A Giraffe has been sighted in MT |
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In her more than 20 years with the National Forest Service, Gloria Flora stood up for the environment again and again. Whether it was shutting down future oil and gas exploration in the Rocky Mountain Front or protecting threatened trout in Nevada, Flora, at age 44, was a veteran defender of public lands and resources. That's when she quit. In a very public resignation from her job as supervisor of Nevada's Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, Flora sounded an alarm about the harassment of her staff by local anti-government citizens’ groups and the lack of backup they were getting from the Service. She also accused Nevada’s judicial system of being lax in prosecuting violators of environmental laws. Flora’s blast came as the Foresters and conservation advocates were con-fronted by anti-regulation Nevadans over the Service’s refusal to rebuild a washed-out road into a wilderness area that was home to a threatened species of trout. Local politicians and a group calling themselves the Sagebrush Rebels organized protest marches and staged public meetings at which Flora witnessed public insults and threats against herself and her staff. |
The “Rebels” dispatched a bulldozer to the washout site to reopen the road themselves. In local newspapers, Forest Service staffers were called “Nazis” and calls were made to harm them. They and their families were shunned throughout the community. Flora’s protests to the Forest Service and to local law enforcement had produced no assistance for the embattled Foresters so she took the ultimate step to protect the nation’s resources for future generations—she wrote that letter of protest and resignation. Forest Chief Mike Dombeck supported her claims and later resigned himself over the directions being imposed on the Service. Since her resignation, Flora has founded the nonprofit Sustainable Obtainable Solutions (SOS), to promote sustainability on public lands. A frequent speaker on environmental issues, she reports that her host audiences are usually supportive, but she is sometimes harassed and threatened by "Fed-bashers" and has on occasion needed a police escort. Does she regret taking on the anti-conservation forces? “There are risks that are external and some that are internal,” says Gloria Flora. “The worst thing would be looking back on your life and thinking, ‘That was important—I should have taken a stand.’” |
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