8/22/1998 424

THE CHILLING OF GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATION WITH THE PUBLIC

The witch hunt led by Don Young (R. AK) has cultivated numerous scathing commentaries by local and national press. He are two such editorials from the Washington Post, and Lewiston Tribune (ID).

Washington Post
Next, Trees That List Left

By Al Kamen

Friday, August 14, 1998; Page A23

House Resources Committee Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) was concerned about a U.S. Forest Service decision in April to settle an enviro lawsuit over grazing on Forest Service lands in Arizona and New Mexico.

The enviros had sued, saying that cows being allowed to graze were messing up the stream beds, endangering flora and fauna in an ecologically fragile area.

The Forest Service agreed to fence off the sensitive areas. But Young was hearing that the agreement was biased against ranchers. He wrote Southwest regional forest chief Eleanor S. Towns last month with 19 questions, mostly concerning such details as who's going to pay for construction and maintenance of the fences.

But Question 13 has caused a ruckus: "Is the Forest Service aware of whether any of their employees are members of any organizations that are involved in these cases or contribute money to any of these organizations involved in these cases, including but not limited to Forest Guardians, Southwest Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society or any local affiliated organization?"

McCarthyism, shouted the enviros, saying the move was a witch hunt.

Not at all, Young said in a letter to a newspaper out there. He just wanted to know if Towns was "aware" of any employees out there with enviro connections. "This only requires a yes or no answer," he wrote. "Again, no names were requested and none are expected."

Just seeing if she's a good supervisor. Alas, she may not become "aware." Tom Amontree, spokesman for the Agriculture Department, which oversees the Forest Service, said in response to a question about this: "The First Amendment prohibits us from hauling in our employees and interrogating them about their personal interests. That being said, the Forest Service is a professional agency that carries out forest policy in a professional manner without regard to individual beliefs."

The same must hold true for all those former timber industry employees who are now staffing key congressional committees.

Editorial, Lewiston Tribune (ID)
8/10/98

Don Young hunts witches in American Southwest

Jim Fisher

Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Sierra Club?" That is apparently exactly what Alaska Republican Don Young, chairman of the House Resources Committee, wants to know from every employee of the U.S. Forest Service in Arizona and New Mexico. Young has sent a letter to Eleanor Towns, the Forest Service's southwest regional forester in Albuquerque, demanding to know which employees are members of or have any contact with environmental groups. And he has given Towns a deadline of Aug. 15 to provide the information.

What then, a list of magazines to which each employee subscribes?

What set Young off on this witch hunt is the settlement of a lawsuit over grazing regulations in the 11 national forests in the two states. In settling the suit brought by environmental groups, the Forest Service has agreed to prevent cattle from tramping and pooping in 330 miles of streams on 80 grazing allotments. That imposition on what many ranchers consider their God-given rights led ranchers to picket in New Mexico last month, and Young to make this ridiculous demand.

Young spokesman Steve Hansen says the reason behind the letter is a suspicion that some Forest Service workers might have illegally slipped documents to environmentalists to help their suit. It's hard to imagine which government documents would not be available to any member of the public that pays for their production. But if it is possible that the Forest Service is charged with protecting state secrets, you don't investigate possible lawless conduct by one by invading the privacy of every employee.

Presumably Forester Towns and other people in major decision-making roles in her organization avoid the kind of affiliations that might call their impartiality into question. But the government can no more regulate the private organizational activities of all its employees than it can require them to belong to one political party. And it is mystifying how someone so unaware of Americans' basic constitutional rights could be entrusted with a chairmanship as important as Young's.

But then, this isn't the first screwy thing we have heard from Young. Earlier this year, he used an opportunity to speak to Idaho legislators to badmouth compromise legislation written by Sens. Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho and John Chafee of Rhode Island reforming the federal Endangered Species Act. And during his address, he warned of the real intentions of environmentalists, which he is apparently able to divine on his own.

"They want you off the land," he said. "They want to put you in the cities. What they really want is collective people in large areas so they can control them."

Coming from a guy who now wants to know what government workers are doing in their private lives, that's a good one. When it comes to attempts to control people, environmentalists could apparently learn a lot from Don Young.