Allan Fitzsimmons
Wildlands Fuels Coordinator, Department of the Interior

Then: Fitzsimmons has built a career around questioning the very concept of ecosystem management. While an aide to the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks in 1986, Fitzsimmons wrote a memo suggesting that "public recreational benefit is the principal reason for conserving natural features."

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After leaving the public sector in 1992, Fitzsimmons formed a consulting firm, Balanced Resource Solutions, and began writing extensively for conservative think-tanks and free-market groups. In one 1999 paper, published by the Political Economy Research Center, Fitzsimmons declared that "The main problem is that ecosystems are not real... Ecosystems are only mental constructs, not real, discrete, or living things on the landscape. The second problem is that even if they were real, we have no idea of what their 'health' or 'integrity' might mean."

Now: Fitzsimmons is the administration's wildfire czar, in charge of implementing the president's 'Healthy Forests Initiative.' That program, of course, is predicated on the belief that "deteriorated forest and rangeland conditions significantly affect people, property, and ecosystem health."

© 2003 The Foundation for National Progress

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