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The Chief on "Analysis Paralysis" U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth provided a very eloquent summary of the situation he calls "analysis paralysis" in national forest management in December 4 testimony before the House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health. Laws governing his agency's activities, he stated, "present complex challenges. One fundamental challenge is the limits on management discretion afforded agency line officers that have resulted from the numerous laws with which the Forest Service must comply." In other words, the "government of laws" Congress has created conflicts with the reality that forest management decisions, at some level, must be made and implemented by individuals. That such a conflict need not be inevitable, he suggested, is demonstrated by the respective state and federal responses to timber salvage in Montana's Bitterroot Valley in 2000; federal projects remain on hold, whereas the state of Montana has already completed 80% of the salvage on its jurisdiction and expects to complete the remainder this year. The Chief points out: "However well-intentioned, Congress has enacted multiple laws, and the Forest Service and other agencies have promulgated thousands of pages of regulations that often contain overlapping and sometimes conflicting requirements, procedural redundancies and multiple layers of interaction. The direction on how an agency is to arrive at a decision under each law has created an extremely complex operating arena." To review his entire testimony, please click here. Return to Public Policy Archive Forest Resources Association
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