Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Melany Glossa brings a history of program management with her as she takes over as U.S. Forest Service Sweet Home District Ranger.
Glossa, 41, arrived in Sweet Home on Nov. 9 and started working as district ranger on Nov. 12, succeeding Mike Rassbach who was ranger for nine years and moved to Walla Walla to take a ranger position there.
Glossa grew up in Indiana and completed undergraduate work in forestry and wildlife management at Purdue University. She has lived in 10 different states where she has mostly worked in forest-related fields.
She graduated from Oregon State University in 1994 with a master’s degree in forestry. She later did some Ph.D. work in Colorado but did not complete the degree.
Indiana is an “interesting place to grow up,” Glossa said. “It’s cornfields and cows, but they do have forests.”
Those forests are primarily hardwoods, harvested for veneer, she said, quite different from Northwest forests.
Glossa has worked for the Forest Service for about seven years, she said. Before that she worked as a consultant doing environmental analysis for the Forest Service as well as the Bureau of Land Management, the Department of Defense and other clients.
Much of her career has dealt with National Environment Protection Act requirements in forestry, she said. She has been a wildlife biologist for the state of Missouri as well as a game warden. She has taught college classes in forest modeling and forest economics. She has been involved in research into Midwestern oak regeneration.
She moved to Sweet Home from Grangeville, Idaho., the county seat of Idaho County, the largest county by area in the state but with a population of just 6,000.
Grangeville is off the beaten path and visitors have generally made a point of going there, she said.
While there, she worked for the Nez Perce National Forest in ecosystem planning, managing budgets and personnel in 12 to 15 different programs, including wildlife, fisheries, watershed, minerals, heritage, resource information, silviculture and more.
“It does give you a lot of experience keeping the plates spinning,” she said, and it gave her the opportunity to be involved in many different things, setting her up to be a district ranger.
Nez Perce is “a great forest,” she said. “Wonderful people out there.”
“When the opportunity came to come out here, I felt I couldn’t pass it up,” she said. “The Willamette is a premiere forest, and Sweet Home is one of the best districts you could ever have.”
Sweet Home’s success and reputation arises largely because of the connection between the community and the Forest Service, she said, something perpetuated by Rassbach during his nine years here.
Rassbach’s predecessor, Rolf Anderson, continued to work in the community long after his retirement.
The district is outstanding in a variety of programs, including its forest products, heritage resources and an expanding fisheries restoration program, she said, and the district is developing a great relationship with the Grand Ronde Indians.
“Our recreation program, even though it’s small, is solid,” she said.
Glossa stressed that she has an open-door policy with the public and invites members of the community to drop in and visit.
One topic she’s not ready to talk about though is the travel management plan, she said. She’s getting up to speed on the issue, which will close the forest to vehicles and then immediately reopen certain sections of it.
At this point, based on her initial look at the issue, she said she doesn’t expect any dramatic changes in the Sweet Home Ranger District.
She has enjoyed moving to Sweet Home, she said. “It’s been a short time, but everybody has been so warm and accepting.”
Sweet Home, contrasted with isolated Grangeville, has all of the amenities that might be needed, and is within 45 minutes of anything else someone might want, Glossa said.
She is married to John Glossa. They have three children, Bella, 4; Milo, 2; and Coco, 1 month.
She spends much of her free time with her children, the youngest born as she was preparing to move, spending some time at work with her for now.
She said she wants to make Sweet Home her long-term home.
“I’m really looking forward to becoming part of the community here in Sweet Home,” she said. “The people here in Sweet Home seem to not only allow it but encourage it.”