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Ben was born and raised in Seneca, OR, a small logging community in the middle of the Malheur National Forest. Ben's family and the Forest Service have been intertwined for generations as family members worked in these woods—usually for the Edward Hines Lumber Company, which was awarded the very first timber sale offered on the Malheur National Forest. Ben spent his early years in the woods helping his father, a timber faller.
After graduating from the local high school, Ben worked in private industry as a timber faller and an equipment operator during the heyday of road building on the national forest lands. He constructed many miles of roads in steep forested terrain, roads he is responsible for maintaining today!
In 1981 Ben moved from private industry to become an engineering equipment operator for the Malheur National Forest. He became fleet manager in 1996 and assumed the duties of road manager and road crew supervisor 4 years later. Last year, Ben became the assistant forest engineer responsible for road maintenance, fleet, and lands and minerals.
He now oversees more than 9,000 miles of roads, a fleet of 200 government vehicles, and management of lands and minerals on 1.7 million acres of national forest lands that he's enjoyed his entire life.
Ben has many special qualities that have been recognized as he moved up in the organization. His calm demeanor, good humor, practical knowledge, common sense, and passion for doing a job right are well known in the agency and in local communities. There is never any question that Ben knows both the government and business sides of a project, and that he'll be fair and firm.
Ben has three grown children: two daughters and a son. He has also been a Boy Scout leader, helped construct a community park, and mentored many engineering students who have come to the Malheur National Forest from urban areas. Ben took these students fishing and shared his love of the outdoors, helping them become comfortable working with natural resources and sparking their interest in engineering careers with the Forest Service. Of course, it's only natural that eager young employees would gravitate to a person as special as Ben—Bubba—Lindley.
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