I resigned for personal reasons related to job stress, resulting from what I believe is gross mis-management of people and natural resources. I have decided to share some of them with you in hopes that you can affect them. My resignation from the Forest Service came on the heels of 6 months work to evaluate the effects of on-going livestock authorizations on threatened and endangered species. During this process, it became vividly clear that the FS has trouble doing what it knows is right and best. For example, implementation of allowable use monitoring has been exceedingly slow.
Allowable use is a management tool used by range scientists for decades.
It is set professionally by range conservationists in virtually every allotment management plan in the region. Despite on-going litigation pressure, not only haven't these been implemented, FS management is still finding ways to avoid and delay doing so. During the range assessment, I expressed concern about the adequacy and consistency of proposed allowable use monitoring for some range allotments with federally listed species. I believe this was intimidation to do my job professionally. I should not be asked to sign a biological assessment with my professional credibility on the line, that is based on unclear, erroneous, unprofessional or inconsistent information.