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STATEMENT OF JAMES E. LOESEL, SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN 

 FOREST COALITION, ROANOKE, VIRGINLV 



Mr. LOESEL. Mr. Chairman and Members of the subcommittee, 

 I appreciate the opportunity to appear before this subcommittee to 

 present comments on the Southern Appalachian Assessment. 



My name is James Loesel, and I am presenting testimony on be- 

 half of the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition. I would like to 

 give an overview of our written statement and then invite ques- 

 tions. 



Our testimony is in three parts. We first presented additional in- 

 formation on two of the questions which the subcommittee asked 



We have presented additional information about the role of the 

 public in the process. I attended more than 45 of the meetings 

 which were held by the various teams that were doing the work of 

 the Southern Appalachian Assessment. I can certainly say that the 

 public was invited to participate and was given an opportunity to 

 participate effectively in this process. 



In addition to public involvement in the direct work of the teams, 

 there were opportunities for members of the public to interact, 

 other including technical review of the assessment products. The 

 Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition provided experts that re- 

 viewed SAA technical report drafts. 



In our testimony we also provided information about the inter- 

 action between the Southern Appalachian Assessment and plan re- 

 visions. I have attended meetings held by the planners at the forest 

 level. I have personally observed the attempts by the planners to 

 sift through the Southern Appalachian Assessment reports to see 

 what is relevant for purpose of the revision of the plan. 



However, we want to emphasize that there were many other as- 

 pects of the assessment that are not related directly to Forest plan- 

 ning or plan revision. In the final part of our testimony, we outline 

 some of these useful aspects of the Southern Appalachian Assess- 

 ment. It is important for policymakers to recognize the valuable 

 contributions of the assessment even though they may not have 

 been the primary focus when the assessment was undertaken. 



The Forest Service under took continuous evaluation during the 

 life of the assessment, something I called "adaptive management." 

 At the end of the SAA project, the Forest Service produced a ques- 

 tionnaire in which they asked agency people who had been involved 

 and members of the public who had attended SAA meetings to 

 evaluate the assessment. The Southern Appalachian Forest Coali- 

 tion filled out that questionnaire, and we have attached it to our 

 testimony. 



In this questionnaire the Forest Service evaluated the SAA proc- 

 ess beyond the questions that this subcommittee has asked. We 

 think a reading of our responses, would be helpful to this sub- 

 committee in evaluating the Southern Appalachian assessment. It 

 would provide additional information for comparing the successes 

 and also the weaknesses of the Southern Appalachian Assessment 

 with other assessments. 



I certainly welcome any opportunity to respond to questions that 

 you may have. 



Mr. DOOLITTLE. Thank you. 



