Greg Aplet
Forest Ecologist 
The Wilderness Society

Greg Aplet joined the staff of The Wilderness Society's Ecology and Economics Research Department as forest ecologist in December 1991. He has been part of the Society's reviews of federal land management planning initiatives throughout the country, including conservation plans for the northern spotted owl, the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project, and the National Fire Plan. Most of Greg's work has focused on ecosystem management and the conservation of biological diversity and forest ecosystem health, including co-editing Defining Sustainable Forestry (Island Press 1993) and co-authoring Salvage Logging in the National Forests: An Ecological, Economic, and Legal Assessment (The Wilderness Society 1996) and "Wilderness Ecosystems" in the recently revised 3rd edition of Wilderness Management (Fulcrum Press 2002). Greg's background includes a B.S. in Forestry (1981) and an M.S. in Wildland Resource Science (1983) from the University of California, Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Forest Ecology (1987) from Colorado State University. His research includes studies of the dynamics of Rocky Mountain and Hawaiian forests, the ecology of biological invasions, and the conservation of biological diversity.

Arthur "Butch" Blazer 
New Mexico State Forester

Arthur "Butch" Blazer, New Mexico State Forester, is a member of the Mescalero Apache Tribe. Elected to the tribal council in 1998, he served on the Executive Committee as Treasurer until the end of his 2nd term in 2002. Prior to his State appointment, Blazer held the position of Director of Planning and Development for the Tribe, working on several economic and social initiatives, including the development of a tribal fish hatchery. Blazer, 50, carries a 27-year career with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to his new position with state government. With the BIA, he served in the capacity of a Range Specialist, the Albuquerque Area Natural Resources Manager, and as Agency Superintendent on two different reservations. In 1983, he co-founded the Native American Fish & Wildlife Society (NAFWS), an organization now comprised of 230 member tribes and Alaskan villages; Blazer served as the President of NAFWS from 1997-2000. Recently, he was elected as Interim President of the newly established Southwestern Tribal Fish Commission. A graduate of New Mexico State University, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture in 1975.

Todd Brinkmeyer
President/Owner of Plummer Forest Products first exclusive small log sawmill in Idaho, operating since June 2001 Plummer Forest Products also operates a 5 megawatt biomass to energy plant in Plummer

Prior to Plummer Forest Products Todd Brinkmeyer was the Vice President of operations at Riley Creek Lumber Company in Laclede Idaho a large log sawmill operating in North Idaho

Graduated Washington State University 1988

Perry J. Brown 
Dean and professor, School of Forestry 
Director of the Montana Forest and Conservation Experiment Station University of Montana-Missoula

Dr. Brown is Dean and professor, School of Forestry, and Director of the Montana Forest and Conservation Experiment Station, at the University of Montana-Missoula. He has considerable expertise in natural resource social science, policy and planning, in recreation behavior and planning, and in wilderness studies. His Ph.D. is from Utah State University and emphasized outdoor recreation and social psychology. A life-long westerner, he has served on the faculties of Utah State University, Colorado State University, and Oregon State University in addition to his current assignment in Montana. He has served in formal advisory appointments with both the USDA Forest Service and the USDI Bureau of Land Management. Currently he is the Past-President of the National Association of Professional Forestry Schools and Colleges (NAPFSC), and he served as a member of the National Research Council Committee on Forestry Research Capacity and chair of the Pinchot Institute's National Panel on Wilderness Stewardship. He is a member of the executive/advisory boards of NAPFSC, the International Union for Forest Research Organizations, the Consortium for International Development (a consortium of 10 western universities), the Center for the Rocky Mountain West, the Western Rural Development Center, the Ecosystem Management Research Institute (a private non-profit research institute), and he chairs the Executive Committee of the Rocky Mountains Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit. He has published over 100 scientific papers, books, and book chapters and graduated 47 masters and 11 Ph.D. students.

ARTHUR R. "BUD" CLINCH 
Director 
Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation

Programs of the DNRC include: water rights, water projects, the reserved water rights compact commission, the board of oil and gas conservation, conservation districts, trust land management of 5.2 million acres, forest fire protection, timber management, and forest practices regulation. He is currently the president of the Missouri River Basin Association.

From 1993 to 1995 Bud was Commissioner of the Montana Department of State Lands and from 1982 to 1993 he worked on behalf of the Montana Logging Association

Under Bud's direction, the Association became a leader nationwide in the development, education, and implementation of voluntary Best Management Practices (BMPs). These efforts have earned him recognition from a host of affiliates including the American Pulpwood Association's National Safety Award, the Flathead National Forest's Danny On Conservation Award, the U.S. EPA's Outstanding Achievement Award, and the Montana Wood Products Association's Timberman of the Year.

