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Forest Service Names New Deputy Regional Forester

By Beacon Staff

Dave Schmid will take over as the U.S. Forest Service’s new deputy regional forester for the Northern Region, the agency announced Friday.

Regional Forester Faye Krueger said Schmid will report to his new position April 21.

Schmid comes to the region from the Forest Service’s Southern Region based in Atlanta, where he served as the director of biological and physical resources. He has been with the agency since 1982.

“I am excited to add Dave to my staff here in the Region,” Krueger stated. “Dave brings a wide range of experience and leadership to this position that will help us succeed in the Region-wide challenges we face as an agency.”

Schmid started with the agency in the Alaska Region as fisheries and watershed program leader on the Chugach National Forest, southeast of Anchorage. He relocated to the Tongass NF as a district ranger for the Thorne Bay Ranger District on Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska, and also worked as the district ranger of the Beartooth Ranger District on the Custer NF in south-central Montana. He served as the National Fisheries Program Leader in the agency’s Washington, D.C. office prior to assuming his role in Atlanta.

His fisheries background and key program direction with the agency’s Southern Region make Schmid a valuable asset to the Northern Region here. The world-class fishing streams and complex nature of many of the ecosystems here are key focus areas for the agency and our many partners and collaborative groups. Schmid’s appointment gives the agency greater potential to improve resource planning and fisheries management programs for these vital natural resource concerns.

“I’m very excited to come back to Montana in this position,” Schmid said. “I look forward to applying my leadership and program management experience to the issues and needs across the Northern Region.”

The Forest Service’s Northern Region is responsible for some 25 million acres of national forest system lands across northern Idaho, Montana, and North and South Dakota.