The U.S. Military is not often singled out for praise for its environmental practices. So when Fort Lewis’s 40,000-acre forest became the first piece of federal land in the U.S. to be certified by the internationally-recognized Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), people noticed. Fort Lewis resource managers are demonstrating that the military and the forest ecosystem can peacefully coexist.

Driving along Interstate 5 provides civilians their only glimpse of Fort Lewis, the large military base south of Tacoma, Washington. It is largely undeveloped, and covers over 86,000 acres, from Puget Sound east about 15 miles toward Mt. Rainier. Forestry manager Gary McCausland notes that, “Fort Lewis acts as a dam for urban expansion from the Seattle/Tacoma area; I-5 bisects the installation, but all of the expansion that is normally associated with an interstate highway stops at Fort Lewis. On the south side of the Fort you have the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge and a more rural environment.” By locking up developable land, the military has inadvertently preserved some critical wildlife habitat: an endangered skipper butterfly now winters in a meadow next to a firing range where bombs are detonated.

Gary has been a civilian employee of the Public Works Department at the Fort for over 30 years. “I’m a product of a traditional forestry school at the University of Washington. I learned that Douglas fir cannot regenerate underneath itself, that it had to be in a clear cut. When I started working at Fort Lewis, however, the mandate was not for resource extraction. It wasn’t that clear cutting was taboo, but for military training they prefer to have overhead cover. So we have used a selection model for harvesting timber.”

Gary points to several events that paved the way for certification of the Fort’s forests. “Ten years ago Fort Lewis was declared critical habitat for Spotted Owls.” In fact no Northern Spotted Owls are known to inhabit Fort Lewis, but the base is considered connective habitat between the Cascade Mountains and the Olympic Peninsula. “We could have thrown up our arms, but instead we looked at it more as a challenge. It forced us to talk with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and do other things that opened up our program.”

Gary characterizes forestry at the Fort as “proactive management that selectively harvests trees to develop components of late successional forests, encourage characteristics that support diversified ecosystems, as well as supporting the training mission of the Army.” Eight to ten million board feet are harvested annually, which Gary estimates represents about one-third of the sustainable growth of the forest.

The ecological makeup of Fort Lewis is primarily Douglas fir forests with intermittent grasslands. The Fort conducts prescribed fires to preserve some more unusual fire-dependent ecosystems like prairie, oak woodlands and ponderosa pine savannas. The fires also provide hands-on training for some 200 wildland firefighters each year. The Nature Conservancy, the Forest Service and the University of Washington have been partners in a number of mapping, restoration and research projects in Fort Lewis forests.

“We are trying to maintain our prairies, and they’re getting encroached upon by Douglas fir.” As it happens, the Army provides an unusual management tool. “Part of the Special Forces training evaluation is to use things that go boom to knock down trees, to block a road or make it difficult for the enemy to go somewhere. So we say, ‘OK, here are areas where you can take out as many of the Douglas firs as possible.’ These are big old wolfy trees that none of the loggers particularly want. If we can get the Army guys to come in there, they’re happy. They can make their noise. They can blow up trees.”

In 1997 The Fort’s public works department was mandated by a presidential executive order to undertake an Environmental Management System, which led to certification by the International Standards Organization (ISO). “That’s actually what convinced me to take forest certification seriously. I recognized the benefits of having outside people come in and look at your program and make a determination. I could sit out there and say how wonderful our program is and pat myself on the back, but that really doesn’t hold a lot of credibility.”

The FSC label is reserved for forest products that are managed in an environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable way. The FSC certification process involved a team of experts evaluating forest and business practices, as well as community impacts.

Most of the Fort’s harvesting contracts end up going to small local logging operations, supporting nearby communities. “It’s an open bidding process, and we take the highest bid. Since all of our material has to be processed domestically, that takes out just about everybody except for small businesses.”

“Our forestry program generates about $4 million annually in revenue. After we deduct our expenses out of what we generate, 40% of residual then goes to local counties for schools and roads.” That comes to about $1 million a year divided among three Washington counties. The rest of the proceeds are reinvested in Defense Department natural resource programs. “The money we generate has to go directly back into the forestry program.”

