A western showdown: before he can reinvent the Forest Service, Mike Dombeck will have to outsmart western Republicans on the Hill

Glickman apparently heeded the warning; Dombeck's road-building moratorium, announced later that month, does not directly address the future of roadless areas, even though numerous scientific panels have urged the agency to protect these de facto wildlands from further resource exploitation because of their importance as pristine wildlife habitat and sources of pure water. Dombeck also exempted the spotted owl forests of the Pacific Northwest and the Tongass National Forest of Alaska from the moratorium. Both regions are operating under new management plans. The chief said those plans deserve a chance to work.

Needless to say, conservationists were disappointed at the limited scope of the roads moratorium. "The president had a great opportunity to leave an environmental legacy with this roadless policy and it looks like he is going to squander it," said Matt Zencey of the Alaska Rainforest Campaign.

The Battle Plan

But environmentalists may be underestimating the scope of the transformation Dombeck has in mind for the Forest Service. Roads are just the beginning. In March, the new chief unveiled a Natural Resources Agenda for the 21st Century. It focuses on four goals, none of them having to do with "getting out the cut": watershed restoration, "sustainable forest ecosystem management," repair and downsizing of the national-forest road system, and meeting the recreation needs of an increasingly urban population. In a speech to the agency's 36,000 employees, Dombeck said:

We have two very basic choices ... We can sit

back on our heels and react to the newest litigation,

the latest court order, or the most recent

legislative proposal. This would ensure that we

continue to be buffeted by social, political, and

budgetary changes. Or we can lead by example.

We can lead by using the best available scientific

information based on principles of ecosystem

management that the Forest Service pioneered.

And we can use the laws that guide our

management to advance a new agenda. An

agenda with a most basic and essential focus -- caring

for the land and serving people.

Dombeck is backing up this rhetoric with concrete budget proposals. (Budgeting and financial accountability aren't sexy issues, but they are at the heart of Dombeck's challenge as he tries to reshape the tradition-bound Forest Service) For the first time ever, the Forest Service has submitted a budget to Congress that is tied not to board feet of timber sold but to forest restoration and recreation goals accomplished. For example, Dombeck is asking for enough money in fiscal 1999 to increase streambank restotation projects by 40 percent, habitat restoration projects for threatened and endangered species by 30 percent, and national forest acreage burned in prescribed fires and other fuel-reduction strategies by 400,000 acres.

Dombeck is also proposing to decouple the Forest Service budget from timber receipts, an essential change if his agenda is to become more than rhetoric. Under the present system, programs ranging from recreation to wildlife habitat improvements are paid for with timber receipts. With timber sales down by two-thirds since the late 1980s, most experts agree that this formula must change if the Forest Service is to make serious inroads into repairing forests damaged by overcutting, overgrazing, fire suppression, and neglect.