Education: Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry Management with major emphasis in Forest Recreation, University of Montana

Personal Interests: Extensive back-country travel experience (at least once per year). Travel on horseback, camping, and hunting, particularly in remote areas.

Wally Covington 
Professor of Forest Ecology 
Northern Arizona University

Wally Covington is Regents' Professor of Forest Ecology at Northern Arizona University where he has taught ecological restoration, fire ecology and ecosystem management since 1975. Having come to NAU after finishing his Ph.D. in forestry at Yale, he immediately embarked upon a lifelong research program to discover ways in which to restore forest ecosystem health, especially in ponderosa pine and related dry forest types of the West. The results of his work have been published in a wide array of academic journals including Science, Nature, Ecology, Restoration Ecology, Forest Science, Conservation Biology, and the Journal of Forestry. Dr. Covington frequently presents testimony on forest health and fire management before Congress and has worked closely with Washington Office, Regional and local natural resource leaders from the mid 1980s to the present. He chaired the Society for Ecological Restoration's Science and Policy Working Group from its formation until he went on sabbatical in 2000. He is a member of the National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry, as well as the Society of American Foresters, the Ecological Society of America, and numerous other professional scientific and conservation organizations.

Carol Daly
Flathead Economic Policy Center 
Columbia Falls, MT

Carol has been working since 1988 to help communities and individuals deal with the economic, social, and environmental impacts of changes in natural resource management policies. In 1994, she organized the Flathead Economic Policy Center, a non-profit corporation whose main focus is collaborative stewardship forestry. FEPC has facilitated several stewardship demonstration projects, and currently also administers a hazardous fuels reduction program on private lands. Carol has a B.A. from Bennington College and, in addition to her community forestry work, has extensive experience in agriculture, manufacturing, aviation, and economic and community development. She is president of the Communities Committee of the Seventh American Forest Congress, a member of the National Network of Forest Practitioners and the Society of American Foresters, and a participant in the Flathead Forestry Project.

Rick DeIaco 
Director of Forestry 
Village of Ruidoso, New Mexico

Rick DeIaco is the Director of Forestry for the Village of Ruidoso, Lincoln County, New Mexico. Rick received his B.S. in Natural Resource Management from Penn State University in 1978. He worked for the US Forest Service in Arizona and Idaho in fire, timber sales and fuels management. In 1998 he moved to New Mexico and started Timber Managers, a private forest management company until joining the Village in 2000.

Thomas France 
Director and Counsel 
Northern Rockies Office, National Wildlife Federation

As the Director of the National Wildlife Federation's Northern Rockies Office, Tom is responsible for NWF programs that cover wolf and grizzly bear recovery and grassland conservation in the intermountain West. In addition to his skills as an attorney, Tom's work focuses on important collaborative projects with conservationists, industry leaders, private landowners and government officials

Tom received his B.A. in History/Political Science and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Montana. After working on coal and energy issues with the Northern Plains and Powder River Resource Councils, Tom established NWF's Northern Rockies Office in 1981. He also supervises the natural resource clinic program run in cooperation with The University of Montana School of Law, sits on the board of the Five Valleys Land Trust and coaches youth hockey in Missoula.

Over the years, Tom has participated on the Advisory Committee to the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment on coal leasing and the Hydro Assessment Steering Committee of the Northwest Power Planning Council. He is a past member of the Montana Environmental Quality Council and the Governors Yellowstone Grizzly Bear roundtable. Locally, Tom has chaired the Missoula Solid Waste Task Force and served on the advisory roundtable of former Mayor Dan Kemmis. Tom has been involved campaigns to restore wolves to the Rockies, reintroduce grizzlies to the Selway-Bitterroot and to reform hard rock mining in the West. Tom was lead counsel in Montana Environmental Information Center v. Dept. of Environmental Quality, which established a fundamental right to a clean and healthful environment for Montana residents and National Wildlife Federation v. Dept. of Environmental Quality, which required the full reclamation of hard rock mines, including open pits.

