Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The Sweet Home Ranger District will have a new district ranger in November.
Melany Glossa accepted the position recently and is scheduled to report for duty on Nov. 11.
She is the ecosystem, planning, heritage and minerals staff officer on the Nez Perce National Forest in Idaho.
“She brings a wealth of skills to the job and is a highly regarded communicator and team member,” Willamette National Forest Deputy Forest Supervisor Scott Fitzwilliams said in an e-mail to the Sweet Home Ranger District.
She will move to Sweet Home with her husband, John, and two children, Bella, 4, and Milo, 18 months. Her starting date may be earlier or later because she is expecting her third child at the end of October.
“I really think she’s going to be great,” acting District Ranger Nikki Swanson said. “She seems to be really positive. It was really important to her and her husband to live in the community and be a part of the community.
“I think she’s going to be just the right thing. based on what I’ve seen here. I think she’s going to be a nice match for the community and the district.”
Swanson will continue working in Sweet Home into November and probably for a few days with Glossa during the transition.
Swanson is the aquatics program manager, which means she heads the Willamette National Forest’s fisheries and watershed programs. She is based in Eugene.
She has served in Sweet Home since Mike Rassbach left in July to become ranger in the Walla Walla District of the Umatilla National Forest.
“A lot of it is just making sure things continue, that people have what they need to get work done, keep things running smoothly during the transition,” Swanson said of filling in. “I love it. I would have applied for the job myself except for the commuting and family situation.
“I am so impressed. I always knew that Sweet Home was kind of special, but I was really impressed with the way this district was tied into the community.”
That connection was part of what earned Sweet Home Ranger District the Pacific Northwest Region’s 2006 Caring for the Land and Serving the People Award for its Natural Resource Hikes and Heritage Expeditions.
Among the criteria for the award:
– Accomplishments showing tangible results on the land or service to people.
– Accomplishments illustrating integrated resource results, contributing to ecosystem health or recovery, providing long-term benefit to basic land resource values or enhancing the community or workplace.
– Accomplishments conveying the “caring for land and serving people”
– Providing a leadership model for the region.
Swanson recognized Joanne West, who retired in August, for coordinating the Heritage program.
The district will continue the Heritage program, which includes hikes and multi-day expeditions into the woods for members of the public. The trips expose participants to Forest Service issues along with educational components about the resources in the forest.
“It’s a program we’re really proud of,” Swanson said.
Other people in the district will handle West’s duties in planning the events.
At West’s retirement party, a participant from one of the expeditions said the Forest Service should have more of this type of activity, Swanson said. The Forest Service would have fewer problems, and “people would understand what it is the Forest Service is trying to accomplish.”
West was also instrumental in the establishment of the Over the River and Through the Woods Scenic Byway, which follows Highway 20 through the Sweet Home Ranger District. She also organized the annual Civilian Conservation Corps reunions in August.
West’s retirement “was hard for people, both internal and external, because people really admire her for what she’s done, especially with the Heritage Hikes,” Swanson said.