U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell last week formally withdrew a proposal that would have established guidelines on how the agency’s land management decisions impact groundwater. The groundwater directive would have required the Forest Service to account for how surface uses such as wells and mines would affect groundwater and groundwater-dependent ecosystems.  If potential harm were discovered, the agency would work with forest users to mitigate those impacts.  The proposed groundwater directive was unveiled in May 2014 and had sparked criticism from Republicans and Western governors who argued it could usurp states' authority to allocate water.  In the agency’s notice of withdrawal, which appeared in the June 19th edition of the Federal Register, the Forest Service acknowledged that further discussions with stakeholder were needed, but deemed the concerns that were raised against the directive as unfounded.