Gail Kimbell is the regional forester of the Forest Service’s Northern Region, headquartered in Missoula, Mont.

From May 2002 until her selection for this position Kimbell served as the associate deputy chief for the national forest system in the Forest Service. While headquartered in Pueblo, Colo., from 1999-2002, she was the forest supervisor of the Pike and San Isabel National Forests and the Comanche National Grassland, all in Colorado, as well as the Cimarron National Grassland in Kansas. She served as the forest supervisor of the Bighorn National Forest, based in Sheridan, Wyo., from 1997-99, after having been the forest supervisor of the Tongass National Forest, based in Petersburg, Alaska, from 1991-97.

Kimbell worked as a district ranger in LaGrande, Ore., from 1988-91, after having been a district ranger in Kettle Falls, Wash., from 1985-88. She began her career with FS as a pre-sale forester in Kodiak, Alaska, in 1977, and subsequently worked in Oregon for the agency as a logging engineer and then a district planner. She began her career in the federal government in 1974 as a forester with the Bureau of Land Management in Medford, Ore.

Brad Powell, the previous regional forester of FS’s Northern Region, is presently based at the agency’s Mesa Ranger District in Mesa, Ariz., as FS’s liaison to the Wildland Fire Leadership Council. Its membership includes FS, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the Western Governors Association, the National Association of Counties, and American Indian Tribal representatives, and its purpose is to coordinate the implementation of the governmentwide National Fire Plan. •