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News Release
USDA Forest Service
Washington, D.C.
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| FS-0152 |
Contact: Heidi Valetkevitch,
202-205-1134 |
THOMPSON TO BE NATIONAL FOREST
SYSTEM DEPUTY CHIEF
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13, 2001 -- U.S. Department
of Agriculture Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth today appointed
Tom Thompson as National Forest System deputy chief. Thompson will
be the third highest-ranking manager in the agency.
Thompson is currently deputy regional forester of the Rocky Mountain
Region. A 33-year veteran of the Forest Service, he has experience
in leadership positions in three regions as well as his previous
experience on the Legislative Affairs staff in Washington.
“I am especially honored and pleased to accept this position
and I look forward to working with Chief Dale Bosworth. I’m
anxious to take on the responsibilities of the assignment.”
Thompson is a native of Colorado and a graduate of the College
of Forestry and Natural Resources at Colorado State University in
1968. He began his career in Alaska with assignments on the Tongass
National Forest, the Chugach National Forest and the Institute of
Northern Forestry, a unit of the Pacific Northwest Experiment Station.
Thompson has been deputy regional forester for the Rocky Mountain
Region since December 1989, which includes over 22 million acres
on 17 national forests and seven national grasslands in Colorado,
Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas.
Thompson’s appointment came after Jim Furnish announced he
is leaving the Forest Service after 34 years of service. Furnish
assumed the deputy chief position in June 1999, after serving as
Siuslaw National Forest supervisor in Corvallis, Ore., among other
assignments. Furnish said he “looks back with deep satisfaction
having worked on the best, for the best and with the best. Lands
managed by the Forest Service are magnificent and I was inspired
and humbled by the challenge of doing right by the land.”
Before Furnish departs the agency, he has agreed to be a part of
a team to provide support following release of the Thirty-Mile Fire
investigation report. Chief Bosworth asked Furnish to take on the
special assignment, which will require substantial executive-level
time.
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