The forest supervisor's office is located in Vancouver, Washington.

Now the forest supervisor who, as quoted by Mr. Ketchum, "likes the look of a clear cut," will have to go elsewhere for his kicks.

Mr. Mealey became the forest supervisor at Boise in 1991.

Within the Forest Service, authority is assumed to lie with the regional foresters, but may be re-delegated to forest supervisors for single site agreements.

To that end, forest supervisors were asked to develop 15-year management plans for each forest.

Under the Bush proposals, however, these mandatory steps would become optional, left to the discretion of individual forest supervisors.

"We've done an excellent job, quality work on the ground," said Cathy Barbouletos, the local forest supervisor.

Each administrative unit typically comprises several ranger districts, under the overall direction of a forest supervisor.

Each district has a staff of 10 to 100 people under the direction of a district ranger, a line officer who reports to a forest supervisor.

"With all due respect, we oppose this course of action," said 70 forest supervisors in a letter to Mr. Clinton on Friday.