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Show Changing the chief at U.S. Forest Service By Helene C. Monberg Water in national forests--both quali-ijjand quali-ijjand quantity-is likely to become the jjxt big controversy embroiling the s )rest Service, according to John R. fj-iGuire, who retired as Chief of the s S. Forest Service on June 30. He had en Chief since April 30, 1972. Watershed management is going to ;eicome an increasing source of con- versy, especially where a city uses a le itershed which is in a national forest its municipal water supply," ti ;Guire told Western Resources Wrap-"i Wrap-"i (WRW) in an interview during Guire's last day on the job. Such .j ies want water supply to be the only of their "local" national forest to jotect their municipal water supply, ffer. 'They want no other use permitted. If iti-a final decision turns out to be that i iter supply is to be the only use of a listtional forest" by political or court mliCision, "I believe that some payment ould be made for that water by the ci- involved. In these instances the cities ' unt to limit the use of national forests '. water supply to avoid building ter- ry water treatment plants," he said. deforest Service management of the national forests is based on multiplexes multiple-xes by the general public. "If the r jleral owner has to give that up, some yment should be made by the sole ;r," McGuire insisted. This has aeady become an issue in Portland, ., and in Seattle, Wash., he said. It omtially flared up in 1977 in Portland en a U.S. District Court held that all in blic activities were barred on the !J"e ll Run watershed which provides the 'ter supply for the city. Vater in general and watershed inagement in particular will be the sis of increasing controversy over leral reserved water rights and In- n water rights as the uses and ' ;ssures of national forests increase 1 the water supply remains fixed, as Guire sees it. "We are going to have icquire water rights for the benefit of l and wildlife and recreationists on ne streams. Otherwise there will be fish in them and they will dry up," .Guire stated. He deplored the U.S. vlreme Court decision in United tes vs. New Mexico as "a most un-t un-t ttunate decision.' It limited the Heaeral reserved water right doctrine to i. k purposes for which the National est System was created under the Hea7 Organic Act and indicated the s) i-est Service must defer, at least in ernne instances, to state water law. enclcGuire said he favors settling In-1 In-1 'n claims against the federal govern-mtnt govern-mtnt in money rather than in land, with nea inevitable attendant water rights other problems. "The poor Indians e"vf'e to have the dough. The Alaskan lives are allowing clear-cuts on a lc'ut)0 acres of land in Southeastern " j0ska. We find a 100-acre clearcut as Rejfully hard to justify," McGuire 'e; 'tes. McGuire noted a branch of the ar 'hawk tribe in upstate New York had R-ently won its claim against the 'ernment and was being encouraged n hake over some land known as the aua:tor unit in the nearby Green Moun-National Moun-National Forest. "We bought the af?erttor unit originally to get it out of fa-iculture. If the Indians take it over, seflwill go back into agriculture," ! '"'Guire observed. It's marginal land, icy- added, e C, . dcGuire was asked by WRW how the nCljations of specific users of National )rnirrests and Forest Service managers a,i changed in his seven years as CPjef. In summary, his replies were as d ov,s: h cMINERS: "The small prospectors i. ft being replaced by big mining com-rernnies com-rernnies that recognize we have a right to ted 5ulate occupancy and use of the sur-to sur-to ee resources of national forests, and can do so without affecting their ex-in ex-in ling rights under the 1872 mining law. ;us len we put our new regulations on l0spi;ning into effect about five years ago, heal wanted to stop the guy in the ion lldozer with his blade down. We have Boad very few appeals on our regulate regula-te ns. Some interest is being shown in iroaotending the date for prospecting in Iderness areas beyond 1983." jnsOlL AND GAS: "We did not have leny dealings with the industry out-liesle out-liesle the East until RARE II (recently S'-icluded roadless area study by the ens rest Service) and the emerging im-rtance im-rtance of the Overthrust Belt" along Crest of the Rocky Mountains. "We p going to propose stipulations to the cretary of Interior on road building d helicopter landing pads. The oil and s industry knows we aren't anti-Velopment, anti-Velopment, but it's a competitive siness, and it feels we don't move 'idly enough" to clear away red tape ii areas the companies want to ex-einre ex-einre and develop." It takes about three ars to approve an application to drill a national forest, McGuire said. ' vjfiECREATIONISTS: There is a new-emerging new-emerging type seeing the backcoun-the backcoun-the elderly person in a snowmobile W I other vehicular access. "We were O0ected by the President to regulate E Road Vehicles (ORVs). Only a very 0 a)' Porportion of ORV owners are 11 's Angel types who chase the deer. ORV and four-wheel drive owners are mainly middle-class