Michael T. Goergen, Jr. 
Executive Vice President 
Society of American Foresters

Michael Goergen was appointed Executive Vice President of the 17,000 member Society of American Foresters on May 22, 2003. As the Chief Executive Officer, he leads the SAF team publishing the Journal of Forestry and the Forestry Source, is involved in outreach to local units of the organization, university accreditation, forester certification, and the annual convention of the SAF and several other continuing education programs. Michael is also involved in the organization's forest policy work and represents the professional society before Congress, the Executive Branch, and state governments, articulating the profession's responses to USDA Forest Service and USDI Bureau of Land Management initiatives, and developing and coordinating position statements, briefing materials, Congressional testimony, and member involvement in policy development on a variety of natural resource issues. Michael has been instrumental in a number of legislative successes including authorizing stewardship contracting on the national forests, and the forestry title of the 2002 Farm Bill. Michael serves as a national spokesperson with the media, and he has authored or participated in a number of SAF papers including discussions of EPA's TMDL initiative, tax reforms for forestry, wildfire, and communities and forests. He has also published scholarly articles in the Journal of Forestry. Prior to joining the staff of the SAF in 1996, Michael was a research associate in the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Environmental Science and Forestry, a policy analyst with the USDA Forest Service in Washington, DC, and an intern in the White House Office on Environmental Policy. 

Michael graduated from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Policy and Management and a Master of Science degree in Forest Resource Policy and Management. Michael is Vice President of the Communities Committee, a diverse group of people from across the United States who believe local participation in stewardship of natural resources is critical to both forest ecosystem health and community well-being. Michael is the recipient of both the National Association of State Foresters Award for Outstanding Service in Forest Public Policy, and the Society of American Foresters' Young Forester Leadership Award.

Jim Hubbard 
Colorado State Forester

--Colorado State Forester 18 years --Current Chair, Council of Western State Foresters --State Foresters Liaison to National Fire Plan --Chaired Colorado Governor Owens' Wildland Urban Interface Working Group --Hosted Colorado Conference on Forest Health --Survived Colorado's 2002 Wildfire Season

Jay Jensen
Western Forestry Leadership Coalition
Legislative & Policy Director

Jay Jensen has worked legislative and policy issues over the past five-years in varying capacities for a number of interest groups and governing bodies, focusing primarily on forestry. In June 2001, Jay became the Legislative & Policy Director for the Western Forestry Leadership Coalition (www.WFLCcenter.org), a federal-state partnership of land managers throughout the west based in Denver, Colorado. Focusing strongly on USDA Forest Service State & Private Forestry programs, Jay has engaged in Farm Bill reauthorization, National Fire Plan implementation and appropriation issues. Prior to this, Jay served as Professional Staff on the House Committee on Agriculture for the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, DC as the lead forestry contact. There he worked with members of Congress on a number of issues including Canadian softwood lumber, the Farm Bill, and general oversight of the USDA Forest Service. 

Jay got his feet wet in the Washington, DC political landscape with the National Association of State Foresters (www.stateforesters.org) in 1998. Starting as their Legislative Assistant, he elevated to become the lead Policy Analyst during his three-year tenure, tackling such contentious issues as EPA's Total Maximum Daily Load rule addressing water quality. Jay holds an undergraduate degree in biology and geography from University of California at Los Angeles that he earned in 1993. He is currently enrolled in the Masters program at Colorado State University where work on a forestry degree is ongoing.

BRIAN KAHN 
Director, Artemis Common Ground 
Host, Home Ground Radio

Brian Kahn's diverse background includes: Cal Berkeley boxing coach, county supervisor (Sonoma County, CA), lawyer, President of the California Fish and Game Commission, candidate for U.S. Congress, Director of the Montana Nature Conservancy. His writings on conservation and politics have been published in The Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, Moscow News, Northern Lights. Brian collaborated with Russian political commentator Vladimir Pozner on Parting With Illusions (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989), which was ten weeks on the New York Times best seller list.

In the mid-80s, he wrote and produced "A Thousand Cranes", a documentary film depicting American-Soviet efforts to save the Siberian crane from extinction. A parable about the threat of human extinction posed by the nuclear arms race, the film won international awards and was screened at the Smithsonian and United Nations.

Brian is President of the Montana-based Artemis Wildlife Foundation and directs Artemis Common Ground, which supports community-based conservation efforts that address human, economic and environmental needs. He also hosts the award-winning weekly NPR public affairs program, "Home Ground: Changes and Choices in the American West". Brian is a Board Member of Conservation Beef®, a market-based landscape conservation effort that pays ranchers a premium price for beef cattle of exceptional quality raised with high environmental standards. He serves as a member of the Red Lodge Clearinghouse Working Group. Brian is a recipient of the Chevron Conservation Award.

