New Forest Service ranger takes over
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Greg Smith |
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By Darren Marcy Herald Staff - Published: December 20, 2008
ROCHESTER — The Green Mountain National Forest has a new district ranger overseeing the Middlebury and Rochester ranger districts.
Greg Smith took the reins Monday and will lead both districts, which encompass 157,300 acres from Route 4 to Sugarbush Resort between Middlebury and Granville.
Smith said he's excited to take over the district ranger position and to be in Vermont, which he refers to as "a beautiful part of the country."
And he knows a little something about beautiful parts of the country, having worked on the Gunnison National Forest and Pike National Forest in Colorado, as well as the Kootenai National Forest in Montana.
Most recently, Smith was the lands program manager for the Chippewa National Forest in Minnesota where he was responsible for planning and budgeting for an extensive land adjustment, special uses and minerals program.
He has also spent time as a county forester for Clearwater County in Minnesota, as a timber management officer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Red Lake, Minn., and in the Dominican Republic with the Peace Corps.
While he has never lived in the East, Smith said he is excited for the new experience and expects to adjust quickly.
And he has no qualms over the fact there are tens of millions of people within a short drive of Vermont and the Green Mountain National Forest.
"You have a lot more people with an interest in what happens," Smith said.
That increased interest results in a passion for the country's natural resources, something Smith has plenty of.
"America's national forests are wonderful treasures," Smith said. "It's an honor to have the opportunity to contribute to the stewardship of these public lands. I look forward to working with the many communities, individuals, organizations and colleagues who care deeply about the management and conservation of these lands."
Smith said he has had the chance to take a mini-tour of the Middlebury and Rochester districts and chat with many of the Forest Service personnel.
"I was really impressed with their dedication and stewardship of the natural resource," Smith said.
He is also impressed with what he's found and said a lot of the successful work that gets done in the districts is through partnerships with local communities, organizations and individuals.
"I want to continue a lot of the good work that has been happening and develop new partnerships," Smith said. "That's how we get things done anymore."
He is maintaining an open mind on what needs to be accomplished in Vermont, but he expects national forests to play a larger role in climate change issues in the future.
"With more emphasis on climate change issues, I think the Forest Service will play a role in addressing climate change," Smith said. "There's a lot of research that needs to be done and has been done to adapt our management to take advantage of what the forests provide. I think it's going to be exciting to see how we can manage national forests to address that."
One of the more controversial topics in land management recently has been the designation of wilderness areas.
Smith said he wasn't ready to jump into that debate in Vermont yet, but in general the discussion is a matter of individual priorities with one user community wanting more and another opposing additional wilderness.
"I think in establishing wilderness, always, there's people for it and against it," Smith said. "Any kind of public land management is always going to have more demand on it than you can accommodate. It's a balancing act."
He also said it's important to increase usage of Forest Service land.
A recent study reported visits to national forests were down 13 percent with the blame falling on gas prices before they fell sharply, the popularity of video games and the Internet, and a population more likely to search out a cappuccino than a campground.
"One of the things we want to do is get more people out in the woods, whether it's just for enjoyment and pleasure or to get connected to nature," Smith said. "I think it does a person good. We need to encourage more of that."
Smith said the oft-quoted refrain, "the greatest good for the greatest number over the long run," still applies today more than 100 years after the Forest Service was established.
He's eager to get started applying the principle, but he also looks forward to getting to know his district better one stride at a time.
"I look forward to getting out and getting to know the woods … getting out hiking," Smith said.
Smith and his wife Renae have two daughters who are both in college.
Contact Darren Marcy at darren.marcy@rutlandherald.com.
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