 Scientist Who
Unearthed Phantom Forest Scandal
Dies
By
Zadig
Editor’s Note: Using maps, aerial photos and computer
records, Leroy Lee uncovered massive discrepancies in records kept by
National
Forests across the region. In Montana's
Yaak
Valley,
for instance, three-quarters of clearcuts were listed on paper as
mature
forest. By padding the numbers the Forest
Service could continue to cut unsustainably for short-term corporate
gain. In
1992, Lee explained his findings to the U.S. House Interior
Appropriations
Subcommittee. Congress investigated and found inaccuracies in 15
national
forests across the West. The entire incident is now known to greens as
the Phantom
Forest
Scandal.
Leroy
Lee, 1956-2007
Leroy Lee passed away last
week at his home near St.
Maries, Idaho.
Leroy was one of those people you don't meet every day: as a timber
stand
examiner -- a seasonal employee with the U.S. Forest Service, and one
of the
lowliest positions that agency offers -- Leroy Lee cracked open what
was
probably the biggest scandal ever to hit the Northern Region of the
Forest
Service.
Sometime in the late 1980's Leroy started noticing that the numbers he
was
using in his timber stand exams weren't adding up, and he gradually
became
suspicious that the Forest Service was keeping two sets of books.
Persistent
and thoughtful investigation paid off, and he was finally able to prove
it,
igniting what came to be called the "Phantom Forest"
scandal. Leroy showed that the Forest Service was pretending to have
more trees
on the ground -- and thus more trees available for logging -- than they
actually had. By a wide margin. His work was groundbreaking because
almost
nobody but a timber stand examiner even knew how to read the data, and
most
timber stand examiners don't stay up too late scratching their heads
about what
is happening back at the office.
But Leroy did. The reason his discovery created a scandal is that it
revealed
that the Forest Service was deliberately cooking its books when it
applied to
Congress for funding each year. On the Kootenai National
Forest
for example, 75 percent of the clearcuts on the ground registered as
forests on
the books. So Congress, in the dark about what existed on the ground,
kept
right on funding more logging. And the Forest Service kept right on
using that
funding to build the wonderful road system that saturates our formerly
valuable
National Forests.
You can read more about his accomplishment here, in an excellent article from Sierra Magazine
from
1992. It details Leroy's investigation and the Congressional hearing
that
followed. What it doesn't mention is the fallout: to this day, the Kootenai National Forest is still
getting hit with lawsuits that stem from Leroy's incredible work
over a
decade ago. Leroy busted up on his own, as a poorly-paid grunt, what no
army of
professional conservationists could even touch.
So Leroy, wherever you are: way to go, brother. You didn't pass on
without
leaving a dent.
The Spokesman
Review has an excellent
piece on Leroy's life with comments by many of his friends.
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