2 Top Officials at Forest Service Are Removed

The Clinton Administration on Thursday removed the two top officials of the U.S. Forest Service, one of the government’s most troubled and frequently criticized agencies.

F. Dale Robertson, a career forester who served as chief of the Forest Service for six years, was transferred to a special assistant’s job in the Agriculture Department, the service’s parent agency. His associate chief, George M. Leonard, was moved to a new position under Assistant Agriculture Secretary James Lyons.

Robertson’s tenure was marked by charges that he was too willing to accommodate the timber industry, and by widespread internal dissent, charges of reprisals against whistle-blowers, criticism of money-losing timber sales and allegations of timber theft abetted by agency employees.

David G. Unger, an associate chief of the agency, was appointed to fill Robertson’s post on an interim basis.

Many Administration officials said they expect wildlife biologist Jack Ward Thomas to be named as Robertson’s permanent successor to head the 34,000-employee agency that manages 191 million acres of federal forests and national grasslands.

Thomas gained national recognition through his work on several scientific panels studying the old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest and the habitat needs of the threatened northern spotted owl. He also was an architect of the Administration’s recently announced plan to resolve that dispute between environmentalists and the forest products industry.

Brock Evans, a vice president of the National Audubon Society, said the environmental community is “really disappointed” by what he said was at best a halting step at reforming the service. Unger, he said, is from “the same old mahogany row” that has dominated Forest Service management for more than a decade.

“There won’t be reform of the Forest Service under this type of program,” Evans said.

Unger, who also has served in the Soil Conservation Service, said in a statement Thursday that he is committed to “help lead the agency in a new direction.”