Former Forest Chief Poses Conservation Challenges

Author: Nicha Rakpanichmanee
Features Editor

"In 50 years, we will not be remembered for the resources we developed. We will be thanked for those we maintain and restore for future generations," said Christopher Wood, environmental studies visiting scholar, quoting a 1998 letter from Michael Dombeck to his United States Forest Service employees at the introduction of the 2002 Scott Margolin Environmental Affairs Lecture.

Dombeck, former chief of the U.S. Forest Service, spoke Monday night on "The BIG TEN Conservation Challenges for a New Century: Where do we go from here?" Dana Auditorium was packed with students, faculty and community members anticipating the lecture.

Currently a Pioneer Professor of Global Environmental Management at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Dombeck directed the U.S. Forest Service from 1997 to 2001, as well as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from 1994 to 1997.

Based on his experiences, Dombeck sees his list of the Big Ten issues as the most pertinent to conservation, especially of public lands but not excluding private properties. His ultimate goal of conservation, quoting Theodore Roosevelt, is to distribute 'the greatest good to the greatest number.'

Dombeck prioritized revision of the 1872 Mining Law, which protects the interests of "a small but very, very powerful constituency." Dombeck views this natural resource law as possibly the most resistant to change, and yet its two-century-old provisions are being made even more lax by the Bush administration.

One provision makes public lands available to mining companies at about only $2.50 to $5 per acre. Another provision requires no royalty from mining companies to landowners. Additionally, this law does not subject mining to the environmental and safety standards necessary for approval of all other uses of public land resources, such as grazing, timber, oil and gas.

Second on his list was the challenge to return wild fires to forests without harming residents of urban sprawl. Third was to prevent native habitats from invasive exotic species. This "biological pollution" is dependent upon the ease of global transport. "Biologically, we've recreated the pangeae," Dombeck said.

Dombeck warned the audience of the profuse rate of land fragmentation and urban sprawl, the fourth priority on his list. From 1992 to 1997, 3.2 million acres of forests, wetlands and farmlands were converted to urban uses, equal to the total area of Vermont. This loss of undeveloped public and private land averages to 8,700 acres per day nationwide. Dombeck encouraged the protection of remaining roadless areas, where resistance to invasive species is strongest, where food and water are abundant and where one can have a glimpse of the once undisturbed landscape. He remarked: "one of the most challenging questions is what we want the land to look like in 50 years."

Fifth on his list was old growth forests and the underlying question of "how much do we want to keep?" A related concern is the challenge to limit loss of biodiversity, sixth concern of the Big Ten. He quoted Aldo Leopold's comment to the planners of the Passenger Pigeon Monument: "A book of pigeons cannot dive out of the sky…. They live by not living at all."

Dombeck predicted the seventh of his Big Ten to be "the issue of the decade": off-road vehicles. He noted the controversy between individual rights and conservationist concerns. Implying his stance on vehicles in public lands, Dombeck recounted a question he posed to a prominent senator: "Do you know a rancher who lets anybody go anywhere he can on his property?"

Eighth on Dombeck's list was private land conservation. Much of the nation's forestland is privately owned, with nine million people owning 100 acres or more. However, only five percent of these owners conduct science-based land management. Dombeck encouraged more planning to conserve natural resources in an area that "offers more promise and more millions of acres for restoration and good stewardship than any other."

Dombeck posed the ninth challenge to his audience: water preservation. Perhaps the biggest challenge of the century, he said, is our need to protect watersheds, which will then ensure the protection of other natural resources.

Lastly, Dombeck stressed the importance of environmental education. He noted the challenge for "an increasingly urbanized society" to understand our dependence on forestland and to live by its limits.

Dombeck called his list of conservation challenges simple common sense. Ian Osprey '04, who used to work for the BLM, seemed to agree. "They weren't that complex, which surprised me," he said. "It's good that he can get through all that bureaucracy and boil it all down. How simple it all can be if we all paid attention and think."

"His list of conservation challenges is dead on target," added Environmental Studies and Biology Professor Steve Trombulach. "This validates the last 15 years of my teaching. My [curricula] revolves around this list."

Executive Director of Forest Watch Jim Northup also supported Dombeck's conservation principles, though with reservations about current policy decisions. "I have enormous respect for Dombeck's vision, though his major initiatives are being overturned by the Bush administration," he said.

"Current forest services believe that we should continue looking at national forests as a supply of timber to the local economy," added Northup. He advocated more reform and viewed Dombeck's work experience as "living proof" that one can be effective from inside the agency. Northup admitted that he himself influenced change more easily when he was "an insider" of the BLM.

"We usually have a jaundiced view of government," said Northup. "[Dombeck] brings hope, I think, that someone with his vision and values can work from within an agency and even obtain a leadership position."

"Leadership is all about elevating issues," Dombeck remarked earlier. In his 1998 letter as director of the U.S. Forest Service he said, "To me, a conservation leader is someone who consistently errs on the side of maintaining and restoring healthy and diverse ecosystems. Even when, no especially when, such decisions are not expedient or politically popular."