The Shadow
Editor’s Note: The following letter was submitted to the Virginian Review in response to an op-ed written by Covington attorney Bill Wilson that was published in the Dec. 18 edition of the Roanoke Times regarding the Atlantic Coast Pipeline titled, “Forest Service wants to reduce public input.”
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Dear Editor,
My first acquaintance with Bill was when we both lived in Falling Spring in the 1960s when I was the U.S. Forest Service district ranger in Covington from 1959-1965. I totally agree with him about the damage that will be done by allowing the crossing of very steep terrain in the mountains, which are mostly on national forest land.
Bill says the U.S. Forest Service rolled over in allowing the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to cross national forest land.
I understand why he made that statement, because the logical place to associate with the problem would be the local district ranger. She has the responsibility for the land under her responsibility — up to a point.
She did not have final say on granting approval to the ACP. Neither did the forest service supervisor in Roanoke, nor the regional forester in Atlanta. Even the chief of the U.S. Forest Service can oppose approval up to a point.
The U.S. Forest Service operates under a Deputy Secretary of the Department of Agriculture who is in an appointed position. The U.S. Forest Service can control many land management decisions, but not everything. Some things end up an a higher level. So shooting the messenger, the district ranger and the agency is not really getting at the problem.
There are other forest management problems in the agency that need attention that fall under agency responsibility.
I never knew that Bill was a summer employee for the Forest Service out west in the 1960s. My first job with the U.S. Forest Service was as a summer employee in Idaho in 1950. My career began in 1955 after college and the U.S. Army. I have kept close attention to the U.S. Forest Service since my retirement in 1987 to this day.
Sincerely,
Robert E. Lockhart
Wentworth Lane, Daleville
