Proposed changes to Forest Service will impact many
Changes to the Maine Forest Service and how agency personnel respond to incidents have been proposed by Gov. Paul R. LePage, as part of his budget package for the coming year. But those changes could have a significant impact on other agencies as well as taxpayers.
In his budget proposal, LePage is seeking to overhaul the Maine Forest Service by creating a new class of natural resources law enforcement officers under the Bureau of Forestry and removing the police powers of existing rangers. The budget plan also would eliminate at least 25 ranger positions — 12 of which are now vacant — which would diminish the existing total force by one-third.
Ed Endee, fire chief/fire warden for the Fort Kent Fire & Rescue Department and current president of the Aroostook County Fire Chiefs Association, said LePage’s proposed changes to the MFS will have a negative impact on communities across the state, especially here in Aroostook County, where forest rangers cover an area the size of Rhode Island and Connecticut combined. If implemented, there would be six officers and one supervisor assigned to investigate cases statewide.
As proposed, Endee said “The Maine Forest Service will no longer be responding to wildfires in towns that have fire departments. Their reduced personnel and equipment will only be responsible for unincorporated areas.”
According to Endee, this will create far-reaching problems for municipalities across the state, especially those that are more wooded.
“Most towns don’t have the equipment or manpower to commit to any sizeable fire. Many forest fires require days or weeks to have personnel and equipment on the fire to ensure complete containment and extinguishment. This is beyond the capability of town fire departments,” said Endee.
He said handling such incidents will be especially difficult for communities with volunteer departments.
“Most towns have volunteer departments whose members cannot commit to long-term operations,” said Endee. “Annual Forest Service grants have been used to purchase foam and small equipment. This was done with the grant funds paying for 50 percent of the cost for small equipment and the local fire departments paying for the other 50 percent. It was never intended nor was it feasible to purchase ‘off road’ firefighting engines or other large equipment.”
Endee said in 2014, forest rangers responded to more than 4,000 incidents and investigations. This was done by approximately 74 sworn forest rangers. They also conducted more than 37,000 compliance inspections.
“It is proposed that seven natural resource officers will assume these responsibilities. This leaves approximately 223 towns for each officer. Violations that are included are open burning, wildfire arson, timber theft and agricultural damage,” said Endee, noting this will put additional strain on other agencies as they try to cover these cases, in addition to their regular workload. “Municipal police departments, county sheriffs, state police officers, marine patrol and game wardens do not have the training, expertise or manpower to assume this role.”
Endee said “it’s been stated that forest fires have been reduced in recent years” — but that’s due, in part, to the continued efforts by rangers.
“This is due to the fact that rangers have been out in the woods enforcing laws and regulations pertaining to forest fire safety, not due to some natural cycle of nature that magically has evolved to reduce the number of fires. Rangers ensure that logging and recreational use of the forests is safe,” said Endee.
In addition, Endee said the emergency management component of the Maine Forest Service will be drastically reduced or eliminated.
“During times of natural disaster or other large mobilization of local and state resources, the Maine Forest Service has been a key component of the incident management and operations team,” said Endee.
Fire departments won’t be the only agency affected, if the change takes place. Law enforcement will find themselves putting more strain on already tight budgets.
“I don’t support any reduction in Maine’s forest ranges. They are a highly-respected organization, with a diverse mission. We work closely with them,” said Sheriff Darrell Crandall, of the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Office.
Crandall said officers from various agencies will find themselves trying to do more with less.
“Among the many consequences from a reduction is that local and county agencies will, by default, inherit the burden of the duties rangers currently carry out. Those duties include law enforcement, fire prevention and suppression and resource conservation functions. Local law enforcement agencies and fire departments will be negatively impacted by any reduction in the rangers,” said Crandall.
“Further, this has the potential to increase property taxes, once again, to fund the new local resources needed to backfill the void,” said Crandall. “I don’t view that as reasonable.”
“I’m hopeful the governor and legislature will work together to keep the rangers where they are, doing what we all need them to do,” added Crandall.
Chief Darrell White, of the Presque Isle Fire Department, said there would be a significant impact on local departments, if changes are made to the MFS as the governor proposes in his budget plan.
“With a lack of rangers in the area, especially from the law enforcement side — handling timber and bough thefts, and especially illegal dumping — our department doesn’t have the time to investigate those cases. We typically turn those cases over to the forest rangers to handle,” said White. “That would rule out ever getting anything solved.”
White said it would burden fire departments — both from a financial perspective as well as for personnel.
“The other thing is, we don’t have a lot of equipment for land fires. We rely on the state (Maine Forest Service). They’ll have equipment but who will operate it if their staffing is reduced? As a city, we can’t take it on. The training and manpower would be a major issue,” said White.
“We rely on their expertise. If the changes go through, we can’t handle issues on our own. We don’t have the knowledge they have,” said White. “We’re a full-time department, imagine the strain this would put on a volunteer department?”
The PIFD currently has an agreement in place to handle fire calls in East Chapman, since the fire house that covers Chapman is located in Mapleton. The Maine Forest Service has assisted with fire calls in Chapman in the past, but if LePage’s proposed changes to the MFS are approved, local fire departments would be left to handle fire calls in such areas on their own, with equipment better suited for structure fires.
“Municipalities will have no choice but to pass the added costs associated with such investigations and fire calls on to taxpayers,” said White.
Under LePage’s plan, rangers would basically respond to fires and deal with environmental aspects of the forest, such as insect infestations. In 2013, Maine forest rangers responded to 3,688 incidents that under the new plan would be handled by the six new natural resource law enforcement officers and one supervisor. The 2013 incidents included:
• Landowner protection — 1,323 cases involving illegal dumping, forest products theft, criminal mischief/trespass, damage to roads/forest/crops, agricultural theft and logging vandalism;
• Wildfire prevention/control — 1,142 cases covering arson, open burning laws, slash, railroad right-of-way, spark arresters and fireworks;
• Resource protection — 688 cases, including forest practices, water quality, Parks and Lands rules, entomology/invasive species, liquidation harvesting, Land Use Planning Commission and landowner reports; and
• Public safety/assists/other — 535 cases involving agency assists, ATVs, paper service, civil assists, snowmobiles, search and rescue assists, training, and other/non-classified.
Endee, Crandall and White ask the public to contact their elected officials and ask them to oppose the governor’s proposed changes to the Maine Forest Service.