He, his wife, fine arts painter Sandra Dal Poggetto, and their son, Dylan, live in Helena, Montana.

Jake Kreilick 
Project Coordinator 
National Forest Protection Alliance

Jake Kreilick works for the National Forest Protection Alliance as Project Coordinator for America's 10 Endangered National Forest report, and is based in Missoula, Montana. He has worked on national and international forest issues and campaigns for the past 18 years. In 1991, Kreilick founded the Native Forest Network, an international temperate forest network, with two Australian forest activists and still serves on its Board of Directors.

Jake graduated with an M.S. from the University of Montana's Environmental Studies Program in 1990 and also received an B.A. in History from Wittenberg University.

Mr. Kreilick has worked extensively on forest protection issues and campaigns within the Northern Rockies, across the national forest system and around the world. He currently serves on a national steering committee focused on implementing ecological restoration across all forest ownerships. Kreilick worked as a tree planter for five years on the Kootenai National Forest and now owns 26 acres in Upper Grant Creek outside Missoula where he is engaged in creating defensible space around the structures and preparing the property for prescribed burning.

Nathaniel S.W. Lawrence 
Director, Forestry Project 
Natural Resources Defense Council

Niel Lawrence is the director of the Forestry Project at the Natural Resources Defense Council. He received his undergraduate degree summa cum laude from the University of Oregon in 1983. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1986, he was appointed an Assistant Attorney General in Massachusetts, where he specialized in environmental enforcement, land use issues, wetlands protection, and "regulatory takings" law.

Since joining NRDC in 1989, Mr. Lawrence has worked principally on conservation of federal forestlands -- including old growth, biodiversity, "forest health," terrestrial wildlife, water quality, and wildlands issues -- through administrative proceedings, the media, Congress, the courts, and Executive Branch advocacy. He oversees NRDC's efforts to save wildlands and wildlife on national forests in the Interior West, Alaska, Sierra Nevada, and elsewhere.

Mr. Lawrence works closely with prominent members of the scientific community and has represented the Society for Conservation Biology and the American Institute of Biological Sciences as amici curiae in federal court.

Matthew McKinney, Ph.D. 
Executive Director 
Montana Consensus Council

Matthew McKinney is the Executive Director of the Montana Consensus Council. The Council is a small public organization designed to help citizens and officials build agreement and resolve disputes on natural resource and other tough public issues. The Council is administratively attached to the Office of the Governor, and is governed by a Board of Directors. Matthew has spent the last 18 years designing, coordinating, and evaluating collaborative processes related to federal land management, water policy, fish and wildlife, land use planning and growth management, public health and human services, and a variety of other public issues. He received a Ph.D. in Natural Resource Policy and Conflict Resolution from The University of Michigan; has published numerous articles in journals and books; and teaches seminars, academic courses, and workshops on natural resource policy and public dispute resolution. He is a research fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; a faculty associate at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy; an adjunct professor at The University of Montana's School of Law; and a partner with the Consensus Building Institute. Matthew lives with his wife Joanne and three daughters in Helena, Montana.

Kevin M. Moran
Washington D.C. Office Director
Western Governors' Association

Kevin M. Moran, an attorney and former Capitol Hill legislative counsel specializing in energy and natural resources policy, is the Washington D.C. Office Director of the Western Governors' Association. Moran served from 1997 to 2002 as a legislative assistant, and later as legislative counsel to U.S. Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, focusing on energy policy; water rights; environmental policy, public land management; agricultural policy; private property rights; urban growth; transportation policy and Native American policy. Previously he worked as an attorney in Phoenix, Arizona. Moran served as a paratrooper in both the U.S. Army and U.S. Army Reserve, including tours with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Night Stalkers) and the 10th and 12th Special Forces Groups. He graduated with honors from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1990, and received his Juris Doctor in 1993 from the University of Notre Dame. He is a member of the American Legion and a founding director of the State Society of Arizona. In 1995 he served as a recorder for Arizona Town Hall.

Cassandra Moseley 
Director of Research and Policy at the Ecosystem Workforce Program University of Oregon

Cass is the Director of Research and Policy at the Ecosystem Workforce Program. Housed at the University of Oregon, the EWP seeks to create a high-skill, high-wage ecosystem management industry in the Pacific Northwest West by working with rural communities and government agencies and through action research. For nearly a decade, Cass has been helping build natural resource partnerships and linking rural development and environmental restoration in Oregon. Prior to joining EWP, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida and Program Development Director at the Rogue Institute for Ecology and Economy in Ashland, Oregon. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University.

