missoula's own former mayor, Dan Kemmis. “It seems as if the public-land pendulum swings with each new administration,” Kemmis said. “It's been a kind of ‘now-it's-our-turn' game. I believe we need to slow the pendulum, and find the bipartisan middle ground where we can really experiment with consensus and collaboration.” His is a welcome perspective, with analysts from all sides of the public-land debate anticipating less political and more professional agency oversight under Obama. The Forest Service has of late found itself laboring beneath a nearly impenetrable lattice of laws, a framework Kemmis argues has resulted in “a very proceduralized decisionmaking process.” It is a process built for - and some would say by - lawyers and judges, “and it absolutely invites people to line up on one side of the fence or the other,” Kemmis said....
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