29 



[The prepared statement of Mr. J. Thomas appears at the conclu- 

 sion of the hearing.] 



Mr. Brown [assuming chair]. Are there questions from any mem- 

 ber of the subcommittee? Mr. Volkmer. 



Mr. Volkmer. I really don't have a question. I just want to say 

 welcome back, Jack. It has been a long time and, as far as I am 

 concerned, good relationship, and I value highly, very highly, your 

 opinion in regard to these matters, just as I did back when we were 

 working with the Gang of Four in trying to work something out. 



So I, for one, am willing to say to you that I am willing to work 

 with you now as Chief not only for the good of the Sierras, the se- 

 quoias, and everything else but for the rest of our National Forest 

 System. 



I firmly believe, as one who basically started us down this road 

 of an ecosystem approach to management, that you are committed 

 to that type of management position and that the days of past for- 

 est management style are no longer. Is that correct? 



Mr. J. Thomas. Certainly we are evolving a totally new ap- 

 proach, or not a totally new approach, but our approach is evolving. 

 Those mistakes of the past, Congressman, we share with the Con- 

 gress of the United States, who gave us some direction. 



Mr. Volkmer. I do not disagree with that. 



Mr. J. Thomas. Now, the next point of it is, those things are 

 changing. In my mind, to look at the application of the National 

 Forest Management Act and say that has been a failure is only 

 partially true. 



The second thing is that it does not need to continue to do that. 

 We have been through a very involved process once. I think we 

 have learned a lot. 



The thing that I would most like to make the point about is there 

 is a buzz word around that is the application of common sense, 

 which is called "adaptive management." You learn from your mis- 

 takes. Don't repeat the mistakes. Try the next thing that you think 

 is correct and learn from that how to proceed. That is the way, in 

 my opinion, that we should go at this. 



My general experience in nearly a. 40-year career is that prescrip- 

 tive legislation is antithetical to being able to move forward under 

 that common-sense approach. You get frozen in time, and once 

 done, it is very difficult to adjust. Of course, I speak as a scientist 

 and a land manager when I say we prefer flexibility to adjust to 

 new conditions and to new information. 



Mr. Volkmer. I can well remember, during our discussions back 

 when we were talking about these inked forests or whatever you 

 want to call it, that one of the things that became apparent to me 

 in listening to you and the others was that we really did not know 

 as much about our national forests as we needed to know as far 

 as the ecosystem approach, and that we needed additional re- 

 search, et cetera, in order to have some of those answers. Was I 

 correct in that? 



Mr. J. Thomas. You were certainly correct in that. However, we 

 are beginning to build a rather considerable backlog of information, 

 but the shift to ecosystem management, which has been projected 

 for a long time, is only now occurring. But I think there is going 

 to be a requirement. 



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