COOK- An open house at the U.S. Forest Service’s LaCroix District office in Cook held Thursday, Oct. 27, provided an opportunity for the public to welcome some recent additions to the Superior National Forest crew. New Forest Supervisor Thomas Hall and LaCroix District Ranger Sunny Lucas were joined by some familiar faces who were also on hand as the event featured numerous exhibits detailing various Forest Service activities, career information, and an appearance by the district’s dog sled team.
Lucas has worked for the Forest Service for about 15 years, including stints in Asheville, N.C. and Minneapolis before coming to Cook just two months ago.
“I grew up in Wisconsin and my extended family is in Minnesota, so this is kind of coming back home,” Lucas said.
In Asheville, she focused on forest health issues, and in Minneapolis she worked with the state and private forestry division, a job focused on coordinating with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and other partners and grant management.
“After 15 years I really wanted to work on a forest and get more connected to a land base,” Lucas said. “I got to know some folks up here on the Superior and I did a four-month temporary assignment in Aurora and just fell in love with it. It just seemed like the right time when this job opened up to move up and get to know the Superior better”
As the district’s top administrator, Lucas supervises seven people and different program managers, who in turn supervise program staff. She’s responsible for ensuring that programs are working together, keeping communication going among staff and coordinating with partners.
“It’s about making space for our employees to do what they need to do,” Lucas said. “It’s kind of my job to run interference, making sure things aren’t going sideways, and I’m also the signatory for a lot of decisions.”
For the first two months, Lucas has been focused on getting to know her staff and their different programs. As someone who sees staff support as a primary responsibility, learning about their needs has been a top priority.
“They’re the eyes and ears out on the ground,” she said. “There’s an amazing amount of institutional knowledge here, and people who have been here a long time. I’m really passionate about what they’re doing.”
One project Lucas is looking forward to getting involved with is the LaCroix Landscape Project, a Forest Service initiative collaborating with the Arrowhead Landscape Collaborative Group to improve regional forest ecosystems by utilizing a variety of vegetative treatments in a flexible approach responsive to current conditions.
“We haven’t started developing the different alternatives for different treatments, so we’re going to be working on that,” Lucas said. “I’m really trying to get up to speed on that, see what’s been developed so far, see if there are any adjustments or course corrections that I would like to see happen. It will be exciting to see how that moves forward. It’s a big project.”
Lucas also said she’s ready to begin establishing relationships with partners throughout the LaCroix district, from ATV and snowmobiling groups to working with staff at Voyageurs National Park and interacting more with the community.
“I’m in the office five days a week, so anyone who comes in who wants to talk to me is always welcome,” Lucas said.
With responsibility for all five of the Superior’s districts, Hall’s responsibility as Forest Supervisor is to establish vision and policies for what the agency hopes to accomplish and match that with relevant laws, regulations, policies, and the overall mission of the Forest Service.
Working with the Forest Service is second nature for Hall.
“I actually grew up in the Forest Service in Colorado, sort of on the Rio Grande National Forest,” Hall said. “My first job out of high school was with the Rio Grande National Forest. My dad retired a couple of years ago off the Rio Grande.”
Hall has also worked for the Forest Service in northern and southern California, but his most recent experience was working in legislative affairs for USFS in Washington, D.C. for two-and-a-half years.
“It was fast paced and a big perspective, understanding how Congress interfaces with the agency,” Hall said. “Understanding how all those pieces fit together helps to know how we can do better to maximize opportunities and look to do more good work here on the ground for both recreation and vegetation management. I’m definitely looking forward to establishing what that vision looks like here to continue the great work already started. This is just amazing country, the resources we manage here on the Superior National Forest, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, all just amazing.”
And while Hall is obviously enamored with the over three million acres he oversees, he’s equally enthusiastic about the people he’s encountered since starting work in mid-September.
“This is a great staff and great communities, all very engaged, very passionate about all of the forest’s resources. And that’s been amazing.”
A forest management plan developed in 2004 sets the basic parameters of Hall’s work, and one of his tasks will be to identify needs for changes.
“There’s actually a national schedule of how frequently we’re able to update those,” Hall said. “Generally, we try for 15 years.”
Hall said the Forest Service is currently working on the schedule for the next revision process, and he said that the process will accommodate synthesis of a wide range of inputs and possibly competing priorities.
“The fortunate thing of working for the federal government is that we have systems, processes,E and regulations in place where we have to consider all of those perspectives, hearing from all of those people and understanding what laws and regulations we have to meet.”