|
|
Background on Allan Fitzsimmons, New Wildlands Fuel Coordinator at the Department of Interior We have concerns about Mr. Fitzsimmons' ability to act effectively as Wildlands Fuel Coordinator for the Department of the Interior. First, Mr. Fitzsimmons appears to lack experience in the field of forest ecology or fire management. Second, Mr. Fitzsimmons does not believe that "ecosystems" exist. Mr. Fitzsimmons has authored a number of articles that state that he does not believe in the concept of an ecosystem. He considers them to be simply "mental constructs." In addition, he considers efforts to manage ecosystems to be just an opportunity for new federal controls that infringe on economic activity and property rights. We question the administration's choice for this important and challenging position. We believe that Mr. Fitzsimmons lack of experience and beliefs make him an inappropriate candidate for a position managing federal lands. Unfortunately, philosophically he will fit in very well with President Bush's other appointees to the Department of the Interior. Background on Dr. Allan K. Fitzsimmons Prior to his appointment Mr. Fitzsimmons was President of Balanced Resource Solutions (BRS), a consulting firm formed in 1993 and based in Woodbridge VA. While at BRS Mr. Fitzsimmons wrote a number of articles de-bunking the concept of ecosystem management.. Mr. Fitzsimmons was also an Adjunct Scholar at the Center for Market Processes at George Mason University. Among other activities Mr. Fitzsimmons served as an expert congressional witness on the use of the "ecosystem" concept as a basis for federal policy and regulation and provided ecosystem management seminars to representatives of land and resource using industries. Prior to founding BRS Mr. Fitzsimmons served as a special assistant to the Deputy Director of the National Park Service (1983-1985), the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks (1985-1989), and the Deputy Under Secretary for Policy, Planning and Development at the Department of Energy (1989-1992).While working as an aide to William Horn-Assistant Secretary of Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, Mr. Fitzsimmons prepared a memo which recommended federal policies be based on the premise that "public recreational benefit is the principal reason for conserving natural features" (AP, March 7, 1986). Before joining DOI Mr. Fitzsimmons was the chair of the Environmental Studies Program at George Washington University and was also Associate Professor of Geography. Bio of Allan K. Fitzsimmons, Ph.D. Allan Fitzsimmons is President of Balanced Resource Solutions, a consulting firm formed in 1993, and Adjunct Scholar at the Center for Market Processes at George Mason University. Among other activities he has recently served as an expert congressional witness on the use of the ecosystem concept as a basis for federal policy and regulation and provided ecosystem management seminars to representatives of land and resource using industries. Before founding his company, he served in the Department of Energy and the Department of the Interior as a special assistant to senior policy officials for nine years. Prior to government service, he held academic positions including chair of the Environmental Studies Program at George Washington University where he was also Associate Professor of Geography. He has authored over two dozen professional articles and papers on energy, natural resources, and environmental subjects. He earned a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California at Los Angeles, an MA in geography from California State University-Northridge and a BA in Mathematics from the same school. (Current as of 1994.) Bio found at http://www.nwi.org/SpecialStudies/RioStudy/FitzBio.html Selected quotes from articles written by Mr. Fitzsimmons on ecosystem management: At a meeting of the Independent Petroleum Association of America held in Phoenix Arizona (November 1994) Mr. Fitzsimmons described the goals of ecosystem management as "nebulous and fuzzy and unscientific" and ecosystem boundaries are generally arbitrary". At this same meeting Fitzsimmons warned petroleum operators "You can run but you can't hide...because the concept (ecosystem management) can reach all the land in the country, regardless of ownership. It provides an enormous opportunity for regulators to conclude that a user is threatening an ecosystem". (Inside Energy on Public Lands, November 21, 1994) In his article "Ecosystems: Where do they end? Why General Protection Should not Guide Federal Land-Use Policies" Mr. Fitzsimmons suggests "Federal ecosystem-based land management elevates protection of ecosystems above the benefits that come from economic land use, witness the Endangered Species Act or the provisions to protect wetlands stemming from section 404 of the Clean Water Act. It is an article of faith that human manipulation of the landscape is to be avoided because the best possible world is one in which ecosystems are unaffected by the activities of an industrial society.... This basic premise of the ecosystem-based approach to land use requires reconsideration". Mr. Fitzsimmons goes on to say "Efforts to protect ecosystems for their own sake can result in the unnecessary denial of the societal benefits associated with environmental manipulation. The sites of our cities and towns are altered ecosystems. Providing the material to build and power our cars, homes, offices, factories and stores alters ecosystems. To the extent economic use of the land and it resources is made subservient to ecosystem protection, concomitant costs will be imposed on society, ranging from restricted job choices to a decline in the generation of national wealth and the improved quality of life it produces". From Defending Illusions: Federal Protection of Illusions. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999. A synopsis "The Illusion of Ecosystem Management," PERC Reports17 (no. 5, December 1999):3-5. "The main problem is that ecosystems are not real. Ecosystems are only mental constructs, not real, discrete, or living things on the landscape. They do not breathe, emerge from wombs, or spring from seeds. They are not real, organized entities consciously seeking to perpetuate themselves against internal or external threats to their existence"(p. 4). The second problem is that, even if they were real, we have no idea of what their "health" or "integrity" might mean. There are some further problems, such as the "wooliness" of the ideas of "ecologist Bryan Norton" about ecosystem health and creativity. From "Federal Protection of Ecosystems 'Train Wrecks' in the Making" Mr. Fitzsimmons suggests "Ecosystem-based strategies provide unbridled opportunities for regulators to overlay a heavy new layer of open-ended federal controls on existing regulations based on supposition, speculation, and arbitrariness...Notions such as 'ecosystem needs' and 'ecosystem health' are fundamentally matters of opinion not science. Similarly, what makes an ecosystem 'degraded' or subsequently 'restored' is conjecture. The losers are economic activity and private property rights. More land will be placed off-limits to development and additional restrictions will be applied to developable land". Mr. Fitzsimmons's opinions on ICBEMP (The Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project, a plan by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of land Management to change the way the federal government manages land. It covers 144 million acres. This includes 69 million acres of state and privately owned land. Only 75 million acres of ICBEMP are federal lands). "We have seen the results of public lands management, under three years of the Northwest Forest Plan. If we've learned anything from the experience with the spotted owl and Opinion 9, it is that once the federal government has developed a management scheme and selected an alternative in which to implement it with, it will take an act of God to move them away from full implementation of anything less." |
