The following links will connect the reader to a United States Forest Service employee discussion site dedicated to Eco-spirituality. The religious discussions were hot and heavy during the Clinton administration, but petered out in 2001 as the Bush administration came into power.

The 90's represented abandonment of scientific management by numerous government employees in favor of intuitive-spiritual approaches. The end of the free flowing discussions is not necessarily good news. The same employees are still working for the Forest Service and still have the same beliefs and agendas even if they are not now posting them on the internet.

Former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt's declaration of management by spiritual imperative is found at http://www.fs.fed.us/eco/eco-watch/ew951218.htm together with a citation to literature trumpeting the "frontiers of science and spirituality." This site discusses the Babbitt speech at Holy Terra and That Which May Not Be Spoken.

In "Politics and Spirituality Transforming Politics" at http://www.fs.fed.us/eco/eco-watch/ew941220.htm the writers trumpet a "new paradigm" of "transformational politics" which incorporate Eastern and Western spiritualilty and utilize "intuition and 'attunement' in decision making." Forest Service officer Dave Iverson at the bottom footnote encourages readers to substitute Forest Service management terminology in place of "politics." Sadly this "new paradigm" has indeed infected Forest Service management.

A thorough discussion of "deep ecology" is set forth in Overpopulation and Deep Ecology" at http://www.fs.fed.us/eco/eco-watch/ew930514. The article notes that the "basic insights or intuitions of deep ecology are found in many philosophical, religious and scientific traditions."

In "Some Thoughts on the Recent Chief Seattle Episode" (exposing the speech to be fictional) at http://www.fs.fed.us/eco/eco-watch/ew920305 the author asserts that even if the speech is fictional there is a valid native American religion that must be honored by Forest Service employees. "The words are true even if the speech is not."

The book review of "Nature and the Human Spirit" by Dave Iverson at http://www.fs.fed.us/eco/eco-watch/ew970401.htm notes that managing according to spiritual values "has been endorsed by leaders of the US Forest Service ..., the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the ...Civil Works Division of the US Army Corps of Engineers."

It is sadly ironic that the "spiritual 90's" ended in a literal hellfire with millions of acres of Forest Service lands and other public lands being destroyed by fire. These links are a sorry testimony to the need to keep religion out of public lands management and to rely upon scientific management. And, like it or not, man, not other species, must assume responsibility for such management.

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