Jack Ward Thomas: The Journals of a Forest Service Chief

For those of us who lived through the strife and conflict of the 1990's inside the United States Forest Service, or outside looking in, these journals are a rare epiphany that remind us that hope lives in darkness. Jack Ward Thomas, the first politically appointed Chief since the first Chief, Gifford Pinchot (a Teddy Roosevelt appointee in 1905) takes us on his very personal journey as he grows from wildlife biologist to agency statesman in a few short years. Along the way he stumbles and wanders, siezes triumph and faces tragedy, and crosses the finish line with grace and understanding. The politics of natural resource and environmental policy are often ugly, frustrating, arcane. Thomas' lights a candle with often astonishing revelations about people - he names names - that can be highly entertaining and insightful. With humor and pathos he deconstructs the key events of the age and explains his rationale for highly controversial decisions clearly and in real time. Thomas was a career scientist whose identity and loyalty was to his profession before events in the Clinton White House landed him on the fourth floor in the corner office in the old Auditor's Building on the Mall in Washington, just a few hundred yards from the Washington Monument, in the seat of Forest Service power. His grasp of the breadth and depth of what he would come to correctly identify as the sacred calling of being Chief was slight, but his willingness to tell the story of his transformation was strong and this he did honestly, openly, and often delightfully. Did he do everything right? Hardly. But neither was he deserving of condemnation. If anything he stepped up to the plate in the face of far worse alternatives and tried to do the right thing, acknowledging his own innocense and failures, coming of age and successes, and in the event creating a personal and agency political history that is both very well written and very compelling. Expect to be up in the wee hours of the night when you open this book. These journals are a must read for anyone who hopes to understand the politics of the environment being played out right now and for serious and casual students of government policy in public land management.

In the summer of 1986, Jack Ward Thomas began keeping a journal. "This will be a journal of random thoughts," he wrote. "My purpose is unknown to me, but I feel a compulsion to begin. Perhaps it will serve as a tickler of memory for the book I intend to write, but of course never will."This first book from Jack Ward Thomas is sure to open the eyes of those who think they know how policy and management decisions affecting the nation's forests are made. Though Thomas has authored well over 400 publications, mostly on wildlife conservation, perhaps the most valuable thing he's written is the set of journals he started eighteen years ago - the book he intended to write.As Chief of the Forest Service, Thomas is quick to give credit to those he respects, particularly his agency employees in the field. But he doesn't shy from battle, and his assessments of some political appointees in Washington and certain members of Congress are brutal. Thomas was drafted into the chief's job shortly after Clinton took office, and he took the helm of the agency with typical fortitude - and the naiveté of a researcher thrust into the political cauldron that is Washington DC. "We don't just manage land," he wrote, "we're supposed to be leaders. Conservation leaders. Leaders in protecting and improving the land."Statements like that surprised some of the people in Washington, but certainly didn't surprise his longtime friends and colleagues. Thomas had been talking about and writing about conservation for most of his life. And the cream of that conservation writing is in his journals.This book offers not only insight into the mind and heart of a naturalist, but also a perspective on the politics of natural resource management through the eyes of one of this country's finest conservationists. His writings clarify many of the environmental issues we face today: protecting obscure but endangered species, dealing with wildfire and wildfire fatalities, balancing resource needs against the need to preserve, and the development of policies to address forest health.This book's a treasure, and will be a valuable addition to the collections of those who care about natural resources management.