Colorado native Rick Cables, a veteran Forest Service boss who led Colorado Parks and Wildlife before joining Vail Resorts as vice-president of natural resources and conservation, is on the shortlist to become the new chief of the U.S. Forest Service, according to news reports.
The energy and environmental network E&E News last week reported that Cables, a native of Pueblo who spent 35 years with the Forest Service, could be the Trump Administration’s choice for chief of the 34,000-employee Forest Service. (Another rumored choice is Lyle Laverty, a Colorado-based Forest Service veteran who served under the Bush Administration in the Interior Department. And there is speculation that the Trump Administration may retain Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell, who served for most of the Obama Administration.)
The idea of Chief Cables excites Colorado’s recreation and ski industry officials as well as public land managers.
“I think he’s a perfect, perfect choice for that role,” said Luis Benitez, the head of the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office, citing Cable’s experience in both the private and public domains. “It is the logical conclusion for their search for a new chief.”
Cables retired from his 35-year career with the Forest Service as regional forester for the agency’s heavily-trafficked Rocky Mountain Region in 2011. He spent two years merging the Colorado Division of Wildlife and the Colorado State Parks Department into a single entity. In 2013 he left public service to join the world’s largest ski resort operator, Vail Resorts, as an executive tasked with managing the company’s land, water and wildlife issues and navigating the complex federal regulatory hurdles involving its long-term leases on federal lands in Colorado, Utah and California.
Cables was unavailable for comment on Monday.
If Cables is tapped to replace Tidwell, he would bring a breadth of Colorado experience to Washington as an advocate for the state’s reliance on public lands. The Forest Service manages more than a fifth of Colorado’s land and those roughly 15 million acres — spread across 11 national forests and two national grasslands — are some of the busiest in the country. On the Western Slope of Colorado, where federal lands make up more than 90 percent of several rural counties’ acreage, those lands are inextricably tied to local economies and communities dependent on skiers, hunters, hikers, motorized users, campers and other recreational users.
Jim Bedwell, the retiring Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Region director of recreation, lands, minerals and volunteers, said Cables would be the best choice as chief.
“He has the Forest Service in his blood,” said Bedwell, noting how Cable’s mother was a pioneer as one of the first female leaders in the agency. “His work with Colorado Parks and Wildlife and now Vail Resorts, it’s really rounded him out. His experience with Vail has brought him heightened awareness of how important that industry is and what it can deliver and our need to manage that appropriately for them to reach their potential.”
As the ski-resort industry quietly begins building support for legislation that would enable local national forests to keep some portion of fees harvested from permittees on public lands, industry leaders hope Cables could help. A law that would help forests like the White River National Forest, home to 11 major ski areas, keep at least some of the fees it collects from ski resorts like Vail, Breckenridge and Copper Mountain would enable better management of resort operations on public lands. The White River last year sent almost $20 million in ski resort revenue-based fees to the U.S. Treasury, more than its annual budget. Right now, national forests — which host as many as 27 million skier days at resorts across the country — send all collected fees to the U.S. Treasury. Another issue for resorts is expediting environmental review of new development plans, especially summer projects aimed at drawing new visitors to public lands.
“Recreation has gotten to be very high on Rick’s list and we are at the center of a whole bunch of that recreation,” Bedwell said. “He would definitely take a national view, but Colorado has formed him, no doubt about that.”
