Forest Service Chief Quits Over Policies

Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck, who tangled repeatedly with timber and mining interests during his four-year tenure, is stepping down because of differences with the Bush administration over the agency’s future.

“It was made clear in no uncertain terms that the administration wants to take the Forest Service in another direction,” said Chris Wood, who served as Dombeck’s top aide until Friday.

A fisheries biologist by training, Dombeck, 52, took over the service in January 1997 and reshaped it from a government agency considered to be a friend of the timber industry to a cautious guardian of about 192 million acres of national forests.