Notes:
Data source is Kevin Blair, 5180 Crispy Drive, Centerville, OH 45440-2203. E-mail kblair@integrity.com
'Brumbaugh Family Genealogy' by Dr. Gaius Marcus Brumbaugh, published 1913
Data source is Rainee Loebs. E-mail ploebs@sbcglobal.net
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The August coup - US Forest Service and timber policy
Paul Rauber
Counterrevolution in the Rockies: The timber industry flexes its muscle.
Finally, the reformers go too far. Meeting in secret, hardline defenders of the old order scheme to preserve the discredited command economy. Then comes the coup--only this time, there is no one to stand on a tank, and the reformers are transferred or fired as the old guard resumes control.
Thus was preserved the umbilical relationship between the U.S. Forest Service and the timber industry, whereby the portion of our national forests available for logging (the "Allowable Sale Quantity," or ASQ) is determined not by environmental considerations, but by the economic desires of the timber companies and the political needs of the western congressional delegation.
In recent years, a few brave Forest Service professionals have revolted, saying that the politically mandated ASQs cannot be met without illegally damaging wildlife, water quality, ancient forests, and biodiversity. In 1990, Northern Rockies Region 1 (which includes 13 national forests in four states) fell 30 percent short of its goal of 1.3 billion board-feet. Congress ordered it to make up the shortfall in 1991, but by the end of the third quarter only 16 percent of the prescribed "annual harvest" had been met.
Region 1's director was John Mumma, a 32-year Forest Service veteran and the first trained biologist ever to hold the job of regional forester. While hardly a blazing environmentalist, Mumma was a stickler for the law. "We have been legislatively required to sell a prescribed amount of timber," he testified to Congress last September, "but we have also been told that we have to comply with environmental and other laws. I have done everything I can to meet all of my targets. I have failed to reach the quotas only because to do so would have required me to violate federal law."
The timber companies and their allies in Congress were apoplectic. In a May 23 letter, Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) sternly reprimanded Forest Service Chief Dale Robertson. "Dale, I am very disappointed with the Forest Service's accomplishment and accountability for timber outputs in Idaho and the nation as a whole," he wrote. "You have serious management problems that must be addressed. It is my hope you will move to assure targets are met and line officers are held accountable." Craig's complaints were echoed by Senator Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and Representative Ron Marlenee (R-Mont.).
The political heat being directed at the Forest Service is a result of the severe overcutting of private woodlands in the northern Rockies. (From the air, western Montana and northern Idaho look like checkerboards, forested areas alternating with clearcut land belonging to Plum Creek and other giant timber companies.) Having exhausted its own resources, the timber industry expects the Forest Service to increase the cut on the public lands, and is outraged when it does not.
John Mumma proved to be a convenient scapegoat. In June, western timber executives traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with Robertson's boss, Secretary of Agriculture Edward Madigan. They wanted the hide of either the Forest Service chief or Mumma. Madigan chose the troublesome regional forester. On August 23, Mumma was called to a meeting at the Denver airport with a Forest Service superior, Associate Chief George Leonard. The meeting lasted only ten minutes; Mumma was offered a desk job in Washington or resignation. A week later, he resigned as "a matter of principle."
At the same time, the Forest Service sought to muzzle critics outside its own ranks. Among the largest roadblocks to timber sales in Region 1 (and elsewhere) are the administrative appeals filed by environmentalists; Forest Service Deputy Chief James Overbay suggested solving this problem by forbidding such appeals. "When we make a decision [on] a timber sale, we need to stick to it and not reexamine it," he said.
Sierra Club Montana Chapter Chair James Conner called for Overbay's dismissal, charging that the Forest Service was becoming "a Stalinesque bureaucracy that is contemptuous of the demands of fair play and the rule of law in a democracy." The Forest Service's problem with the appeals, says Sierra Club Northern Plains Staff Director Larry Mehlhaff, is that "we keep winning them. And we win them because they're breaking the law."
On September 24, the House Civil Service Subcommittee, chaired by Gerry Sikorski (D-Minn.), took up the Mumma affair. "I'm here with a heavy heart," Mumma said as he began his account, "a heart that's in shock at what's happening in the national forests."
The subcommittee also heard from Lorraine Mintzmeyer, the embattled director of the Rocky Mountain Region of the National Park Service. Mintzmeyer's sin was overseeing production of a "vision document" on the future of Yellowstone National Park and its surrounding ecosystem that included mild calls for natural-resource protection. Moderate as it was, Mintzmeyer's draft was attacked by Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson (R), as well as by White House Chief of Staff John Sununu, who declared it a "disaster." Mintzmeyer testified that Scott Sewell, a political appointee at the Interior Department, told her that he was going to rewrite the report "to retain the appearance that the document was the product of professional and scientific efforts by the agencies involved, but that in reality the document would be reversed based on strictly political concerns." Mintzmeyer objected, and was reassigned to Philadelphia.
