Timber theft report ignored, testimony says

PORTLAND, Ore. — A U.S. Forest Service timber theft unit was disbanded just as it uncovered evidence of massive theft and fraud in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, a former investigator testified Wednesday.

Steven Slagowski, a former special agent for the unit, said huge rafts of logs worth millions of dollars routinely disappeared while they were being floated down Alaskan rivers in the early 1990s, only to end up being secretly sold in Asia for inflated prices.

He also said entire islands in southern Alaska were clearcut but a fringe of forest was left standing around their perimeters to make it appear to sea traffic as if nothing had been removed.

Slagowski said there was evidence the clearcuts destroyed bald eagle nesting sites, in violation of federal law.

"I felt the timber theft I looked at was potentially massive," Slagowski said. "It was theft of unprecedented proportion."

But his report was ignored, and a meeting the concerned agents arranged with former Forest Service chief Jack Ward Thomas eventually resulted in a decision to disband the unit in 1995.

"I felt bushwhacked," Slagowski said, "We were frustrated, angry."

The timber theft task force was established by Congress in 1991 to investigate the timber industry along the Pacific Coast in Oregon, Washington, California and Alaska.

After a string of successful convictions that won millions in damages from timber companies, Thomas sent task force supervisor Al Marion a letter thanking the 16-person unit for its service but ordering it abolished.

Five former agents have charged they were harassed and prevented from doing their job, leading to a Forest Service cover-up and a whistleblower lawsuit that is being heard in Portland by a federal administrative law judge for the Merit Systems Protection Board.

The Government Accountability Project, a Washington, D.C.-based whistleblower protection organization, is representing the group.

"This trial is all about the secret life of the Forest Service," said Tom Devine, legal director for the project and lead attorney in the case.

"Alaska was the mother lode of timber theft for the Forest Service, I’m afraid," Devine said.

The Forest Service claims the timber theft unit was eliminated because it was not the most efficient way to protect trees from theft.

But Slagowski nearly broke down twice on the stand after recalling meetings with supervisors who derailed the unit’s efforts and repeatedly made personal insults against investigators. One boss laughed when he ordered Slagowski to move from Eugene to Portland over his protest, saying the Forest Service would not pay for the move, Slagowski said.

The hearing Wednesday was part of the third week of testimony in the case after previous hearings in October and November. A fourth hearing is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 26.