Agents of the Forest Service’s elite Timber Theft
Task Force received two form letters at an April 6 meeting with
Forest Service law enforcement director Manuel Martinez. The first
letter thanked them for their service; the second said their unit
was immediately dissolved. “It defies understanding that you’d take
the most successful agents in the Forest Service and put them out
of work,” says Andy Stahl, executive director of the Association of
Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (AFSEEE).
Although several Forest Service watchdog groups predicted that
Chief Jack Ward Thomas would soon dismantle the force (HCN,
4/3/95), Jeff Ruch, an attorney for the agents, says the
announcement came as a shock. He says Thomas assured the agents he
would meet with them before deciding their future. The task force’s
problems have mounted ever since its aggressive investigations in
1993 led to the largest timber-prosecution case in U.S. history.
Afterward, the agents charged in a letter that regional managers
subverted their work. “The letter was probably considered an act of
rebellion,” says Stahl. Martinez says an internal report by the
Agriculture Department’s Inspector General found no evidence to
support the agents’ complaints. Martinez says he and Chief Thomas
decided to integrate the task force into the regular law
enforcement program because reorganization last year made regular
agents more independent and efficient. Three major task force
investigations under way will be turned over to regional special
agents, but several task force members will continue work on the
cases, he says. Stahl says reorganization steps backward: “Now
we’re returning to precisely the same model that proved itself
incapable of working.”
“Elizabeth
Manning
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Forest Service lops off timber task force.
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