Red Lodge Clearinghouse

The Government Accountability Office advised Interior last week that it is studying what options are available for consolidating the Forest Service -- currently part of the Agriculture Department -- within Interior.

Reps. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) and Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), chairman and ranking member of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, respectively, have both questioned whether the public would be better served if the agency was moved given the similar missions of the Forest Service and Interior's Bureau of Land Management.

The issue is irrefutably attached to the cost of fighting fires given that large parts of the Forest Service and Interior's budgets are routinely set aside for wildfires.

During an oversight hearing on wildfire management before the subcommittee last month, Tiahrt questioned whether absorption would improve federal firefighting efforts, but Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey said that was unlikely.

'It usually goes away'

GAO has explored the question in previous years, said GAO Natural Resources and Environment Director Robin Nazzaro. Testimonies and reports from both the agency and Forest Service officials concluded that past efforts to combine the agencies have generally failed because of a lack of consensus for change, she said.

Michael Francis, a public policy expert with the Wilderness Society, said the combination of the Forest Service and Interior may offer some benefits, but it would ultimately not work because the two have different underlying laws that govern them.

Francis also said it would be a costly endeavor to combine the two, as evident in the reorganization of federal agencies that led to the Department of Homeland Security.

"This comes up every couple of years," Francis said. "Everybody says this is a good idea but then somebody says 'Well ...' and it usually goes away."

The Forest Service was created in 1905, partially using land reserves from Interior, and placed under USDA by President Theodore Roosevelt in a move supported by Chief Gifford Pinchot.

Harold Ickes, Interior secretary under President Franklin Roosevelt, attempted to consolidate the agencies. More recently, there has been discussion of combining the Forest Service and BLM, creating a Department of Natural Resources.

Interior spokesman Chris Paolino said the department had no official position on absorbing the Forest Service but would work with GAO to facilitate the study.

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