Jim Furnish, a retired deputy chief of the Forest Service who helped craft protections for tens of millions of acres of roadless areas in national forests, died Saturday at his home in New Mexico. He was 79.
Furnish’s 34-year career with the Forest Service culminated with his elevation to deputy chief for the national forest system in 1999. He developed a reputation as a critic of the agency’s timber harvest policies, arguing that more effort should be made to conserve relatively untouched landscapes.
He was a primary author of the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule that the Clinton administration finalized in its final days in office, blocking road construction and logging on more than 50 million acres of national forests.
Unlike some Forest Service retirees who step back from the public eye, Furnish increased his visibility after leaving the agency in 2002, pushing for more restrained logging practices throughout the forest system, including allowing previously logged areas more time to grow back.
