Another Burden for Taxpayers to Bear

For an agency run with all the professionalism and decorum of Disney's Country Bear Jamboree, it's probably altogether fitting that visitors to the Washington headquarters of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) be greeted in the lobby by a life-sized animatronic model of Smokey the Bear, commissioned by the Clinton administration at a cost to taxpayers of $55,000.

The perfect (if inadvertent) personification of the agency it fronts, the mechanical bear sits behind a desk, feet propped up, hat tipped back, eyes shifting nervously and mechanically spouting the same trite slogan -- "Remember, only you can prevent forest fires" -- that over decades has had the effect of helping to turn vast expanses of public forest into wildfire-prone tinderboxes, as events last summer demonstrate. The USFS recently amended Smokey's message in belated recognition of the sometimes-beneficial role fire can play in maintaining forest health, so he now says in advertisements: "Remember, only you can prevent wildfires"

But the Smokey in the USFS' lobby apparently didn't get the word and mechanically repeats the old message. That's because the toy "represents the historic Smokey," according to a USFS spokesman who declined to be identified. "So he's saying the appropriate message for the historic setting that he's in" Got that?

"I get concerned when people focus on the costs involved because the benefits of what this will bring far outweigh the $55,000," said the spokesman. And exactly what "benefits" accrue from having an amusement-park bear in the USFS lobby, we asked? The spokesman huffily cut the conversation off, mumbling something about not normally being responsible for fielding the agency's mechanical-bear inquiries.

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