Can't See the Forest for the Forest Fuels

In an "unusual, if not unprecedented" move, the U.S. Forest Service paid the San Francisco-based PR firm OneWorld Communications $90,000 to promote its controversial Sierra Nevada forest management plan. In a leaked memo, OneWorld suggested the slogan "Forests With A Future" to promote the plan, which will triple commercial logging and allow larger trees to be cut. A Forest Service spokesperson said the PR firm was hired to help "convey the enormous dangers California faces if our current inability to reduce forest fuels continues." The director of the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign commented: "They can't defend their work, so they had to hire a bunch of spin doctors to do it."