Cal Poly grad has held various forestry positions in western U.S.
U.S. Forest Service officials announced the selection of Jeanne Dawson as the new deputy forest supervisor for Los Padres National Forest. Dawson succeeds Chris Stubbs, who last June was named Los Padres Forest supervisor.
Dawson previously served in the Forest Service’s Northern Region on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest as the range, recreation, partnerships and lands staff officer and resource advisory committees coordinator. She has also worked in the Southwest Region on the Santa Fe National Forest as the forestry program manager and on the Cibola National Forest and National Grasslands as a zoned timber management assistant and district forester.
Through these positions, she gained experience in working with collaborative groups of different sizes and backgrounds to find consensus in designing and implementing large, landscape-scale restoration projects to benefit wildlife, watersheds, local communities, public land users, and ecological resiliency to wildfire, insects and disease.
While Dawson has worked in wildland fire suppression and prescribed burning throughout her career, she also worked several seasons as a type 6 engine assistant on the Pacific Northwest Region’s Wallowa-Whitman National Forest and was a seasonal technician for fuels and fire suppression on the Rocky Mountain Region’s Pike-San Isabel National Forest. Dawson recently completed an assignment as an acting district ranger on the Lincoln National Forest.
A California native, Dawson’s first Forest Service job was on the Kootenai National Forest in Montana following her freshman year at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in forestry and natural resources.
“I am excited to return to the Central Coast and I look forward to working with our dedicated employees and amazing partners in stewarding the important resources and values that the American public expects and entrusts us to do,” Dawson said.
Dawson began in her new role Oct. 9.
