Monday, Nov. 8, 1999 | 5:10 a.m.
RENO, Nev. - The Forest Service supervisor in charge of national forests in Nevada abruptly announced her resignation Monday, citing an atmosphere of "hostility and distrust" toward federal employees in the state.
Locked in a battle over protection of the threatened bull trout as well as mining and livestock grazing controversies in Nevada, Gloria Flora said she intends to leave her post soon after the first of the year.
"Fed-bashing is a sport here and I refuse to sit by quietly and let it happen as many others are doing," Flora, supervisor of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, said in a statement released by the agency's regional headquarters in Ogden, Utah.
"I hope that my departure will call attention to this situation and bring about constructive dialog on how conditions can be changed," she said.
Flora, who said she'll consider reassignment to another Forest Service post, became supervisor in July 1998 of the Humboldt-Toiyabe - the largest national forest in the Lower 48 states.
Flora earned a reputation inside the agency as a reformer who speaks out against commercial uses of public forests at the expense of fish and wildlife. Previously, as supervisor of the Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana, she upheld a ban on new oil and gas leases on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
Most recently, she angered some county, state and federal officials involved in a heated dispute over threatened bull trout in Elko County, where local officials want to rebuild a remote road inside the national forest.
"We have accomplished some outstanding natural resource work, however, the atmosphere of hostility and distrust toward federal employees is unacceptable," Flora said in the statement Monday.
Forest Service scientists say reconstruction of the road wiped out in a flood in 1995 could push the last surviving bull trout in Nevada into extinction.
A citizen work crew led by state Assemblyman John Carpenter backed down from plans to defy the Forest Service and rebuild the road after politicians worried publicly about violence and a federal judge issued a restraining order against them.
"I'm shocked and appalled that any individual, particularly a state assemblyman and the county chairman of the Republican Party, would choose to undertake an illegal action against essentially the American people," Flora told The Associated Press before the court order was issued Oct. 8.
Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage, R-Idaho, chairman of the House Resources subcommittee on forests and forest health, and Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., have scheduled a congressional hearing on the controversy Saturday in Elko.
Flora upset Chenoweth-Hage a week ago when she said the hearing wouldn't be fair because the Idaho Republican's new husband, property rights activist Wayne Hage, is suing the agency over livestock grazing in Nevada.
Jack Blackwell, regional forester in charge of the Forest Service's Intermountain Region, said Flora will be leaving the post after the first of the year.
"While I regret losing Flora, I understand her reasons and respect her decision," said Blackwell, who is scheduled to testify at the congressional hearing.
"The Forest Service is in the middle of controversy about natural resource issues everywhere in the country, but the acrimony and attitude toward the agency, its employees and other federal employees in Nevada are extremely troubling to me," Blackwell said.
The Humboldt-Toiyabe "has experienced some of the highest levels of controversy relating to the Sage Brush Rebellion and county supremacy movements, grazing and other public lands issues of any national forest in the country," he said.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who has been trying to broker a settlement over reconstruction of the road near Jarbidge, said Monday that Flora is a "dedicated public servant. ... It is unfortunate that she is leaving her post."
Matt Holford, chairman of Trout Unlimited Nevada Council, said his group would miss Flora's "respect for the environment and her dedication to the resource."
"I think her perception of fed-bashing is very, very true. It happens up here all the time," Holford said.
Kristin McQueary, deputy district attorney for Elko County, said she hoped Flora's replacement would do a better job consulting with local citizens about management of the forest.
"Fed-bashing isn't a sport here. The people are absolutely frustrated by the way the federal government has refused to take the time to listen to them," McQueary said. "Certainly it is our constitutional right to disagree with them."
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