Forest Service chief decides to move on

Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck will retire at the end of this week after four years as head of the 33,000-employee agency. Dombeck, a career senior executive, announced his retirement on Tuesday to his senior staff. His last day will be Saturday. Phil Janik, the Forest Service's chief operating officer, will serve as acting chief until Agriculture Secretary Anne Veneman names a successor. "Mike has been a dedicated professional who has given over half his life to public service," Veneman said in a statement. "I appreciate his many years of leadership in government. All of us at USDA wish him and his family the very best." As a member of the Senior Executive Service, Dombeck was protected from involuntary reassignment or removal during Veneman's first 120 days in office, which end May 20. In the long-running struggle between the Forest Service's competing missions--timber production and ecosystem management--Dombeck more enthusiastically supported environmental efforts. He attempted to shift agency incentives--promotions, awards and budgets--from rewarding resource use to rewarding resource conservation. In one of his major achievements, Dombeck pushed through a new rule barring new roads and logging in certain Forest Service areas just before the end of the Clinton administration. But this month, the Bush White House temporarily halted the rule as Boise Cascade Corp., a timber company, pursues a federal lawsuit to strike it down. "I feel that this is the right time to step down, spend time with my family and then look at new opportunities," Dombeck said. Prior to taking over the Forest Service, Dombeck spent three years as director of the Bureau of Land Management. He served in other positions at BLM and the Interior Department from 1989 to 1993 and worked in various Forest Service jobs from 1978 to 1989.