‘Really Concerning To Me’: Mike Lee Grills Forest Service Chief On New Wilderness Recommendations

3 months ago

During a Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee hearing earlier this month, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) questioned Randy Moore, the Chief of US Forest Service, about wilderness recommendations plans and wildfire mitigation.

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Transcript

00:00Senator Lee

00:02Chief Moore, I'd like to begin by asking you to clarify something a term that I'm not familiar with

00:07What do you mean by big C versus little C cooperating agency?

00:11well, so

00:13You know and it goes back to my experience from many years ago working with the county supervisors County commissioners

00:20Wanting to have a say and what finally happens

00:24You know in our documents and we there's a way to do that

00:28and I think the way to do that is to have a

00:32Collaborative process with our public's in particular our elected officials

00:36And so we think that it's imperative that they be included and what's going on in their part

00:41It doesn't answer my question in any way. I

00:44Look, I've got limited time. Maybe you can respond in writing

00:47I really do need to know what the difference is

00:49Between a big C and a lower C cooperating agency not defining law

00:53I've never heard of it before not in any of your guidance documents rules anything like that

00:57Well, but look I've got to move on just respond to that one in writing if you can

01:02Look the draft plan for the Manti LaSalle National Forest proposes

01:08122,780 acres of quote-unquote recommended wilderness. This is really concerning to me

01:14Congress passed the Utah Wilderness Act in

01:171984 so

01:19product of a long protracted hard-fought compromise

01:23made by the state of Utah

01:25And it's something that designated wilderness in exchange for assurance assurance that no future

01:31Utah wilderness designations would be made now the Forest Service appears to be ignoring this history and

01:37Both the state and the individual county resource management plans

01:42applicable to that area

01:44The only way we get healthy forests is by having flexibility to perform

01:49Active management of the forest it turns out as we've learned over the last few decades. You let the thing just go

01:55That's terrible for forest health. What we're dealing with throughout Utah is this

02:00patchwork this patchwork of designated wilderness recommended wilderness and

02:05inventoried roadless areas that make active management a nightmare and

02:10and and frankly

02:12Practically unachievable these updated forest plans will only make the situation worse as you've got them drafted

02:18Can you explain how these new wilderness recommendations were developed and why the state and local counties input was apparently?

02:26disregarded

02:27completely in the preferred alternative

02:29Yeah

02:30So the forest supervisor is planning to meet with the county supervisors to cooperate on that forest plan

02:37Issue and have that go it's it hasn't taken place yet

02:40They are scheduled to have a meeting to discuss this very issue that you bring it up

02:45We'll be happy to let you know how they go once the meeting takes place

02:50Yeah after the draft plan plan was released, but before that it apparently didn't happen that way

02:55I don't know why I should have any assurance that it'll go any better now now look every single state official and

03:01County Commissioner that I talked to seems to be increasingly frustrated with the way the Forest Service

03:07And the for with the way the Forest Service manages Forest Service land all these local officials

03:14Asked for is is a real seat at a real table and these important decisions that have to be made decisions that affect us

03:21Our local communities very directly much more directly than they do anybody else

03:26We all want healthy forests, and we all want to avoid catastrophic wildfires

03:31But the consequences of bad policy hit some of us a whole lot more than they hit others

03:37For example in both the Ashley and the Manti LaSalle

03:42Proposals the Forest Service appears willing to enter into co-management arrangements with tribes

03:48With tribes, but but it refuses to incorporate state and county comments into the planning process

03:54If the Forest Service can enter co-management arrangements with the tribes

03:59Why exactly can't it enter into similar arrangements with county governments and the state government?

04:06Senator we we do

04:09honor the

04:10County governments, and we do work with them same as we work with tribes in fact

04:15We probably work more with the county governments than we do try with co-management

04:19Co-management the same way you got it with the tribes. You know it's not been my experience. Yeah, well

04:23You know tribes are a sovereign nation, so we deal with them differently than yeah

04:27Yeah, states also are sovereign they are co-sovereigns states are co-sovereigns and tribes also have their own elements of co-sovereignty

04:35Senator we deal with the counties and we work with the counties to have a seat at the table, and I'm not sure

04:41I

04:43Not sure we're not doing just exactly what you're saying because well

04:46I'm sure I'm certain that you're not I am I'm certain that work. You're not look but

04:50the 2001 roadless rule

04:53Establishes prohibition on road construction and on timber harvesting on 58.5 million acres of inventoried roadless areas

05:01in National Forest

05:04Service lands National Forest System lands a is the 2001 roadless rule helped

05:11or hindered

05:12with wildfire mitigation efforts

05:14I suppose that's going to depend on your perspective senator helped or hindered which one

05:19Well, I don't have a say and whether it helps or hindered you know I have to you don't maybe

05:25Regardless of what you do does it just describe it in your assessment has it helped or hindered wildfire mitigation efforts

05:31Well, I don't think it was designed to help wildfire mitigation, sir

05:38Understood thank you

‘Really Concerning To Me’: Mike Lee Grills Forest Service Chief On New Wilderness Recommendations

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