A regional boss for the Forest Service in Utah and Idaho has been named deputy chief for the U.S. Forest Service, Forest Service chief Jack Ward Thomas has announced.
Gray Reynolds, regional forester for the agency's Intermountain Region based in Ogden, will assume the position of deputy chief for the 191-million-acre national forest system next month, Thomas said.The current deputy, Jim Overbay, 59, has announced his retirement effective Feb. 3, the chief said.
"Gray has been the source of so many good ecosystem-management ideas that are now a part of everyday national forest management," Thomas said in a statement Wednesday.
"He really knows how to bring people with different values and conflicting ideas together and create agreements that lead to effective land management," he said.
Reynolds began his career as a forester on the Teton National Forest in Wyoming in 1964. He also worked as supervisor of the Arapahoe-Roosevelt National Forest in Colorado and the Angeles National Forest in California. He graduated from Utah State University and got a masters in natural resource administration at Michigan State University.
Overbay, a native of Bend, Ore., who was named deputy chief in 1988, had been contemplating retirement for more than a year. He worked more than 37 years for the service, including stints on the Mt. Hood National Forest in Oregon and Black Hills National Forest in Custer, S.D.
"Throughout his career he's made one tough decision after another without ever losing sight of his role as public servant and public land steward," Thomas said.
Jill Bauermeister, an agency spokeswoman, said Overbay had wanted to retire a year ago because of a health problem in his family, but that Forest Service officials had persuaded him to stay on.