If Bill Maxey was holding his breath about not being confirmed as the State Forester by the new Underwood Administration, many environmentalists were also. It had been over a year.

He was a reasonable, fair and patient man. He was not our man; but he was his own man, who had somehow picked up the responsible role of stewardship that may simply go with his title, "State Forester." It was as though there was an oath of office -- with all those nice sentiments about our forest heritage, and he swore to uphold and protect, and safeguard these. He did try to do a lot of good things, in a pretty tough time.

With such a great presence of big industrial forestry in West Virginia today, the new appointment may be pro-industry. It is really a fearsome prospect; but with the widespread citizen regard for our forests today, perhaps a wise appointment will be made -- one not then so troublesome or so really disgraceful.

Bill Maxey served well, ennobling his office. He listened well; was always a gentleman; and careful with promises for he intended to keep them. He argued well; tried to teach for he had so much information to impart. Specifically he said early on (without condemning the practice) there would be (nearly) no clearcutting on State Forests. With that sensational conflict out of the way, more substantial aspects of forest management and logging could be discussed in a less confrontational forum and climate. We could discuss preservation, recovery and multiple-use, etc. - with mutual enlightenment, if not agreement. He defended traditional forestry admirably.

Forestry is a justifiable proud tradition in so many cases, and being "traditional" does not necessarily mean it is not up to date. However a reverence for it must allow for reassessment. This is what the best foresters are being challenged to do today. Even "timber is a renewable resource" is not everywhere true. There are a number of very early, little examined precepts to be reexamined. Bill Maxey, like only few others, might have led foresters, and us all through this to put the science updated on as firm a footing as possible. Who but foresters could be expected to lead? We will certainly need their help. This is a timely and very important task still, and I hope Bill Maxey will somehow help.

Why would the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy write something nice about a man we took to court -- a group he has given up talking with? I call him patient, others call him stubborn. Not all agree with me. All know we could have done worse. All must credit him, if he did not prepare a plan for the state forest system, he did prepare "Guidelines" for individual state forest plans. He did this on very limited resources. The fuzzy, amorphous guidelines of the past, as they existed, were thoughtfully and comprehensively polished and presented.

The West Virginia Highlands Conservancy was allowed to participate in some discussions about these guidelines, but public review of the final draft was not allowed. He has caused these state forest plans subsequently to pop up now and again. His Division has circulated several State Forest Plans and now have requested citizen comments on these plans. While this all sounds good, some Forest Plans are very poor with too much timbering. It does make information available to the citizen that was not there before.

Bill Maxey’s next achievement was the timber inventory. Our conscientious State Forestry field people, who were busy enforcing best management practices and training loggers, also began making inventories of timber supplies. They and Bill Maxey began to say we are growing only 3 times more board feet than we are cutting. West Virginia may run out of timber. Heroically, they said supplies never have been lower and they are decreasing rapidly. He advised the state Economic Development people that West Virginia did not need any more log mills.

This division did this on their own. They did not have to get the inventory data. They were expected to stick their head in the sand, so none of us would know what was going on. They got the needed data in to know what they were talking about -- and they did it on their own. Also as they released these figures it became clear to all that this courageous division considered themselves to be the defenders of the forest. They did this repeatedly.

Bill Maxey kept us informed and managed pretty well to do what was needed. It may be that if we were to save our forests all we would have to do was to support him and his division. Don’t we all wish this were so! For a little time perhaps it was. Thank you for trying, Bill Maxey.