THOMAS C. O'HALLERAN 
State Representative, Legislative District 1 
State of Arizona

1998 - 2000 Natural Resource Coordinator, Verde Valley Cities and Towns 1995 - 1998 Retired 1993 - 1995 Space Management Programs Consultant 1991 - 1993 Chicago Board of Trade, Project Manager 1978 - 1991 Member Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) 1966 - 1978 City of Chicago Police Department Police Officer Attended DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois

Peg Polichio 
National Fire Plan Coordinator 
Idaho Department of Lands/Idaho National Forests

Peg Polichio is the National Fire Plan Coordinator for the Idaho Department of Lands and for the Idaho National Forests, and, on behalf of the Idaho Department of Lands, serves as the Chair for the Idaho State Fire Plan Working Group. Peg is a forester, silviculturist and fire management officer with 25 years of experience in land management. She is a career Forest Service employee, currently serving in a shared position between the Idaho Department of Lands and the Forest Service.

Bill Possiel 
President 
National Forest Foundation

Bill Possiel has served as President of the National Forest Foundation (NFF) since 1998. He has conducted conservation activities in the Caribbean and South America, as well as in the U.S., and prior to joining the NFF served as Vice President and Western Regional Director for The Nature Conservancy (TNC).

In 1989 Mr. Possiel initiated one of TNC's first large-scale conservation projects on the Big Darby Watershed in Ohio, and successfully completed the Ohio&Let's Save the Best to Last capital campaign. In February 1990 he established TNC's Brazil program, developing partnerships focused on conservation of the Atlantic Forest, Pantanal, Cerrado, Caatinga, and the Amazon, and successfully completed the Brasil Verde capital campaign. He negotiated acquisitions that resulted in doubling the size of the Pantanal National Park and in 1992 negotiated the first debt-for-nature swap in Brazil. As TNC's Montana State Director, Mr. Possiel worked with staff and trustees to create a strategic focus for TNC's Montana program, resulting in community-based programs with greater conservation impact. He also worked with teams to develop strategies for TNC's Latin America and Caribbean Division, Canada Program, and served on the Conservation Committee, helping to define a new strategic direction for the Conservancy called Conservation by Design.

Mr. Possiel graduated from Kean College of New Jersey with a Bachelor of Science in Management Science in 1974, received a second B.S. from the School of Forestry at Oregon State University with honors and went on to receive his M.A. in Anthropology from Oregon State with a graduate fellowship. In 1996 he completed the Stanford Executive Program in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.

Donna J Sevalstad 
County Commissioner 
Beaverhead County

Donna J Sevalstad is currently serving her second term as Beaverhead County Commissioner. Donna holds a Degree from University of Montana Western in Business Management. A degree she earned while working as a "Head Sawyer" for F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Company at night and attending college during the day.

Donna is a member of the National Forest Counties and Schools Coalition and serves as the Montana Forest Counties Coalition Chairman. The coalition is made up of organizations concerned about National Forest and BLM Forest Land Management, and the relationship of these lands to the people. Health and productivity of forest lands is directly tied to healthy rural communities. She also serves as a member of the Montana Multi-Agency Fire Hazard Mitigation Committee, and as a member of the Montana Association of Counties Public Lands Committee.

Sandy Shaffer 
Applegate Partnership/Applegate Fire Plan

A relative newcomer to Southern Oregon, Sandy Shaffer and Don, her husband of 28 years, moved to the Applegate Valley four years ago. After building their dream home on twenty acres of forested land, she became involved in land management issues, and quickly became a Board member of the Applegate Partnership. Sandy's past resume included over twenty years of office, project and construction management, and so when the Applegate Fire Plan project came about in 2001 as a result of a National Fire Plan grant, she signed on to share project coordinator duties with Jack Shipley, one of the founding fathers of the Partnership. Sandy handled the scheduling, financial and documentation components of the Fire Plan while Jack coordinated the community outreach.

The final Applegate Fire Plan has been distributed throughout the watershed, where residents are reading its many lessons and applying them on their own properties. Copies of this model fire plan have been shared around Southern Oregon and shipped throughout the rest of the nation, but the project is a long-term commitment. Sandy actively continues the collaborative work that the fire plan project realized: bringing the community and the land and fire management agencies together to learn about and deal with local issues. She spends her "spare" time bird watching and fly-fishing.

