Rick Cables, regional forester for the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States Forest Service since 2001, will leave the Forest Service to become director of the new Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife.
Cables will oversee the division and its 880 employees beginning in July. The new division unites the existing Colorado Division of Wildlife and Colorado State Parks, a merger approved by state lawmakers and signed into law June 6 by Governor John Hickenlooper.
“Rick Cables brings an accomplished career of conservation success, much of it in the West, to this critical role leading our new Parks and Wildlife division,” said Mike King, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. “We are fortunate to have a person with his conservation values, management talent and wealth of experience with western landscapes taking the helm of this new agency.”
“I feel privileged to be joining the remarkable professionals of the newly created Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife,” Cables said in a press release. “Their passion, professionalism and dedication to Colorado’s wildlife and state parks make our wonderful state even more special. I’m very excited to pursue this new challenge.”
As regional forester, Cables has been responsible for the administration of over 22 million acres in 17 national forests and 7 national grasslands.
