New district ranger has diverse Forest Service career

He loves to ski and fish, has worked on tough issues like road closures and timber sales, and enjoys building partnerships.

Those are just some of the attributes of Rob Davies, the new district ranger for the Glacier View/Hungry Horse Ranger District. Davies was named to the post in early October after Jimmy DeHerrera retired in June.

Davies, 53, was a resource assistant at the Hebgen Lake Ranger District in the Gallatin National Forest for the past five years. Hebgen Lake is similar to Hungry Horse Reservoir, a body of water bordering a national park — Yellowstone —with plenty of grizzly bears and the issues that surround them.

Davies grew up in Michigan and moved to Colorado when he was 18 because he loved to ski. After living the life of a “ski bum” for three years, he enrolled at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., where he got a bachelor’s in geology.

His first government job was a seasonal post with the U.S. Geological Survey. From there he went to the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. Along the way, he picked up a degree in fisheries science from the University of Idaho.

Davies was a fisheries biologist with the Idaho Panhandle National Forest for several years. He worked for the Ochoco National Forest in Oregon and the Manti-La Sal National Forest in Utah and then became a hydrologist for the Couer d’Alene National Forest.

It was there that Davies went from scientist to public liaison. The Coeur d’Alene National Forest at the time was rapidly decommissioning roads, and it was his task to meet with off-road vehicle user-groups and the public about the process.

Admittedly, they weren’t always happy about seeing a favorite road closed, but compromises were struck, Davies said. Some roads simply needed culverts removed and were still useable for ATVs, he noted.

“As we closed roads to improve water quality, I became the target,” he said.

As he worked on a motorized travel plan for the region, Davies also learned to work with the public, he said.

“It helped transition me from the science to serving the public,” he said.

Davies also worked with the public at Hebgen Lake. As a resource assistant, he was the lead person on the Gallatin National Forest working with recreation, wilderness and special-use interests on the 380,000-acre Hebgen Lake Ranger District.

Davies was an acting district ranger on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest for four months, but this is his first permanent district ranger post.

He said he’s looking forward to the challenges and hopes to foster a positive working relationship with “friends groups” like the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation and the Glacier Institute. He said he’d like to see a friends group for the Flathead Forest’s new avalanche awareness effort.

When he’s not working, Davies enjoys alpine and backcountry skiing, fly fishing, hunting, sea kayaking and spending time with his two children, ages four and six. His wife Joyce is a former Bureau of Land Management wildlife biologist. He also has an 18-year-old daughter from a previous marriage who is studying at Portland State University in Oregon.

People can meet Davies in person during a breakfast at the Nite Owl Restaurant in Columbia Falls on Friday, Nov. 16, from 7 to 9 a.m. He’ll be there with Spotted Bear District Ranger Deb Mucklow to chat with members of the public.