Donna Nemeth, USDA Forest Service. USDA Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen announced the temporary appointment of Tammy Angel as the Acting Regional Forester for the Rocky Mountain Region, effective January 24, 2021. In this role, she will lead more than 2,000 employees and share stewardship of 22 million acres of national forests and grasslands in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming with partners and forty-eight affiliated tribes.

Angel currently serves as Deputy Regional Forester for the Rocky Mountain Region, where she oversees multiple directorates including Budget, Engineering, External Affairs, Grants and Agreements, Resource Information, and Recreation, Lands, Minerals and Volunteers.

She started her career with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an Engineering Stay-in-School student and transitioned to a full-time engineer upon graduation. After ten years, Angel joined the National Park Service where she served as a National Restoration Program Manager, Chief of the National Park Service Environmental Quality Division, Associate Regional Director for Resource Stewardship and Science, and most recently as Superintendent of Big Cypress National Preserve before making the move to the Forest Service in 2018.

A native of Arvada, Colorado, Angel earned a bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. She replaces Tricia O’Connor, who has served as Acting Regional Forester for the Rocky Mountain Region since October 2020. O’Connor will return to the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming where she is the Forest Supervisor.

(Originally published in the January 14, 2021, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)