Forest Service Paid $90K For PR Firm To Promote California Logging Plan

"A San Francisco public relations firm hired to help the U.S. Forest Service sell its controversial logging plan for the Sierra Nevada urged the agency to keep details of its promotional plan hidden from the public, a memo shows.

The Forest Service's hiring of a public relations firm to promote its forestry plan is unusual, if not unprecedented, in the history of the agency. The Forest Service paid the firm, OneWorld Communications, about $90,000 to handle the plan's Jan. 22 unveiling.

The Sierra Nevada forest management plan is the focus of intense controversy between timber interests and environmental groups. The plan will triple the commercial timber harvest in the Sierra Nevada and result in the cutting of larger trees.

In its memo to the Forest Service, OneWorld emphasized that "perception is king," and it urged the agency to simplify the elements of the plan into one clear message: Wildfire hazard reduction around small communities. OneWorld also suggested a catchy slogan for the plan: Forests With a Future. The Forest Service adopted the slogan and other key suggestions outlined in the memo. The memo also urged the Forest Service to keep details of the promotional plan confidential because "members of the public who are not professionals in public relations and marketing might misinterpret certain ideas or concepts." Indeed, agency officials had not discussed the plan until now."

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So, we get to pay up front, pay during the process and pay after the logging's finished - for years and years. Unbelievable.

they are right. I am not a PR professional, and I do find this to be an outrage, but I guess I'm just "misinterpreting certain ideas and concepts." (sarcasm)

Not only did they hire this PR firm, but the condescending attitude, so prevalent in this administration, really steams me.

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