new Forest Service chief, Jack Ward
kwattles@mail.sas.upenn.edu
19 Nov 1993 06:53:26
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WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration named a new chief
yesterday in its overhaul of the Forest Service -- a wildlife
biologist who became a hero to environmentalists by urging
logging cutbacks to save the northern spotted owl.
Jack Ward Thomas, the Forest Services's senior scientist
and leader of President Clinton's panel on the Northwest's
old-growth forests, will take over Dec. 1.
Thomas, 59, has portrayed the threatened spotted owl
as a symbol of the declining health of the entire old-growth
forest ecosystem stretching through Northern California,
Oregon and Washington. Dale Robertson, who became Forest
Service chief during the Reagan era, stepped aside under
pressure last month.
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Comment:
In fact, after the conference on logging in the Pacific
Northwest, Clinton's administration removed the restrictions
on logging that had been imposed by court order. The amount
of old-growth forest that will remain is considerably *less*
than the amount estimated by biologists as necessary for the
survival of the northern spotted owl. But Clinton & co. gave
lip-service to the environmental movement, and environmental
organizations had their arms twisted by corporate contributors,
so the media never got the story straight.
The source on this is _The_Nation_ magazine, specifically
articles by Alexander Cockburn in the past few months.
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