Memo: Forestry workers fear for their safety

Scott Sonner

Thursday, Nov. 18, 1999 | 10:15 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Forest Service workers are fearing for their safety in Nevada, where they accuse federal prosecutors of not going after criminals who threaten them and break environmental laws.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Las Vegas has declined to prosecute dozens of cases referred to it by the Forest Service since 1990 - at least 21 felonies and 52 misdemeanors involving more than 100 people, a Forest Service law officer said.

The charges ranged from destruction of federal property and illegal livestock grazing to criminal conspiracy and assault, Wayne Smith wrote in a Sept. 3 memo obtained by The Associated Press.

"For whatever reasons, it appears the U.S. Attorney's office in Las Vegas does not understand that the lack of prosecution of these cases involving permittees or public officials has continued to fuel the open and flagrant lawless disregard for federal law and regulations in Nevada," Smith wrote.

"This lack of support places federal law enforcement officers and agents at risk as they enforce the same regulations in the field," said Smith, a supervisory special agent. "As a result, there continues to be a very real concern for employee safety in these situations."

The memo was written to Gloria Flora, the supervisor of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. Flora announced last week that she was resigning in protest of an "anti-federal fervor" in Nevada.

The AP obtained the memo from a Clinton administration official, on the condition the official not be identified. The memo, stamped as a "draft," was circulated within the Forest Service, the official said.

The memo reflects Flora's comments last week, when she said she feared for the workers' safety. She said the "irresponsible fed-bashing" she encountered in Nevada was much worse than what she saw in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Utah.

Tensions have been heightened in Nevada since a series of bombings aimed at conservation workers in the mid-1990s, including one bomb that exploded on the roof of the Bureau of Land Management's Reno offices and another that blew up a Forest Service ranger's van outside his home.

Smith wrote that the reluctance to prosecute dates to 1994, when renewed interest in states rights' issues in Nevada brought a resurgence of the "Sagebrush Rebellion" that some call the "county supremacy movement."

"Regardless of the title, the interest was to challenge federal land management agencies' jurisdiction and authority to manage federal lands in Nevada."

Smith, in an interview this week, said he could not discuss any details of the memo publicly but said the situation was improving.

"I'm working very hard to maintain a good working relationship with the U.S. Attorney's office," Smith said. "We have our agenda as an agency and the U.S. Attorney has their agenda. Sometimes it doesn't always coincide. It's always up to them to decide whether to prosecute."

U.S. Attorney Kathryn Landreth was not available to comment. Her top assistant defended their track record on such cases.

"We don't have any policy not to prosecute," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Howard Zlotnick said from Las Vegas. "We support the Forest Service. We are committed to enforcing the law."

Zlotnick didn't know how many such cases were brought to the U.S. Attorney's office in recent years, but said each one is considered on its own merits.

Flora was out of town this week, but last week, she said the U.S. Attorney's office generally has "not been effective or assertive.

"There are some fine people there. I don't want to paint them with a broad brush. But I think the general philosophy in that office is that if we just keep quiet and don't rock the boat, it will just go away," Flora said in an interview.

"Law enforcement powers in the state need to step up to the plate and actually do their job," she said.

Flora said she told Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck six months ago she was faced with "an untenable situation that needed some attention.

"I'm not sure they understood the gravity of the situation," she said.

In addition to the 1993 Reno BLM bombing, a bomb exploded in an outhouse in a national forest campground south of Elko in 1995. Two days later another bomb shattered the windows of Forest Service headquarters in Carson City and demolished much of Forest Ranger Guy Pence's office. Four months after that, a bomb exploded outside Pence's Carson City home, destroying his van.

While suspects in the outhouse bombing were prosecuted, the other incidents remain under investigation, Zlotnick said.

State Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Elko, is among those who have clashed with Forest Service managers. He's the leader of a volunteer work party that wants to rebuild a road in the Humboldt-Toiyabe in defiance of Forest Service orders intended to protect the threatened bull trout.

But Carpenter says his movement is peaceful - and the agency brought the anti-federal climate on itself.

"They need to look at the policies they are forcing down our throats. As long as they keep doing that, we are going to get our back up and we are going to fight them to the bitter end," he said.