Thick Forests, Thick Issues for Rey

With wildfires burning in California, Oregon, Washington, Montana and Nevada this week, the firestorm over the Bush administration's logging policies continued, and the man in the middle of it all was Mark E. Rey.

A former timber lobbyist, Rey has been undersecretary for natural resources and environment at the Agriculture Department for six years. He oversees the Forest Service and the administration's decisions about where and how to cut forests -- and, according to environmentalists, he has opened deep areas of forest to loggers instead of concentrating on thinning underbrush near homes and other property.

"I think it would be safe to say that if for the last six years he had focused on forest-fuel reduction solely around people's homes, instead of commercial-scale timber reduction, then fewer homes would be at risk -- communities would be safer, people's lives and property would be protected," said Myke Bybee, a public lands lobbyist for the Sierra Club.

This week's fires have threatened California's Santa Barbara wine country and forced the evacuation of hundreds of homes, including Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch. More than 3.1 million acres have burned this year, and forecasters are saying weather conditions are such that the wildfire spread may exceed last year's 4 million acres.

Rey said, though, that administration policies have helped reduce the number of homes lost to wildfires, despite an increase in the intensity and spread of the fires in recent years. About 25 million of 80 million acres of forests identified for thinning and controlled burning have been done in the past six years. And more than half of that area has been on the edge of forestland closest to new homes and other structures.

"We've taken the equivalent of the present population of California and sprinkled it all across the woodlands -- in the Southeast, in the West and in areas where fire is a natural component of the normal environment," Rey said.

Environmentalists say that all of the Forest Service's fuel-clearing efforts should be directed at areas close to homes. They charge that some of the agency's activities are driven by commercial interests, not safety concerns.

Rey has been in the middle of debates over the nation's forests for years. Even his critics consider him a straight talker, and many say he has unparalleled knowledge and understanding of American forests. His timber industry credentials stretch back to 1976 when, after graduating from the University of Michigan with a master's degree in natural resources policy and administration, he went to work for the American Paper Institute.

By 1995, when he became the top aide to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Rey had established himself as one of Capitol Hill's most prominent timber lobbyists. He was viewed as an adept networker and worked at various points for the National Forest Products Association, the American Forest Resource Alliance and the American Forest and Paper Association.

Rey says he is no longer beholden to his former associates. "To the timber industry, what I'd say is: Our primary objective is to improve the health of the forest that we're leaving behind," he said. "Not to necessarily maximize what we get out of it."

That view has at times riled industry. "During the Clinton administration, more timber was harvested than under the first four years of the Bush administration," said Tom Partin, president of the American Forest Resource Council, a trade association for 80 companies in the West.

Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho), a member and former chairman of the Public Lands and Forests Subcommittee who lobbied for Rey's 2001 appointment, said the frustrations are a testament to Rey's balanced stance.

"I think the timber community felt there was going to be some 'exclusivity' of relationship there," he said. "What they found was that Mark approached the job in a very fair and evenhanded way."

But no environmentalist will say that Rey has joined the ranks. Bill Meadows, president of the Wilderness Society, has hiked through forests in California, Idaho and Montana with Rey, whom he calls a friend. But he remains critical of legislation such as the 2003 Healthy Forests Restoration Act, which he said offers incentives to exploit forests economically.

"We both like trees," Meadows said. "He likes them horizontal; I like them vertical."

Indeed, both environmental and timber lobbyists say Rey cannot be credited -- or criticized -- for failing to open larger swaths of forest to loggers. The global timber market and environmentalists' lawsuits have limited the amount of federal forestland that can be harvested for profit.

And Rey can hardly argue with that. When he leaves office, he expects to hold a record for being a named defendant in litigation. "The nature of the beast," he says with a shrug.