SPARKS - Intermountain Regional Forester Harv Forsgren announced today that Becky Nourse has been selected as the acting Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest supervisor until the position is filled permanently, which could range in length of time from two to four months.
Current Forest Supervisor Jeanne Higgins will be leaving around the end of September to serve as one of the Deputy Regional Foresters in the Southwest Region for the Forest Service (Arizona and New Mexico).
"I think that both our stakeholders and employees will enjoy working with Becky - her extensive background in so many different positions and places will serve her well for her temporary time on the Humboldt-Toiyabe," said Forsgren.
Nourse is currently the forest supervisor on the Sawtooth National Forest and works out of Twin Falls, Idaho. She has been in that position since December 2010 and returned to the Sawtooth after a 10-year absence.
Nourse originally served as a deputy area ranger in central Idaho for a three-year assignment on the Sawtooth National Recreation Area from 1999 to 2001.
"I grew up in a small town in western Washington and love most outdoor activities, including hiking, camping, biking and skiing," said Nourse. "I am looking forward to exploring and discovering new favorite places on the Humboldt-Toiyabe."
Nourse especially loves sea kayaking and has built her own cedar strip sea kayak. She is also an avid reader and likes movies, cooking, music and long drives now that she is back where the roads are more than 20 miles in length.
Nourse arrived on the Sawtooth from Ketchikan, Alaska, where she was the deputy forest supervisor of the Tongass National Forest since August 2008.
This was her third Alaska assignment with the Forest Service. While in Alaska, she also worked in a temporary assignment as a deputy regional forester for the regional office, leading the Forest Service efforts related to the Southeast Alaska Transition Framework for Economic Development.
In January, 2002, after spending three years on the Sawtooth National Forest in Stanley, Idaho, she returned to Alaska to the small fishing community of Cordova, Alaska, as the Cordova District Ranger on the Chugach National Forest from 2002 to 2006. From there, she worked as the U.S. Forest Service Alaska Region's Congressional/Legislative Liaison in Washington, D.C., for two years, before returning to the Tongass in 2008.
Nourse graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, with a Bachelor's degree in Biology. While in college, she worked for four seasons as a firefighter on the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in Washington State, and then spent seven years working for the Washington Department of Wildlife. She returned to the Forest Service as a Fisheries Biologist on the Umatilla National Forest in northeastern Oregon in 1989, and then went to Ketchikan, Alaska, to spend seven years working on Misty Fiords National Monument on the Tongass National Forest, as the Fish and Wildlife Program Manager.
Learn more about this release by contacting either Erin O'Connor, Director of Strategic Communications, at 801-625-5347, or Christie Kalkowski, Public Affairs Officer, at 775-355-5311.
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