I recently wrote about a timber parcel on which DNR is planning to take bids. It occurred to me at the time that the organization might be at at a major inflection point when next it grapples with its mission. A recent court decision legally affirmed (once again) the Department’s discretionary rights where alternatives to timber harvesting contracts are concerned. This in turn furthers its Carbon Project Plan and, in the process enhances its environmental stance.
The suit was brought by a organizations and counties with strong ties to timber; it was opposed, naturally enough, by environmental groups that intervened in the DNR’s defense. It’s easy to get snarled up in the competing viewpoints between Timbermen and Environmentalists; but setting aside the Cutting vs Keeping arguments for a moment, it becomes clear that a larger and more pivotal question looms: given the clear option to move forward with a non-traditional forest management strategy, will the Department actually do it?
The initial plan only involves 10,000 acres or so, a minuscule portion of the State’s 2 million+ acres of forestland. For DNR to make this the kind of program a viable and meaningful one it will have to increase the size of those kinds of holdings significantly. That will require a considerable sales job, internally as well as in the marketplace. The internal side may actually be the harder sell.
If you appreciate the role that “culture” plays in management, then you’ll recognize that moving the Department further toward the Environmental side won't be easy. I would never call the Department “Old Fashioned,” but I will wager that many of the old hands in some of the offices were shaking their heads and saying, “WAIT, WHAT?” when this last court case was over.
It will be interesting to watch the DNR for the next several years. The Environmental Crisis is already upon them, just as it is the rest of us. Like the general population, there will be those stuck in the “Old School” mentality who won’t or can’t embrace change; many others will be too busy, worn down, or defeated to even care; but for the rest, the worries and challenges of dealing with urgent environmental issues of all kinds will continue to mount. How these get dealt with over the next few years will be telling.
I learned about Conservation as a kid, over 70 years ago, and adopted that perspective until the ’60s, when Environmentalism forced me to re-examine my conservationist assumptions. I’ve been trying to balance the two often conflicting ideas with daily life as an ordinary human being ever since. In some ways it’s a Have-It-All kind of mentality I am trying to adopt, and I’ve not yet figured out how to get that done. Neither, I’ll wager, has the DNR.
How (or even if!) DNR folks are going to make the sort of cultural change the Carbon Project represents will be interesting to see. There will soon be new management and that may significantly impact the change process. But, one way or the other, maybe they should adopt the practice of never making a hard decision about the forests they manage until they’ve stood alone under the trees for a while, listening to the wind.
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Eric Lindstrom is a watershed advocate, author, and blogger. You can read his posts at:
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