News

Pisgah announces new head ranger

By Bill Moss, Published: October 28, 2016

The National Forests in North Carolina announced the appointment of a new top ranger who will manage operations in the Pisgah Ranger District starting Monday.

Dave Casey was most recently the District Ranger on the Bankhead Ranger District on the National Forests in Alabama. Before that, he spent seven years as a silviculturist and timber management administrator on the Cheoah and Tusquitee Ranger Districts on the Nantahala National Forest. He started in forestry on the Grandfather Ranger District on the Pisgah National Forest and also worked on the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests in Virginia.

"Dave has an excellent record with partnerships and collaborative experience and a tremendous background in natural resource management," Allen Nicholas, Forest Supervisor of the National Forests in North Carolina, said in a news release. "He also has lived and worked in western North Carolina previously so understands the forests and communities we serve."

Casey has a B.S. in Environmental Sciences from Tennessee Technological University. Before getting a master's degree in forestry from the University of Tennessee, he worked for the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation on soil and groundwater remediation projects. A native ofNashville, he is in the woods every chance he gets and spends a lot of time in the mountains of Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina. He is moving to the Brevard area with his wife and three children.

"My family and I are very excited to get back to the mountains and great folks of western North Carolina," said Casey. "I plan to continue the high level of collaboration that the Pisgah already enjoys with the local community. I'm confident we can work together to ensure the Pisgah is managed successfully for the many services and resources that we're all passionate about."