By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Management problems dogged a pair of timber sales in the Tongass National Forest, resulting in fiscal miscalculations, rushed work, and conflict of interests, a U.S. Forest Service report released on Monday says.
The document, an internal audit conducted by the Financial Compliance and Oversight Branch of the Forest Service, identified a wide range of problems relating to the Big Thorne and Kosciusko timber sales.
“Issues occurred because the timber sales program was not sufficiently managed, in part, due to the pressure to meet timber sale goals,” the audit concluded. While the document became public this week, it was dated on August 18, 2020. The timber sales took place on and around Prince of Wales Island starting in 2014.
The audit did not provide further details on the nature of pressure occurring from within or outside of the Forest Service.
Juneau-based Southeast Alaska Conservation Council (SEACC) environmental policy analyst Sally Schlichting told the Sentinel that the lack of details in the document makes it difficult to pinpoint problems.
“The cryptic nature of the report and how it does not identify where that pressure is coming from or from whom or what that pressure is. And the audit report also appears to decline to name any individuals, so it’s difficult to know who is doing what and where the problems are,” Schlichting said.
The document became public following SEACC’s Freedom of Information Act request and a lawsuit by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a watchdog group based in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Jeff Ruch, director of the PEER Pacific Field Office in Oakland, California, said he was “struck by how cryptic the audit report was. Typically auditors are detailed and this is sort of comments, many of which didn’t have an explanation. And I was stuck that they didn’t identify the titles of the officials that were responsible.”
The audit details a number of specific problems with the two timber sales analyzed.
The audit report states:
“The timber sales program was not sufficiently managed. Specifically, the timber sale cruising, appraisal, sale preparation, and contracting program for the Big Thorne Stewardship Contract and Kosciusko Good Neighbor Authority Agreement were not always managed in accordance with the terms of the agreements and Forest Service policy.”
The auditors also found a potential conflict of interest: “The contractor who was involved in supporting the pre-award phase of the (Kosciusko) timber sale by developing the feasibility and final appraisal for the State was also awarded the contract to perform the timber sale layout for Alcan Timber Inc., the purchaser of the timber sale.”
The contractor is not named in the report.
The audit also found inconsistencies with the conduct of the logging itself.
“An experienced (Supervisor’s Office) official stated that the contractor is cutting according to prescription and the contractor is cutting every decent hemlock in the Forest. Some units have almost nothing but hemlock; these units are being significantly logged. Additionally, we were informed that the less desirable species (hemlock) was not being cut, as opposed to the more valuable species,” the auditors found. “However, during our site visit to the purchasers scaling yard, we observed hemlock that was cut from the Big Thorne sale.”
The auditors concluded the USFS had not properly implemented the logging prescription “due to the urgency to meet the Forest Service timber sale goal.”
Along with this, the report found significant financial problems with the sales.
“Timber sale methodology and calculation errors created an approximate $2 million contract modification adjustment for the Big Thorne Stewardship Contract to reconcile inaccuracies,” the document reads.
Auditors also found a number of smaller financial discrepancies.
The Kosciusko Good Neighbor Agreement was written to fit within the legal framework of a Farm Bill which requires restoration services to be conducted after the logging, but the audit found that the Forest Service had failed to specify what restoration would occur in the original agreement. Following a field visit to the island in 2018, the report said, USFS did specify some restorations to be done.
“According to a (Supervisor’s Office) official, they are developing a modification to the agreement to specifically state what restoration services will be performed. As a result of not including specific restoration services in the initial supplemental agreement, it gave the public the impression that no restoration would be performed, and risked offering insufficient time to conduct restoration services,” the document states.
In a separate FOIA request by SEACC, a Forest Service document revealed that a request from the state to lower stumpage rates in the timber sale also reduced the viability of restoration services.
“The reduction in rates is going to impact the ability of the sale to generate the funds necessary to complete the restoration activities that are a part of the (Kosciusko) project,” that separate document said.
Looking forward, Schlichting hoped that there would be broader accountability within the timber program.
“We would like to see a much broader investigation of all the Tongass timber sales and how they are being developed and administered,” she said.
In an email to the Sentinel from Washington, D.C., Forest Service National Press Officer Babete Anderson said the agency will update policies and internal controls in order to ensure accountability in the future.
“The USDA Forest Service takes seriously its obligation to ensure the accountability, integrity, and effectiveness of the work we perform,” Anderson said in the email. “During routine reports on timber sales, the agency discovered some inconsistencies, which were addressed by Alaska Region 10 and validated through an internal audit. To ensure future work is completed in a consistent manner, Alaska Region 10 has already or will soon update its policies to clearly define roles and responsibilities, strengthen internal controls over timber sales, improve oversight of the program, and provide additional training for employees. We are confident we have sufficiently developed a plan to achieve more efficient and effective oversight of timber sales to help meet agency goals.”
The full 20-page document is publicly available at fs.usda.gov/about-agency/foia/reading-room.
