New ranger arrives in Mt. Taylor district

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Helen Davis
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — New Mount Taylor District Ranger Matt Reidy arrived in Grants from a post in Oregon two weeks ago and said he is glad to be back in the Southwest.

Reidy was a forestry technician when he first came to the district in 1984 and had worked his way up to forester before he left the area in 1989.

“It is good to be back to work in the Mount Taylor Ranger District. I look forward to working with community leaders,” he said.

The ranger came back to New Mexico from Wallowa-Whitman National Forest near Baker City in eastern Oregon, where he worked for six years and was forest officer in charge of aviation, fire, fleets and other forest management areas. Reidy said the eastern Oregon forest district there is similar to the open ranges of New Mexico, and he must be something of a desert rat since he really likes these dry, open areas.

Reidy grew up near Chicago, where it is green and moist, and attended Southern Illinois University, but always wanted to live “west of the Pecos (River).” Right after college, he said, he joined the U.S. Forest Service and headed west. Asked if he ever looked back, Reidy said he did not think so; out of 26 years in the service, he spent 16 or 17 years in New Mexico.

Replacing retiring District Ranger Chuck Hagerdon, who left the position in April, Reidy takes the reins from interim Ranger Jon Williams and will have to pick up the recent changes with the traditional cultural property designation for Mount Taylor and work with Travel Management Team Leader Arnold Wilson to complete the changes in road access in the Zuni Mountains and on Mount Taylor.

Reidy said the number one priority facing the district at this time is travel management. In 2005, the U.S. Forest Service issued a mandate for all districts in the United States to revise travel management plans because the service has been building roads for fifty years and some are redundant, and because modern off-road vehicles were never considered in older forest use plans. The deadline for public comments on the proposal is November 8.

The new ranger said he has spent much of the first two weeks meeting other forestry and park personnel, attending meetings and getting to know some of the community leaders, with an emphasis on multi-agency forest restoration projects.

He added that there are still plenty of people to meet and coordinate activities with.