A wilderness once run by six national forests will
get its own supervisor, budget and district managers – just like a
national forest. By centralizing management of Idaho’s 2.3 million
acre Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, the Forest Service
hopes to save on costs and improve services, says John Twiss, the
agency’s national leader for wilderness management. Officials in
Montana are considering a similar structure for the 950,000-acre
Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex in Montana, currently divided among
four national forests. When Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas
announced his decision to centralize The Frank’s management, he
also said he wanted to nearly double the $28 million national
wilderness budget, reports the Idaho Falls Post Register. Twiss
says that wilderness only gets one half of 1 percent of the
agency’s budget, although it makes up 18 percent of the national
forest land base.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A wilderness rates one official boss.
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