Forest Service pick has little forestry experience

The post of U.S. Forest Service director has always been held by someone with a background in forestry, but President Obama's nominee for the job has little experience in the field. Homer Lee Wilkes is a conservationist who holds degrees in business administration and urban conservation.

"If confirmed by the Senate," writes Jeff Barnard of the Associated Press, "Wilkes will face a list of tough national forest issues: the growing costs and threat of wildfire in a warming climate, widespread insect infestations killing wide swaths of pine forest, battles over putting millions of acres of roadless areas off-limits to logging, and whether to keep paying subsidies to rural timber counties." (Read more)