"Civil servants must be allowed to do their jobs without the undue influence of the monied and the powerful and fear of political reprisal," said Sikorski, whose subcommittee is continuing its investigation. "We will get the truth."
Despite the scandal it provoked, the recent head-rolling in the Rockies made its point. "This was a way of crushing dissent very openly," says Sierra Club Washington, D.C., lobbyist Jim Blomquist. "I think industry likes the fact that it was so public: When you can do that and get away with it, it shows how powerful you really are."
COPYRIGHT 1992 Sierra Magazine
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group
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John Walter Mumma died Sept. 1, 2022, following a long bout with multiple myeloma cancer. He died at home with his wife Myra holding his hand. It was their 46th wedding anniversary.
John was born in Farmington, New Mexico, on Sept. 30, 1939 to Richard Marion Mumma and Luita Lavina Dufur Mumma.
He graduated from Farmington High School where he played high school sports. He especially enjoyed tennis. In 2020 he was inducted into the Farmington Scorpion Hall of Fame. He attended Ft. Lewis College in Durango, Colorado with three scholarships of Merit, Athletics and Music.
John graduated from the University of New Mexico, attended Oregon State University and Colorado State University. He worked summers for the San Juan National Forest Service in Durango while coaching football, wrestling and tennis at Miller Middle School. He was hired at the Pagosa Springs Job Corps on the San Juan National Forest which started a 40-year career in natural resources.
During those 40 years, John served as the Range and Wildlife sub staff assistant in the San Juan National Forest Supervisor's office in Durango, Colorado; Assistant Ranger position on the Collbran Ranger District of the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests; Snow Ranger at Powder Mountain Ski Area; Range and Wildlife sub staff on the Apache National Forest in Springerville, Arizona; Fisheries and Wildlife staff to the Southwest Regional Office; District Ranger at the Cloudcroft Ranger District on the Lincoln National Forest; Resource staff for Timber, Range, Wildlife and Fire on the Shoshone National Forest in Cody Wyoming; Director of Wildlife and Fisheries for the Intermountain Region, Ogden, Utah and from there to the Rocky Mountain Region in Denver as head of Range, Wildlife, Fisheries and Ecology. He then transferred to the National Office in Washington, D.C. on the Programs and Legislation staff. In 1987 he was reassigned to the Northern Region located in Missoula, Montana, as Deputy Regional Forester. That same year he was promoted to Regional Forester.
Four years before retirement eligibility he separated from the Forest Service due to requirements of the Senior Service Executive Act. It was a time of much controversy for the Forest Service and especially the Northern Region.
He was a natural resource consultant for four years and in 1995 was named Director of the Colorado Division of Wildlife headquartered in Denver, Colorado.
John was proud of his accomplishments and awards. He received the Aldo Leopold Medal from the Wildlife Society. He was awarded the Superior Service Award from the Secretary of Agriculture, the Conservation Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation, and the Ernest Thomas Seton Award from the 50 State Fish and Wildlife Agencies for having the outstanding fish and wildlife leadership program.
When he was on the Shoshone he proposed a land stratification for grizzly habitat in the Greater Yellowstone Area that would help provide for grizzly recovery. And he served on the Interagency Grizzly Bear (IGBC) Committee for nearly half his natural resource career.
As Director of the Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW) he spearheaded the purchase of over 100,000 acres of wetland habitat. After retiring from the CDOW the Governor of Colorado named a native fish hatchery and recovery facility after him. The facility is the John W. Mumma Aquatic Native Research and Hatchery located in the San Luis Valley and is the only one of its kind in the United States.
John also had a hand in the acquisition of the Bosque del Apache elk habit in southern Colorado. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation recognized him for several elk habitat projects in both Montana and Colorado.
After the historic 1988 wildland fire season in which every National Forest had a project fire and the Greater Yellowstone complex had nearly a million acres burned, the firefighters recognized him for his outstanding leadership during that historic fire season.
John was selected as the chairman for developing and implementing the Congressional Designated Chief Joseph National Historic Trail (the Nee Mee Poo Trail of Tears).
While he was proud of acknowledgments and awards, there was a greater influence. He and his best friend and wife of 46 years took great pleasure in spending time outdoors with their children and grandchildren. Countless field trips were taken from the Colorado and Wyoming mountains to Canada and to the Kenai in Alaska. He passed on knowledge of plants and wildlife that is now being taught to his great-grandchildren. He always beamed at the text messages with pictures and videos.
John was predeceased by his parents and sister Joyce. He is survived by two children, Rainee (Pete) Loebs and Johnny Lance Mumma, as well as two stepchildren, Marette Riley and Chris Nielsen. The couple boasts of eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. John's ashes will be interred at Greenmount Cemetery in Durango, Colorado. Memorial plans are pending.
Published by Missoulian on Sep. 11, 2022.