The regional head of the US Forest service is taking a management job with the Hickenlooper Administration in Colorado. Regional forester Rick Cables will become director of the state’s newest agency, the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife. The division was created after lawmakers and Governor John Hickenlooper this Spring approved a merger of the cash-strapped state Parks Division with the Colorado Division of Wildlife. The merger wasn’t popular among some DOW employees in particular, and Cables’ first challenge may be uniting his new staff of nearly 900 people.
During his ten years as chief of the US Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Region, Cables oversaw many social and ecological changes on national forests and grasslands in Colorado and surrounding states; including an unprecedented outbreak of mountain pine beetle and exploding development surrounding national forest lands which has posed concerns for wildfire mitigation.
