Thomas L. Tidwell was the 17th Chief of the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

(USFS) of the

Department of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

, and was appointed on July 17, 2009, succeeding

Gail Kimbell Abigail R. "Gail" Kimbell was the 16th and first female Chief of the United States Forest Service. Biography Kimbell was raised New England, where she spent her formative years hiking, fishing, and camping in the White Mountain National Forest. ...

. He was succeeded by

Tony Tooke Tony Tooke was the Chief of the United States Forest Service for a little over six months, from September 1, 2017, until he announced his retirement on March 7, 2018 due to numerous sexual misconduct allegations over his four decades of employment ...

, who was sworn in September 1, 2017.

Biography

Early life and education

Tom Tidwell grew up in

Boise, Idaho Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown are ...

. He graduated from

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant unive ...

, where he was a student of Rexford F. Daubenmire.

Forester

Tidwell began his Forest Service career on the Boise National Forest in fire, and has since worked on eight different national forests, in three regions. He has worked at all levels of the agency in a variety of positions, including District Ranger, Forest Supervisor, and Legislative Affairs Specialist in the Washington Office, where he worked on the planning rule, the 2001

roadless rule Roadless area conservation is a conservation policy limiting road construction and the resulting environmental impact on designated areas of public land. In the United States, roadless area conservation has centered on U.S. Forest Service area ...

and the Secure Rural Schools County Payments Act. Tom served as the Deputy Regional Forester for the Pacific Southwest Region (California, Hawaii, and the Pacific Islands) with primary responsibility for fire and aviation management, recreation, engineering, state and private forestry and tribal relations. Tidwell also served as Forest Supervisor during the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internation ...

in Salt Lake City, Utah. On June 17, 2009, Agriculture Secretary

Tom Vilsack Thomas James Vilsack (; born December 13, 1950) is an American politician serving as the 32nd United States Secretary of Agriculture in the Biden administration. He previously served in the role from 2009 to 2017 during the Obama administration. ...

announced that Tidwell would serve as the new Chief for the

. "Tom Tidwell's 32 years of experience in our forests and impressive track record of collaboration and problem-solving will help us tackle the great challenges ahead," said Vilsack.

Personal

Tom is married to Kim, and they have one daughter, MacKenzie.

References

External links

Thomas Tidwell biographical profile
(

Forest History Society The Forest History Society is an American non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of forest and conservation history."Forest History Society." Echo Project. Center for History and New Media, George Mason University. http://echo.gmu. ...

) Living people American foresters Washington State University alumni Obama administration personnel American conservationists United States Forest Service officials People from Boise, Idaho Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-gov-bio-stub