Leadership

The Forest Service is an agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the Executive Branch of government. The current Department head is Brooke Rollins. The agency is led by Chief Tom Schultz at the Washington Office level. The agency is divided into nine regions across the country and the Bighorn National Forest is in the Rocky Mountain Region, also known as Region 2. Troy Heithecker is the Regional Forester based in Lakewood, Colorado.

The Bighorn National Forest Supervisor, Andrew Johnson has been serving in this role since March of 2018.  Andrew started his career on the Manti-LaSal in Utah as a Forestry Technician in trails and recreation, before working on the Coconino in Region 3, the Flathead in Region 1, as well as detail assignments as a Deputy District Ranger on the Inyo in California, and Deputy Forest Supervisor on the Coronado in Arizona. 

A native of rural northern New York State, Johnson worked as a journalist for his family’s newspaper business before changing career paths.  He worked as Assistant Forest Ranger for the state of New York through college, and completed a master's in forestry from the State University of New York.  Through much of his career he worked in recreation and wilderness management but also worked with range and minerals management in Montana.  As a Ranger in Minnesota, he managed a large timber and fuels management program as well as a portion of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the most heavily visited Wilderness in the Nation.