Rick Cables Regional Forester 1999-2000

Rick Cables, a native of Pueblo, Colorado, received a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry from Northern Arizona University in 1976. Shortly after, he began his career as a forestry technician on the Kaibab National Forest.

In 1985, after serving on several national forests in New Mexico and Arizona, Cables became the district ranger on the Apache–Sitgreaves National Forest.

From 1987-89, Cables worked as a natural resources staff specialist in the Washington Office. In 1989, he attended the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1990. He then accepted the Forest Supervisor position for the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire and Maine. In 1995, he became the Forest Supervisor of the Pike and San Isabel National Forests and Comanche and Cimarron National Grasslands in Colorado and Kansas.

Cables moved to Juneau, Alaska in 1999 as Regional Forester for the Alaska Region. In that position, he oversaw management of 22 million acres of National Forest System lands: the Tongass National Forest, the largest in the nation, and the Chugach National Forest, which is the second largest.

Under Cables’ leadership, the region developed a five-year strategic plan that focused on: the strength and diversity of communities in and around the national forests; growing recreation and tourism; and organizational effectiveness.

Cables summed up his management philosophy by saying, “We need to expand our ethic of conservation to touch everything we do, and then take more initiative to tell people what we’re doing and why it’s working.”

In 2000, with 24 years of experience in natural resources management, Cables moved to Colorado to become Regional Forester for the Rocky Mountain Region.