Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell has selected Cal Joyner as the new Regional Forester for the Southwestern Region, replacing Corbin Newman who retired last December. Joyner is currently Associate Deputy Chief for the National Forest System in Washington, DC. He reports July 15.
Joyner is not new to the southwest. From 1992 to 1995, he worked as both the Rural Development and State and Private Forestry Specialist in Arizona for the Forest Service.
Prior to his current position, Joyner was Director of Forest Management in the Washington Office for a little over one year. He served as Deputy Regional Forester in the Pacific Northwest Region from 2007 until August 2011, overseeing Natural Resources, as well as State and Private Forestry. For five years before that, he was the Pacific Northwest Region Director of Natural Resources, responsible for programs of forest management, rangelands, soil, water, fish, wildlife, and forest health protection.
Joyner graduated from Humboldt State University with a degree in watershed management. He began his Forest Service career in 1980, working as a hydrologist and environmental coordinator on the Siuslaw, Gifford Pinchot, and Willamette National Forests, before becoming District Ranger in 1989 on the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana.
In 1995, he became the Associate Forest Supervisor of the San Juan-Rio Grande National Forests and also the Area Manager of the San Juan Resource Area of BLM-Colorado. Joyner was named Forest Supervisor and Field Manager for the combined San Juan National Forest and San Juan Bureau of Land Management Field Office in Durango, CO from 1998 to 2002.
Joyner stated, “I’m honored to be the Regional Forester for the Southwestern Region. I’m glad to be returning to the southwest, and I look forward to continuing the great work being done to care for the land and to meet employees and partners throughout the southwest.”