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Fisheries expert to oversee forests By Paul Fattig A fisheries scientist has been named supervisor for the Rogue River and Siskiyou national forests. Jack Williams, 47, deputy forest supervisor of the Boise National Forest in Boise, Idaho, is expected to report to his new post in about two months, according to Mary Marrs, spokeswoman for the two forests. Agency employees were informed of the Williams' appointment Friday. Williams, who has received awards from the federal government as well as fisheries groups for his work, has a doctorate in fisheries science from Oregon State University as well as a master's in biology from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. He has a bachelor's degree in wildlife biology from Arizona State University. In a telephone interview Friday, Williams stressed that his goal is to employ a balanced approach to managing the forests. "The greatest challenge will be to find an appropriate mix," he said. "The area has increasing complexities with its changing society and changing values. "We've gone from an organization that produces a lot of commodities to a service organization," he added. "There are increased demands for recreation, for clean water. But we also have our continuing desire to produce timber and those kinds of things." In addition to balancing the needs of the forests and local residents, the agency must also abide by laws like the Northwest Forest Plan, he noted. Yet those challenges are what attracted him to the job, he said. "I'm looking forward to getting down there and working with local people to help them find local solutions," he said. He succeeds former supervisor Mike Lunn, a forester by training who retired at the end of 1999 after 32 years with the agency. Lunn had supervised the Siskiyou forest for 10 years, then became the first supervisor to head both the Siskiyou and Rogue River forests when the position was created last year. Tom Reilly, deputy supervisor of both forests, will continue to serve as acting supervisor until Williams arrives. Although Williams didn't join the Forest Service until the fall of 1998 when he became deputy forest supervisor of the Boise forest, he had previously worked for the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since obtaining his doctorate in 1980. His career with the federal government includes serving as senior aquatic ecologist for the BLM in Boise, science adviser to the office of the BLM director in Washington, D.C., fisheries program manager for the BLM in Washington, D.C., consultation team leader for the office of endangered species for the F&WS in Sacramento and staff ichthyologist for the F&WS office of endangered species in Sacramento. He also has been a visiting scholar for the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at the University of California-Davis. His awards include the President's Conservation Award from the American Fisheries Society in 1998, the Distinguished Service Award from the Society for Conservation Biology in 1997 and the President's Award for Excellence from Trout Unlimited in 1994. Williams' wife, Cindy, is a fisheries biologist who does consulting work. They have two boys, Josh, 14, and Austin, 21. There are now about 200 full-time employees on the Siskiyou and roughly 250 on the Rogue River forest. The two forests cover about 2 million acres in southwest Oregon. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA