Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 9, 1995 TAG: 9506090069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Most of the shelves and walls in the spacious office are still bare. The desk is covered with papers and reports, and a laptop computer sits off to the side.
In the corner, a black mountain bike leans against the wall like a horse waiting for its rider, a purple helmet dangling from the handlebar.
Bill Damon probably won't be cycling much this summer. As the new supervisor of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, based in Roanoke, he'll be lucky if he has time to breathe.
There's Appalachian Power Co.'s proposal to run a giant transmission line through the forest. The paperwork on that alone should be enough to smother him.
Then, there's the recent merger of the George Washington and Jefferson. Damon will preside over the consolidation of policies and programs - much like merging two households when people marry, only Damon's new house is a 1.73million acre forest that covers much of Western Virginia and dips into West Virginia and Kentucky.
Not to mention Thursday's announcement that the U.S. Forest Service will reduce jobs across the country and tighten up the agency. It's unclear how the announcement will affect the George Washington and Jefferson. However, the forest will remain in the Southern region; there had been a proposal to move it into the Eastern region, based in Milwaukee.
Among the other initiatives coming under Damon's watch will be an environmental impact study on rerouting U.S. 58 through the popular Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, the ongoing struggles over logging, and incorporating a new philosophy of ecosystem management.
"When I was in high school, I knew then I wanted to manage a national forest," the 47-year-old supervisor said recently. "Of course, I didn't have any idea what that meant."
He's learning.
Damon started his job May 15, and since then, he has toured 12 of 13 ranger districts, from the top of the Shenandoah Valley to the tip of Southwest Virginia. He's met with loggers, environmentalists, congressmen, local politicians, people on both sides of the power-line fight, and almost all of the 280 forest employees under his charge.
A balding, round man with a quick smile and a twinkle in his eye, Damon has made a favorable impression on his constituents so far.
"He started on a Monday, and I had breakfast with him at 7," said Jim Loesel, a Roanoke County resident who keeps a close eye on the agency. "Because I know he's so punctual, I got there five minutes ahead of time. He had already finished breakfast. Now does that tell you something about the man?''
Loesel, who is well-known to most forest employees, said they seem heartened by Damon's leadership style. "Morale has picked up," Loesel said. "He's a good listener, but he makes decisions after he's listened, and follows through very quickly."
Apco Vice President Charles Simmons agrees. He and several other utility executives met with Damon at the forest headquarters for half an hour. Simmons was particularly impressed with the supervisor's monthlong extension of the deadline for public comment on alternative routes for the 765,000-volt power line.
"He was faced with something that needed to be decided, and he decided quickly," said Simmons, who has been frustrated with the agency's repeated delays in issuing the draft environmental impact statement, now due Oct. 20.
Power-line foes likewise seem to have warmed to Damon from the start.
"We were quite impressed with his intelligence. He seemed to be a person with a full value system, as opposed to a pure career bureaucrat," said Harriet Hodges, chairwoman of Arcs Inc., a two-state coalition of groups that oppose the power line.
For two hours at a New Castle diner, the opponents told Damon what they've been saying for years - that the Forest Service ought to determine whether the line is even needed. "He didn't say anything we particularly wanted to hear," Hodges said, but neither did he appear to laugh off or dismiss their concerns.
Damon's most recent stint in his 17-year career with the agency was as deputy supervisor of the 2.5 million acre Idaho Panhandle National Forest, where he dealt with issues such as grizzly bear habitat and old-growth forests.
But he's no stranger to Virginia. Born and schooled in Big Stone Gap, Damon was a seasonal firefighter in the Blacksburg district. He graduated from West Point, served in the Army, pulled a year as a terminal manager for a trucking company, and went to the University of Idaho for a master's degree in forestry.
He's worked in the Washington, D.C., Forest Service headquarters and for forests in Alaska and North Carolina. He also went to Brazil to help that country develop an agency similar to the Forest Service.
Damon will return to Idaho on Saturday for a few weeks to relocate his family - his wife, Raynelle; daughters Tracy, 9, and Suzanne, 12; and son Will, 15, who is staying the summer to do volunteer work in the Panhandle.
by CNB