families. They are better organized and they are learning to police themselves." The number of bird watchers is growing faster than the number of hunters, fishermen and horseback riders. The influence of hunters and fishermen on state fish and game commissions seems to have peaked, peak-ed, but it is still very strong, McGuire stated. TIMBER INDUSTRY: "The world has changed a lot in the past seven years, and the timber industry must face reality that there are other uses of the forest besides growing timber. There is still a lot of feeling in the industry in-dustry that other uses should give way to timber growth and harvest. The industry in-dustry is becoming more professional and more sophisticated. Another debate over timber policy is underway with the White House announcement of June 11 that there will be a limited and temporary departure from the current non-declining even-flow policy of harvesting timber from federal lands. What are the alternatives?" LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY: "We are going to have to continue to reduce grazing in a few places, in the more arid parts of the Southwest where the range is in poor shape, but the big battles bat-tles over grazing are past. Ranches are passing into the hands of people who get their income from something other than cows, who recognize other values of the land, and the industry is much easier to deal with. The main debate now is over the grazing fee, and that's a political decision. The industry has less political clout. That is true of all agriculture." PETERSON: ACCENT ON RESEARCH IN UTILIZATION OF WOOD PRODUCTS R. Max Peterson, new Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, would like to be known as the Chief who materially increased in-creased the efficiency of a log of wood. Peterson, 52 this month, succeeded John R. McGuire, 63, as Forest Service Chief on July 1. Peterson was named to the Chief's job by Agriculture Secretary Bob Bergland on June 27, the same day that McGuire announced his retirement. Peterson is the 11th Chief and , first non-forester to head, the,,, 74-year-old Forest Service. He is an engineer and public administrator by profession, with a degree in civil engineering from the University of Missouri and a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University. Peterson is a cigar-smoking feet-on-desk extrovert. McGuire is a cool introvert. in-trovert. Both are Forest Service Professionals Pro-fessionals with many years of experience ex-perience in the agency which Peterson calls "the Marine Corps of the civilian agencies" because of its high esprit de corps. Peterson was one of three men whom McGuire recommended to ' Bergland as his successor. The other two were Associate Chief Douglas R. Leisz, who will remain in that position, and Rexford A. Resler.who had been groomed to be McGuire 's successor before Resler left at the end of last year to head the American Forestry Association. Associa-tion. Bergland chose Peterson. McGuire's 7-year tenure as Chief was largely marked by advances in long- range planning and land management legislation, notably the Forest and Rangelands Renewable Resources Act of 1974 and the National Forest Management Act of 1976, and the completion of the RARE II road-roadless road-roadless area study in the national forests. What are Peterson's goals, Western Resources Wrap-up (WRW) asked Peterson? As he started his career as Forest Service Chief, after five years as deputy chief in charge of programs and legislation, Peterson replied, "I worked with John McGuire for five years, and I don't see any dramatic or sudden changes in direction." He told WRW, "I would like to see us do more in research. Now we use only half of the material from a log that goes to a mill. Thru research I hope we can increase the utilization of the material in that log from 50 to 70 percent over a 10-year period. I hope we can accelerate ac-celerate research in the use of underutilized under-utilized species of trees, in genetics. The Southern plywood industry came out of research. It is a way for us to find out what our opportunities are. "I see a major wood supply problem shaping up in the Pacific Northwest and California, and I view this as a particular par-ticular challenge. We have to utilize better what we are cutting down in the wood, the installed capacity (of mills), while preserving the amenities of the region. We have to see how we can most effectively meet the President's goal to increase the federal timber cut to help , moderate the cost of wood. "We have to find better ways to get technical advice to the small non-industrial non-industrial land owners, with the help of state foresters and the American Forestry Association" to increase efficient effi-cient timber harvest from privately held lands. "In the next 10-15 years we have to consider the increasing interest in the use of wood for fuel and in the manufacture of gasohol," Peterson said. He also hopes to improve Forest Service management overall by the use of more computers and to decrease hassles embroiling the Forest Service by continuing to maintain his longstanding long-standing "open-door" policy, he said. |