Green Mountain National Forest belongs to the people
By Jim Furnish
The public process to decide the destiny of the 400,000 acre Green Mountain National Forest is almost over. As the largest public forest in Vermont the outcome has important implications for all citizens. The Forest Service just completed taking public comments on its plan to manage the forest for the next 15 years and one of the hottest issues was whether to allow all-terrain vehicles in Green Mountain National Forest. Another issue is whether to create more wilderness areas - areas where motor vehicles and logging are not permitted.
You can bet whatever is decided will leave some people bitter. After a 34-year career with the Forest Service, I can assure you Forest Service officials are listening. When in their position, I was grateful for citizens with passion, good ideas and willing to talk eye-to-eye, or spend an evening at a public meeting. But if two people had different opinions, I knew I would leave at least one feeling ignored.
But this is only normal for public lands, owned by and for all Americans. Effective leadership can usually balance competing needs, such as exists between protecting wilderness areas and allowing motorized vehicles and logging.
When citizens voice their views, how should Forest Service officials weigh the commentary?
The Forest Service has repeatedly said it does not "count votes." That is not unreasonable. Land management issues are not elections or referenda, and FS officials do have decision authority. Yet, any good and responsible official must exercise authority judiciously.
Was it proper, for example, even if not literally counting votes, to ignore more than 90 percent of more than two million comments that favored road less area protection? The Bush administration has been working the last five years to gut this popular Clinton accomplishment, which goes to show that political payback can steamroll public sentiment.
I bicycled around much of Vermont in spring 2004. The beauty of its mountains, combined with the elegance of your cities and people, make Vermont a truly unique place.
Green Mountain National Forest must be managed in a way that serves you and your future well; in a fashion that respects your uniqueness. ATVs have taken over most public lands in the past 20 years, but are not currently allowed in Vermont's forest (though snowmachines are permitted). And ATVs aren't allowed in White Mountain National Forest, the Adirondack Forest Preserve, or Maine's Baxter State Park either. Don't let it happen here and fight for more wilderness.
I can assure you that if Green Mountain National Forest is opened to ATVs it will be for the worse, and the majority will rue the day that Vermont's wildness and quiet were forsaken.
I liken this debate to that of smoking, which is no longer a "right" in our society but a privilege to be exercised in deference to hard-fought insistence of non-smokers. Similarly, ATV users greatly impact human-powered recreationists, but the reverse is not true. ATVs have no right to take over Green Mountain National Forest.
Throughout my career I seldom saw the Forest Service embrace values such as naturalness, clean water and abundant wildlife in a manner that these values governed tough choices. Neither was there sufficient thought given to future generations as trees fell and roads pushed ever deeper into the woods. Fortunately, meaningful choices remain in Vermont.
Make your voice heard in a way that your passion, your numbers, and your logic are unmistakable to Forest Service officials; insist that they choose wisely. Leave no option for them but to choose for a future that is consistent with the Vermont you have worked so hard to achieve.
The rest of us will continue to come and share the wonder of Vermont, which has become something truly precious.
Jim Furnish is the former deputy chief for the U.S. Forest Service.
