Contributed entries to this blog are welcome and encouraged. Please contact Sharon at [email protected] with your entry.
Current Regular Contributors include:
I came to the planning world relatively late in my career. Although I worked on forests that were planning in the late 70’s and early 80’s (as the Area Geneticist for the Winema, Fremont, Ochoco and Deschutes), I managed to avoid planning except for some silvicultural models. I was the Director of an NFS Genetics Lab in Placerville, CA for a couple of years, then went on a hiatus to the RPA staff (worked on the 95 RPA), then managed the McIntire Stennis research program for the Agency Formerly Known as CSREES, then back to FS R&D and then back to the National Forests in the NEPA shop in DC, and finally ended up as the Planning Director for the Rocky Mountain Region. Somehow I also became a Roadless geek from many years of working on Colorado Roadless. But, fortunately for my sanity, I have done many other interesting non-planning things, which are in the link above. I have a B.S. in Forestry from U.C. Berkeley, a Masters in Forest Science from Yale F&ES and a Ph.D. in Genetics from University of New Hampshire.
I’m retired from the Forest Service now and enjoy community building in various forms. I also dabble in spiritual stuff, including researching and writing on the interface between the sacred and the psychic.
Jon Haber
After acquiring a B.S. in Resource Conservation from the University of Montana and a M.S. in Regional Natural Resource Planning from Colorado State University, I was employed for 32 years by the Forest Service. I helped develop forest plans for the Helena and Mt. Hood National Forests, and then spent the rest of my career working on regional and multi-regional planning efforts, planning litigation, and national planning policy and planning regulations from the Northern Region office here in Missoula. That included a long-term detail to Washington for the 2000 regulations, and participating on the national core team that developed the current 2012 Planning Rule. Along the way I picked up a law degree from Lewis and Clark College, and worked on litigation and appeals for the Pacific Northwest Region. I have always been interested in wildlife conservation, and I’ve specialized in applying the diversity provisions of National Forest Management Act and Endangered Species Act requirements. I’ve tried to promote thinking about coordinating planning for wildlife on both sides of the Forest Service “green line.” I’m still trying to contribute as a consultant, spending most of my time working for Defenders of Wildlife.
I grew up in rural Wisconsin – in the Village of Elkhart Lake – surrounded by the Kettle Moraine State Forest, where my family goes back six generations. I’ve lived in Missoula, Montana since 1996 working on a variety of public lands, wildlife, wilderness, environmental and ‘fair trade’ issues. My love for forests and wildlands came from my family and our time in nature enjoying our public lands. My dad was a house painter and got just one week vacation a year and it was always spent tent camping on public lands, mainly the Northern Highlands State Forest or various spots in the Chequamegon and Nicolet National Forests in Wisconsin. I paid my way through college by working at a lumber company building trusses and even spent a summer as a wildland firefighter in Oregon.
I’ve worked on public lands issues for the past 28 years for a number of conservation organizations. In my free-time I enjoy gardening, landscaping, putting up (and cooking up) food, hunting morels, elk and deer and, if you can believe it, playing the game of golf.
Steve Wilent
Steve Wilent is editor and publisher of Natural Resources Management Today, a monthly digital newsletter for North American natural resources professionals who manage fish, forests, range, water, wildlife, and other resources, as well as for the people who depend on or enjoy these resources (NRMToday.com). He served as editor of The Forestry Source, the monthly newspaper of the Society of American Foresters, from 2004 to June 2021. Wilent has been a forestry and natural-resources instructor at Mt. Hood Community College (MHCC), in Gresham, Oregon, since 1996. MHCC’s Natural Resources Technology program offers associate of applied science degrees (AAS) in forestry technology and wildlife management. Wilent has taught a variety of courses, including Wildland Fire Management and Fire Ecology, Timber Harvesting, Forest Measurements, Intro to Natural Resources, Current Issues in Forest Resources, and others.