PORTLAND – Regional Director of State & Private Forestry Debbie Hollen has been named as the new Deputy Regional Forester for the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region.
“I’m pleased to announce Debbie Hollen as our new Deputy Regional Forester,” Glenn Casamassa, Pacific Northwest Regional Forester, said. “Debbie’s passion for the outdoors and experience working at the intersection of ecological and human interests have long been an asset to our region, and will continue to benefit our communities and stakeholders in her newly expanded role. Her work on Shared Stewardship, particularly, has greatly informed our region’s efforts to identify new ways to partner with state, tribal and private interests in our region, and has produced real change that we will continue to build upon with her addition to the Regional Forester Team.”
Hollen has served as the Regional Director of State and Private Forestry for the Pacific Northwest Region (Region 6) and Alaska (Region 10) since 2016. Previously, she served as the Pacific Northwest Region’s Assistant Director of Natural Resources. She has served as the Forest Service designated representative to the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board since 2009.
Hollen’s experience has given her broad expertise in Federal land management planning and policy development, and working with partners on a wide range of issues, most recently on Shared Stewardship agreements with Washington and Oregon. Her background includes interagency experience and at multiple levels of forest management, all deeply rooted in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska; she previously worked as Branch Chief for Resources for the Bureau of Land Management Alaska Office, for Bonneville Power Administration (as Vegetation Maintenance Officer), for the Gifford Pinchot National Forest (as the Mount St. Helens district fisheries biologist), and for the Mt. Hood National Forest, also as a fisheries biologist.
Hollen grew up in Anchorage, Alaska and attended Humboldt State University in Northern California where she earned a bachelor’s degree in freshwater fisheries management.
She is scheduled to start in her new position in late September.
“I’m grateful for this opportunity to continue serving the Pacific Northwest,” Hollen said. “We have a strong tradition of collaborative leadership in our region, and I am excited to engage with our communities and our employees in new way. I especially look forward to identifying more opportunities for increasing program integration within our agency and to continuing our work with states, tribes, local forest communities, private landowners, and other partners as we work together to sustain the forests of Oregon and Washington.”
The Pacific Northwest Region consists of 16 National Forests, 59 District Offices, a National Scenic Area, and a National Grassland comprising 24.7 million acres in Oregon and Washington and employing approximately 3,550 people. To learn more about the U.S. Forest Service in the Pacific Northwest, please visit http://www.fs.usda.gov/r6.
