Interview with Abigail Kimball, Chief of the USFS...

July 27, 2008 about 3 pm...

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Abigail Kimball, Chief of the USFS.  The the interview may be found HERE and on KUSP's website.

These are the questions I asked Chief Kimbell:

• What can community groups and individuals can do to work with Forest Service in order to promote the long-term health of the Forest, and minimize the possibilities of future wildland fires?

• The national forests were created in part for "securing favorable conditions of water flows," the importance of which has grown as populations have grown. Evidence appears to show that we are entering a period of water scarcity not seen in our history. What difference can the Forest Service make in maintaining the balance between population growth and water sources, in the face of climate change?

• Regarding The Forest Service's work in managing outdoor recreation, given California's extreme fire situation so early in the summer, do you support a ban on campfires on fire-prone public lands.

• The Forest Service Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation (BAER) program, once an assessment is made, will act to mitigate significant threats to health, safety, life and property in a watershed. Does the BAER team assess the fires effects on the river in its entirety, or just within the borders of the Los Padres National Forest?

• The Basin Complex and the Indians Fire, between them will possibly cost $150 mllion, including BAER. Did you anticipate this year's early fire season from a budgeting standpoint? And if not, from where will the additional monies come?
  

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Here's a bio of Chief Kimbell...

Abigail R. Kimbell, the 16th Chief and first female Chief of the US Forest Service grew up in New England, where she spent her formative years hiking, fishing, and camping on the White Mountain National Forest. She received a bachelor's degree in forest management from the University of Vermont in 1974 and later a master's degree in forest engineering from Oregon State University.

She worked as a seasonal employee before beginning her Federal forestry career in 1974 with the Bureau of Land Management in Medford, Oregon. She then joined the Forest Service as a pre-sale forester in Kodiak, Alaska, in 1977. She next worked in Oregon as a logging engineer and then a district planner. She served as a district ranger in Kettle Falls, Washington on the Colville National Forest from 1985-88, and on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest in La Grande, Oregon, from 1988-91, and as forest supervisor of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska (1992-97) and the Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming (1997-99).

From 1999-2002, Kimbell was the forest supervisor for the Pike and San Isabel National Forests and the Comanche National Grassland—all in Colorado—as well as the Cimarron National Grassland in Kansas. In May 2002, Kimbell began work as the associate deputy chief for the National Forest System lands in the Forest Service Washington, DC headquarters. During her tenure as associate deputy chief, Gail's leadership was instrumental in helping to carry out the Healthy Forests Initiative and she provided support in the development of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003.

In December 2003, Kimbell was named as the Regional Forester for the Northern Region located in Missoula, Montana. She assumed her current position as Chief of the US Forest Service on February 5, 2007.

Kimbell is a member of the Society of American Foresters

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