Forest Service planning takes a local turn

One of the best things about living in the north state is the millions of acres of national forest practically — for a lucky few, literally — across our backyard fences. And one of the worst things about living in the north state is that we can't jawbone with our neighbor across the fence to settle any disputes. Instead, the U.S. Forest Service's decisions are frequently opaque, unaccountable, bureaucratically maddening and made by higher-ups in offices hundreds or even thousands of miles distant from the people who have to live with them. It's a system that deeply frustrates not only citizens but also local elected officials and even ground-level agency staff. "One point of tension," the rules states, "was how to balance the need for national consistency with the need for local flexibility. Some people want a rule that is streamlined ... so that local units have more flexibility in how their plan is developed and in what it needs to contain. At the other end of the spectrum, others want a rule that is highly prescriptive and includes detailed national standards and processes." And how does the rule settle that dispute? In a shift from the seemingly irreversible centralization of decision-making, it actually gives more authority to local forest chiefs, making them the "responsible official" for forest plans. "This is a change from the 1982 rule, which identified the regional forester as the responsible official," the draft planning rule notes...more