According to Gary, there is more decentralized decision making in the Army than one might expect. “I would be the equivalent of a district ranger if I worked with the Forest Service. But I was able – at my level – to make a determination to be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. And that’s the way the Army works; they empower people at various levels. I could have signed the agreement with FSC myself, but how much weight would that hold? We ended up going all the way up to the three-star general that was in charge.” Lieutenant General James Hill, former Fort Lewis commander, explained his motivation to a U.S. Senate committee last year, “I am a good steward of the environment because of two reasons: it’s the law and it’s the right thing to do.”

For Fort Lewis, FSC certification has not typically generated higher returns on timber sales. They do sell to one local mill that is also certified, but most of their wood is milled by non-certified mills and is sold to consumers without the green label or any related premium. Gary had different motivations for becoming certified. “I look at certification as kind of an insurance policy. If somebody wants to challenge the way we’re operating – the worst case scenario being a court order related to critical habitat – the Forest Stewardship Council is recognized by the environmental community as a model certifications program and gives us a very powerful position.”

“The other way you can look at certification is – am I paying for the certification or am I paying for these consultants to come in and evaluate my program and show me where I can improve? To have people the caliber of Chris Maser (see Founders 2000 profile) come in and look at your program can be expensive too.”

“Probably the biggest challenge is working with my staff. We have a full spectrum of attitudes from gung ho, to ‘this is a waste of time.’ It’s also been challenging to work with FSC as they are reconsidering whether or not Department of Defense land should be eligible for certification.” Currently, there is a moratorium on federal lands certification through FSC. An exception was made on Department of Defense lands, but FSC is reconsidering this decision. Gary feels frustrated that good forestry on federal lands might not merit certification.

Gary is motivated to face the challenges of his work because of his ties to the land and community. “I’m a third generation Washingtonian. This is where I’ve grown up. I don’t want to do anything to destroy or ruin where I live. Many folks in the military are very transitory. They’re here for a three-year assignment and then they move on, and they don’t necessarily have that same feeling. I can really empathize with the Nisqually Tribe, who have been in this area for thousands of years. I think once you start getting that feeling, you have a different approach to your management style. Some of us that have been around for 25 years are considered ancient, but that’s a knee jerk in a forest. Forests take a long time.”

“There are a lot of places out there where we’ve made mistakes and I can raise my hand and take full credit for those mistakes. The forest management we’re doing now is good, but our knowledge base is going to expand and we’ll have to improve to maintain that edge. As population and the consumption of resources increase, there will be more demands placed on the diminishing resources. One of the things I like about the ISO 14001 and FSC certification, is that not only do they ask you to have continual improvement in your program, but when you are periodically reviewed by outside people, you have to revisit your program over time. You cannot just get the certificate and be done with it.”

“Another thing that I find to be very stimulating is to manage forests in a way that is compatible with, or to a certain degree emulates natural processes. I’m a firm believer in the second law of thermodynamics, which is basically that energy flows downhill. Systems that use the least amount of energy are the most successful. Natural systems are probably the most energy efficient systems there are.”

The forest certification effort is just one of the innovative environmental efforts being undertaken at Fort Lewis. Says Gary, “Our Installation Sustainability Program is a broad-based look at how the installation can maintain it’s training capabilities within the community on a large scale, over time. We want to work with the stakeholders – the surrounding communities, nonprofit organizations like The Nature Conservancy, other agencies like the national wildlife refuge or the Nisqually Tribe – and look at what we can do not only to mitigate our training actions, but also to become better stewards. Someof the goals that we’re looking at are: zero waste, so that everything we use on the installation goes off the installation in some usable form; zero air emissions by the year 2025; and developed habitat so we do not have any listed species by 2025. These are very ambitious goals and we have to look beyond the boundaries of the installation to achieve them.”

Gary envisions developing preferred habitat designations across the landscape. “In this area, we’ll develop habitat for the Western Gray Squirrel, or the Spotted Owl. And then someplace else we’ll have preferred habitat for military training. You don’t say that the military trainers cannot go over into the gray squirrel habitat, but it’s not preferred. You create it, so that the trainers want to go in the other area to avoid conflicts. To me, that’s kind of the exciting thing that can be done, as far as management is concerned. It’s a challenge.” One that Gary clearly relishes.

Contact
Fort Lewis,
Public Works Environmental and
Natural Resources Division
Gary McCausland,
Installation Forester
AFZH-PWE (McCausland)
PO Box 339500 ms 17
Fort Lewis, WA 98433-9500
253.967.1740
mccauslg@lewis.army.mil