“Its an interesting job, to say the least.”

Anthony Scardina, Bradford District Ranger of the Allegheny
National Forest, presented “Managing Competing Interests on the
Allegheny National Forest” to about a dozen people Thursday
night.

The presentation and discussion, held in the Mukaiyama
University Room at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, gave
an insight on the many issues that Scardina deals with every day
with his work in the ANF.

Scardina, in his sixth month in the ANF and third year with the
U.S. Forest Service, discussed how managing a national forest
revolves around a handful of interests that are often
competing.

The laws, regulations and policies along with environmental,
social, economic and political benefits cannot all win out every
time.

“A lot of the competing interest groups has assumed that every
benefit should be in every acre,” Scardina said, continuing that in
any given acre “one benefit may trump another.”

The Forest Service’s mission statement is “caring for the land
and serving the people,” two ideas that are often conflicting. The
approach is a utilitarian one, putting the greatest good for the
greatest number above the special interest groups, Scardina
explained.

Scardina explained the ability to keep up with the needs of the
forests are being hindered by the increased funding going to the
war.

“We used to be able to do everything,” he said. The forest
services now have to pick and chose where they invest their
funds.

“As budget gets tight, I would rather do a few things really
well and maybe have to close a few campsites,” Scardina explained,
rather than have all the campgrounds open and poorly
maintained.

Scardina had experience with national forests in California
before coming back to Pennsylvania – he grew up in the Pittsburgh
area – and said “in terms of uniqueness, nothing is even close” to
the ANF.

A lot of the issues on the ANF come from the fact the government
owns the surface, but it only owns about 7 percent of the
subsurface, which includes the oil and natural gas deposits.

Most of the national forests were purchased in the early 1900s,
under laws the government owned both the surface and subsurface.
But when the ANF was purchased in the 1920s, the laws did not
include the subsurface rights, he said.

“The best thing to do is for us to just work together,” Scardina
said of the national forest service and the owners of the ANF
subsurface.

Scardina explained that things are getting better, but he would
still like the two groups to “stop the bickering,” citing the
arguing takes time and resources away from other areas of the
ANF.