Chief of Forest Service talking to workers in Nevada flap

Scott Sonner

Thursday, Nov. 18, 1999 | 11:37 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck planned a teleconference today with federal employees of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest up in arms over a "toxic atmosphere" that prompted their supervisor's sudden resignation.

Thirty-six employees of the national forest are appealing to the chief to visit the national forest caught up in a series of increasingly heated disputes with private property activists over protection of natural resources.

They said in a letter to Dombeck the "shocking" resignation of forest supervisor Gloria Flora adds to a "toxic atmosphere" that is "spinning rapidly out of control."

"The resignation of Gloria Flora is a cry for help in a part of the country where cries often get lost in the wind," the workers said in a Nov. 10 letter obtained by The Associated Press.

Dombeck planned the teleconference with workers at all offices in Nevada this afternoon, a Forest Service spokesman at headquarters in Washington said today.

Flora said in a letter to her employees last week she was resigning in protest of an "anti-federal fervor" in Nevada. She said federal land managers fear for their safety in the state and conservation advocates are afraid to speak out.

She said Forest Service workers in rural Nevada are shunned in their communities, "refused service in restaurants, kicked out of motels" just because of who they work for.

The Humboldt-Toiyabe, with 6.5 million acres, is the largest national forest in the Lower 48 states.

The employees' said in their letter to Dombeck that Flora decided to offer her resignation "in order to draw attention to the untenable situation in which.

"Our letter to you is to let you know that the depth of the problem is beyond even what Ms. Flora has expressed in her letter to the employees and to request your personal attention and concern," they wrote.

"The toxic atmosphere that National Forest System land management decisions are negotiated in within this state is a reflection of efforts by a local minority. ...

"These organized groups and individuals have tacit, or outright, elected-official backing and encouragement," they wrote.

The workers said the atmosphere developed with the initiation of the "Sagebrush Rebellion" in the 1980s and progressed with the bombing of a Forest Service ranger's office and residence in the mid-90s.

It continued with states-rights confrontations with elected officials of Nye County and "has evolved into the present venomous attitude by elected officials of Elko County and United States Congressional Representatives," the said.

The latest dispute centers on Elko County's determination to rebuild a washed out road on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in a remote part of northeast Nevada.

Forest Service biologists say the reconstruction of the road would harm the threatened bull trout. But a group of citizens led by State Assemblyman John Carpenter have said they intend to rebuild the road anyway.

"The circumstances that confront employees trying to carry out work of National Forest System management in the Elko area are spinning rapidly out of control," the workers said in the appeal to Dombeck.

"We the employees of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest who have chosen to sign this letter, urge you to somehow address the situation of employee safety, harassment and general disrespect for the laws of the nation by focusing your attention and position on finding a way to calm the rhetoric and ease the tensions," they wrote.