Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 29, 1993 TAG: 9310290133
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
F. Dale Robertson, a career forester who served as chief of the Forest Service for six years, was transferred to a special assistant's job in the Agriculture Department, the service's parent agency. His associate chief, George M. Leonard, was also moved to a new position under Assistant Agriculture Secretary James Lyons.
Robertson's tenure was marked by charges he was too willing to accommodate the timber industry, and by widespread internal dissent, charges of reprisals against whistleblowers, criticism of money-losing timber sales and allegations of large-scale timber theft abetted by agency employees.
David G. Unger, an associate chief of the agency, was appointed to Robertson's post on an interim basis.
Many administration officials expect wildlife biologist Jack Ward Thomas to be named Robertson's permanent successor as head of the 34,000-employee agency that manages 191 million acres of federal forests and national grasslands. But sources said it could take more than a year to get Thomas fully qualified for senior executive service status and installed as chief.
Thomas gained national recognition through his work on several scientific panels studying the old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest and the habitat needs of the threatened northern spotted owl. He was an architect of the Clinton administration's recently announced plan to resolve that long and bitter dispute between environmentalists and the forest products industry.
by CNB