Remembering a stalwart of the Forest Service
If we are honest, when we are asked to take hard stands, most of us think, “What will this mean for me or my career?” Or “How or what will people think about me?”
Not Jim Furnish, a stalwart of the Forest Service who passed away this week.
Jim was the purest conservationist I have ever known. Why? His integrity.
Jim pushed beyond “getting out the cut”
Jim became the Forest Supervisor of the Siuslaw National Forest in Oregon in 1994, just after the Northwest Forest Plan dictated steep timber cuts on the forest to protect old growth trees, salmon and trout and other wildlife species.
For context, between 1960 to about 1989, timber cuts on Forest Service managed land averaged nine to 12 billion board feet per year. After the Northwest Forest Plan took effect, the number fell to less than four billion board feet per year.
Most leaders in the Forest Service rebelled at the reduction in timber harvest, as they had grown up under the mantra of “getting out the cut.” But under Jim’s leadership, the Siuslaw National Forest went from cutting 300 million board feet of timber per year to less than 25 million.
After implementing those cuts, Jim pivoted and made watershed restoration the mission of the Siuslaw. After a 100-year flood hit the Oregon coast, Jim and his team eliminated over two-thirds of the roads and restored the natural contours of the forest to make it more resilient ahead of the next big flood.
This guy is indeed for real
When I worked for Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck, I met Jim at a regional meeting in the Pacific Northwest. He talked about watershed restoration, road obliteration and salmon recovery. My initial reaction was “Is this guy for real?” I had never met a Forest Service leader who spoke the way Jim did.
Later, Dombeck would ask him to become the Deputy Chief of the National Forest System—the person in charge of 193 million acres of national forests. Many in leadership of the Forest Service objected to Jim’s promotion. Jim didn’t care. He loved the Forest Service culture, but he loved the land more.
Under his leadership, the Forest Service would go on to protect 58.5 million acres of wilderness-quality lands on the National Forest System.
Jim became an even stronger advocate for conservation after he retired. He questioned, for example, why the United States would continue to cut old-growth forests. He almost lived to see his former agency finally take action to protect these critical landscapes. When common sense prevails and that eventually happens, the rule should be named in Jim’s honor.
A great man saw great value in our Forests
A week before he died, Jim said to Mike and me: “Can I say again—working with you both I consider the highlight of my career …” Kind words, but the reality is that to me, Jim Furnish’s life and career were the ideal representation of the values upon which the Forest Service was formed and is very often on display today—an agency that manages our national forests with an eye toward developing partnerships, protecting wild places, conserving clean water and preserving forests’ natural character, not “getting out the cut.”
In Jim’s great memoir, Toward a Natural Forest, he writes: “The world waits for leaders to step out, without apology, to create a different future, to create hope again, again, and again.”
For me, when I was a relatively inexperienced and young man, Jim created hope again, and again, and again. Our world is a better place for having had Jim in it.