Eric R. Thomson 
Field Manager 
Coeur d'Alene Field Office, BLM, Idaho

Eric has 25 years of federal land management experience working primarily for the Bureau of Land Management most of that time. A couple of quick tours with the Malheur and Beaverhead National Forests began his career followed by an 8-year tour with BLM in eastern Oregon. The last 15 years have been spent in Coeur d'Alene with BLM.

He has been the Field Manager for the past 8 years, managing a multi-resource program dominated by recreation, forest health and most recently fuel management and wildland urban interface related issues. Eric has also served in Chief of Operations, planning, lands and realty and range management positions for the BLM. Many of the projects that Eric oversees involve cool moist forest habitat types but does occasionally include dry pine timber types. The land base is scattered, with multiple ownerships being the norm and most of the BLM administered land being oriented within a wildland urban interface setting.

Eric graduated from University of California-Irvine, with a B.S. in Biology and Washington State University, with a M.S. in Range Management. He has a wife, son and daughter.

MICHAEL WHEELOCK 
Owner 
Grayback Forestry Inc

Mike Wheelock, owner of Grayback Forestry Inc., started his career in fire as a smokejumper for the US Forest Service. He also performed such functions as Engine Operator, Heli-Tack Crew, Hot Shot Crew for 10 years with the agencies. During his off time, he ran a portable sawmill and did some gypo logging. Smoke Jumper assignments include Cave Junction 1976 to 1979; Boise 1979; and Missoula 1980.

Mike suffered a knee injury in 1981 and was no longer able to jump so he started contracting full-time with the agencies. His company provides the following services: emergency services, wildfire suppression, Forestry, Prescribe fire, fuels management work.

Grayback Forestry corporate headquarters is Grants Pass, Oregon with offices in Medford Oregon, Klamath Falls Oregon, John Day Oregon, La Grande Oregon, Boise Idaho and Missoula Montana. Grayback Forestry currently employs 150 full time employees and peak up to 450 in the summer season.

Grayback Forestry, Inc. services include 30 engines, 4 water tenders, 15 Twenty Person crews, 2 mobile shower units, 3 track engines, 2 potable water trucks and a type 3 helicopter among other resources.

Mike has been involved with many associations and currently serves in the following capacities:

President of the National Environmental Fuels Association Board Member of the National Wildfire Suppression Association Vice President of the Western Forest Fire Services Association Member of the Steering Committee for the Region 6 Chapter of the National Wildfire Suppression Association

Ron Wenker 
State Director 
BLM, Colorado State Office

Work Experience: 01/03 - Present, State Director, BLM, Colorado State Office 06/98 -01/03 --District Manager, BLM, Medford District, Medford, OR 08/88 - 06/98 -- Field Manager, BLM, Winnemucca Field Office, Winnemucca, NV 07/83 - 08/88 -- Area Manager, BLM, Kemmerer Resource Area, Kemmerer, WY 10/80 - 07/83 -- Range Conservationist, BLM, Division of Rangeland Resources, Washington, DC 06/78 - 10/80 -- Area Manager, BLM, Divide Resource Area, Rawlins, WY 06/74 - 06/78 -- Range Conservationist, BLM, Divide Resource Area, Rawlins, WY

Education: 1973 BS degree, Range Management, California State University, Humboldt 1970 AA degree, Liberal Arts, Grossmont College, El Cajon, California

JERRY T. WILLIAMS 
Director, Fire and Aviation Management, 
Forest Service, Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Williams began his Forest Service career 32 years ago as a firefighter. He was a smokejumper for 7 years and served in other varied fire management positions at the Forest Service District, Forest, Regional, and National Office levels. During the 2000 Fire Season in the Northern Rockies, Williams chaired the Multi-Agency Coordination Group that oversaw suppression efforts and the integration of international assets.

Williams has worked successfully with forestry and fire management organizations in the States, other Federal agencies, the international fire community, and fire management personnel of independent fire protection associations.

In May 2001 he was selected as the National Fire and Aviation Management Director, Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Williams has led or co-led development of national strategies dealing with the integration of fire into natural resource management. Many of his efforts have been aimed at restoring fire-dependent ecosystems as the basis for a more effective wildland fire protection program. These strategies are among the foundation documents for the National Fire Plan.

Williams holds a master's degree in Wildland Fire Sciences from the University of Washington and a bachelor's degree from Lewis and Clark in Portland, Oregon. Jerry and his wife Greta have been married for 28 years. Their daughter, Sarah, is a graduate of the University of Virginia. Their son, David, attends the University of Montana.