Steve Brown, currently the Northern Region’s Geospatial Program Manager, has been named acting Stevensville District Ranger on the Bitterroot National Forest following Tami Sabol’s recent hiring as National Forest Service Liaison to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.
Prior to his current position as the Regional Program Manager, Steve served as the Remote Sensing Program Lead and as a geospatial analyst for the Northern Region’s Geospatial Group.
Brown, who first moved to the Bitterroot in 1998 and has lived here continuously since 2003, has worked for the Forest Service for 16 years. His career has allowed him to work across Montana and Idaho conducting vegetation surveys in support of the Regional existing vegetation mapping program. He has worked extensively in support of project planning and analysis, helping resource specialists incorporate new data and technologies into their workflows. He also served as the Incident Commander for the 2017 Regional Post-Fire Incident Management Team charged with coordinating the Regional post-fire response to the historic fire season of 2017.
Steve graduated from the University of Montana with a Bachelor’s Degree in Resource Conservation and Master’s Degree in Forestry. He has already started the temporary position at the Stevensville Ranger District and is looking forward to the next four months.
“I’ve had the opportunity to see a lot of really beautiful country in my career,” said Brown, “but nowhere that I’ve been compares to the Bitterroot. I’m proud of the chance that I have to continue in the long-standing heritage of the Bitterroot National Forest in wise stewardship of the land and service to the local community. I am looking forward to the next few months and the chance to get to know both the employees of the District and the members of the community, who are all passionate about our natural resources and the management of our public lands.”