Forest Service Makes Additional Personnel Announcements
U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth today announced further changes to top agency posts: Brad Powell as regional forester of the Northern Region; Bov Eav as associate deputy chief for Research and Development; Michael Rains as director of the Northeastern Research Station; and Randy Phillips as executive director of the Forest Counties Payments Advisory Committee.
Powell, currently serving as regional forester of the agency's Pacific Southwest Region (Vallejo, Calif.), will move to Missoula, Mont. to head up the Northern Region--filling the position vacated by Dale Bosworth, who became Forest Service chief in April. The Northern Region encompasses 25 million acres in 12 national forests and four national grasslands across northern Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and northwestern South Dakota.
Powell began working for the Forest Service as a seasonal firefighter in Arizona in 1969. After holding numerous staff positions in recreation, lands and forest management on ranger districts in Arizona, New Mexico and Alaska, he became a district ranger on the Santa Fe National Forest in New Mexico in 1984. He assumed leadership of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington in 1987. In 1991, Powell was promoted to deputy forest supervisor of the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky and in 1993 as forest supervisor. In 1995, he moved to the Tongass National Forest as forest supervisor and in 1998 assumed the deputy regional forester position of the Pacific Southwest Region. Powell has been regional forester for the California region since 1999.
Powell received a bachelor’s degree in 1972 in forest science from the University of Missouri.
Eav, who is now director for the agency’s Northeastern Research Station (Newtown Square, Pa.), will become an associate deputy chief for Research and Development in Washington, D.C. The agency’s research and development arm provides new information and technologies to help ensure sustainable natural resources for multiple uses, including healthy watersheds, forest products, wildlife protection and recreation opportunities.
In 1985, Eav joined the Forest Service as an operations research analyst for State and Private Forestry’s (S&PF) Methods Application Group (MAG) in Forest Pest Management at Fort Collins, Colo. Later, he became associate director and manager of the Quantitative Techniques Program for MAG. In 1994, he became director of the National Center of Forest Health Management in Morgantown, W. Va., but soon returned to Fort Collins as director of the Forest Service's Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team. Eav has been the Northeastern Research Station’s director since 1997.
Eav earned a degree in forestry in 1970 from the Universite des Sciences Agronomique, Chumkar Daung, Cambodia, a master’s degree in forest biometrics in 1974 and a doctorate degree in forest biometrics/remote sensing in 1977 from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse.
Rains, currently leading the S&PF deputy area at the agency’s national headquarters, will direct the Northeastern Research Station--filling the vacancy left by Eav. The station conducts extensive research to enhance and protect productivity on all of America's forests and rangelands with special attention to long-term resource issues of national and international scope in the northeastern United States. It is one of seven such units nation wide, maintaining 10 forestry research laboratories and 10 experimental forests throughout the northeastern states.
Rains began his Forest Service career 32 years ago as a wildland firefighter in California. He has served in various agency positions across the country, including in forest management, watershed restoration, budget planning and development, information systems and administration. In addition, he has held leadership positions in S&PF for the last 12 years--as director of the Northeastern Area and as associate deputy chief. In 2000, Rains led teams to examine the cost of catastrophic wildfire and to produce the National Fire Plan in response to a presidential request. He has been deputy chief for S&PF since late 2000.
Rains holds a bachelor’s degree in forestry and a master’s degree in watershed management from Humboldt State University and a master’s degree in business administration from Georgia State University.
Phillips, who currently serves as the agency's deputy chief for Programs and Legislation in Washington, D.C., will become executive director of the Forest Counties Payments Advisory Committee. The committee, made up of federal agency representatives and Congressional appointees, will report to Congress on the new payments to counties legislation. It was established in the fiscal year 2001 Interior Appropriations bill.
Phillips' 24-year service with the agency includes positions as forester, district ranger on two national forests and grasslands and assistant to the regional forester in the Northern Region. From 1993 to 1997, Phillips was the forest supervisor for the four national forests in North Carolina. He joined the national headquarters in 1997 as budget coordinator for the National Forest System and became deputy chief of Programs and Legislation in 2000.
Phillips holds degrees in forest resource management and political science from Emory University, Florida State University and the University of Montana.