PUBLIC LANDS: Forest Service official criticizes agency's outreach
Greewire: Monday, February 23, 2015
A Forest Service supervisor in Utah is speaking out against the agency's communication, saying the service must learn how to better engage the public in its decisions.
Dave Whittekiend, who is headquartered in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, is in charge of overseeing one of the most visited forests in the country. It covers almost 2.2 million acres in northern Utah and southwest Wyoming.
"We as a federal agency, the Forest Service, need to figure out how to better involve people," Whittekiend said. "Whether we think we are involving them or not, if they feel like they are not involved, that is their reality."
Whittekiend spoke about the importance of public involvement amid a growing battle between the state of Utah and the Department of the Interior over which agency is best equipped to manage the state's public lands.
Whittekiend has served in his post since 2012 and said that the state Legislature's passage of the Transfer of Public Lands Act demonstrates why public involvement is so crucial to his agency.
"We are trying to figure out ways to be more engaged with the state Legislature and have them understand some of the stuff that we are working on and gain a better understanding of their perspective," he said.
State Rep. Ken Ivory (R), who wrote the Transfer of Public Lands Act, said he believes the federal government has neglected Utah public lands and that has led to poor forest health.
"There's extreme deterioration in our forest health under conditions that tie David's hands and tie his fellow rangers' and supervisors' hands to manage the forests for both health and productivity as they used to," Ivory said. "It's not David; it is federal policies and litigation that tie David's hands" (Amy Joi O'Donoghue, Deseret News, Feb. 22). -- AW
