Following World War II, the US Forest Service increasingly became handmaiden to the extractive timber industry.  Increasingly worried about the escalating cutting, Congress began to assert control, first in 1960 with the Multiple Use, Sustained Yield Act (MUSY), and then again in 1978 with the National Forest Management Act (NFMA).  The complex Rules written to implement the latter Act require each national forest to develop a "Land and Resource Management Plan" every 10-15 years.  Once this "LRMP" has gotten through the entire process (scoping, draft, final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) with full public input and comment all the way) it becomes the "bible" for management of the national forest.  As might be expected, the Rules and the Act itself are subject to interpretation, and many administrative appeals and lawsuits have resulted.
    Fundamentally, the problems arise from the continuing national debate over the purposes of the national forest system:  extractive uses for mining, grazing and logging; or sustaining the forest resource itself, including its natural forest habitat, the various plant and animal species depending on that habitat, plus the "ecosystem services" a functioning forest provides, like clean water, oxygen, air pollution removal, and soil formation.
    Throughout the Bush I and Clinton Administrations the amount of logging was greatly reduced as the Forest Service was forced to admit that it was not protecting the resource as required under NFMA and its implementing Rules.  More biologists and ecologists were hired as logging budgets declined, and attention was turned to resource protection.  Roadless Areas were inventoried, and attention was given to the 380,000 miles of roads already built, but inadequately maintained.  These roads are the chief source of environmental degradation, sources of erosion siltation, and avenues for invasion of exotic species and humans, to say nothing of fragmenting the kind of interior forest habitat required by many animals, including birds.  Roads are key, as logging requires roading for access.  (Helicopter log removal is very expensive.)

    True reform will require a clear and enforceable statement from the Congress on the purpose and management goals of the nation's national forests.  Until then we must continue to battle the tilt toward the extractive industries and the taxpayer subsidies granted these activities.  (Forest Service activities have only actually returned money to the US Treasury once or twice in over 100 years.)

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