Mike Lanasa
Ecosystems Team Leader
Hiawatha National Forest
Escanaba
mlanasa@chartermi.net

Today I arrived at 7:30 to be ready for our bi-weekly Ecosystems Team meeting. Our Team is comprised of 11 people representing wildlife, fisheries, silviculture (growing forests), botany, soils, forest ecology, timber sales, GIS/mapping, and NEPA (National Environmental Protection Act procedures). We coordinate schedules and share what we have been working on and plan to do during the next two weeks. One of the team's main functions is to help integrate the various resource activities that occur on the National Forest. We learn about various projects and ask for assistance from other team members. Today's meeting is fairly short and runs until 9:00. Longer meetings occur when we are working on a special project or need a more detailed discussion. One of today's topics was to develop a strategy to prevent zebra mussels from getting into the inland lakes on the National Forest.

Next for me is a conference call with a panel evaluating candidates for a NEPA Coordinator position. This is a key job because of the highly technical nature and legal ramifications of the process; which is required for all activities done on the National Forest. We previously looked over applications and checked references. The National Forest Service uses a fairly lengthy process to fill vacancies. All candidates must receive get fair and equal consideration. Hiring highly qualified people is probably the most important task that I am involved with. Today we find out that one of the candidates has already accepted another job and another's reference indicated too little NEPA experience. Soon, I set up phone interviews with the remaining candidates.

This afternoon, I attend a Budget Team meeting. This group meets once a month to develop, update, and track our unified budget. Today we are making sure that all personnel have been funded and that we have reduced expenses to match our funding. There will be a need to shift people from areas with reduced funding to areas with available funding. Total funding is down from last year as a result of hurricane relief and the need to reduce the federal deficit. These reductions will affect the amount of contracting, materials and supplies, and seasonal jobs for the year. It will also affect decisions regarding filling new or vacant positions.

The last item on today's schedule is our weekly Forest Leadership Team (FLT) conference call, which includes the District Rangers, the Forest Supervisor, and his primary staff. Each participant will update the rest of the FLT about what is happening with their unit or staff group. I will use this opportunity to get feedback on the Ecosystems Team's zebra mussel strategy. I will also report progress on filling the NEPA Coordinator position. These calls usually run about an hour unless there is a more detailed topic that needs a decision. We have found these calls to be very beneficial. If there is one thing that we fail to do enough of, it is communicating. There are very few tasks or issues that we are individually involved with that do not affect other FLT members.