A U.S. Forest Service conference this week in Sacramento meant to help the agency's employees "explore 'alternative realities'" has come under fire from a California congress member, according to a report in The Washington Times.
Almost 800 of the Pacific Southwest region's 4,500 USFS employees plan to attend the $500,000 conference, which is designed to help them "proactively use and create change" by using concepts such as "Everyone's truth is truth" and "Alternative realities are OK," according to literature sent to conference-goers.
Rep. Wally Herger, R-Calif., whose congressional district includes eight of California's 18 national forests, "has slammed the [USFS] for what he suggests is a conference more aptly associated with love beads and bell bottoms," the Times reported. Herger criticized the use of "hundreds of thousands of dollars" for the conference "at a time when [USFS] land is a fire hazard choked with dead and dying trees, the timber sale program [is] at a virtual standstill, and employees [are] being laid off."
Regional USFS forester Lynn Sprague said the meeting would not be a "one-time 'feel-good' or reorganization session," but that it would push employees "toward our full potential as natural resource management leaders" (Ruth Larson, Washington Times, 11/18).
NEXT STORY: Congress Assessed