Today's program is The Bureau of Land Management, brief history and local management activities presented by Bill Dean and Ferris Couture.
From Bill Dean, Field Office Manager for the Grants Pass Field Office, Medford District, Bureau of Land Management; 1999 to present, and I have worked for the BLM for approximately 31 years.
On the Prineville District BLM, I was the Associate District Manager for three years, an Assistant Field Manager for 7 years and a wildlife biologist for 6 years. I worked for 12 years as a wildlife biologist for the BLM on the Klamath Falls, Eugene and Butte Montana Field Offices. I also held temporary positions with the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Colorado Division of Wildlife, Washington Department of Wildlife, State University of New York (SUNY), New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and The Nature Conservancy.
B.S. Wildlife Biology, Colorado State University
A.S. Environmental Science and Forestry, Finger Lakes Community College, SUNY
A.A.S. Natural Resources Conservation, SUNY
Ferris is currently the Assistant Field Manager for the Natural Resources group with the BLM, Medford District, Grants Pass Field Office. She began her career with BLM in Grants Pass as an entry level forester in a student career program. She was a forester for 6 years and then transitioned into National Environmental Policy Act planning and project management, which she did for an additional 6 years. Ferris has been with the Grant Pass BLM for 13 years and has enjoyed her time in SW Oregon.
Ferris enjoys working with different disciplines and partner groups to manage our public working forest lands in SW Oregon. She has a knack for explaining complex topics in simple terms, ensuring information about forest and watershed management is understandable by community members who are not experts in these fields.
Ferris is a lifelong Oregonian, she was born in Ashland and grew up in the Willamette Valley. She attended Mount Hood Community College and eventually graduated with a bachelor degree in Natural Resources Management from the OSU Cascades campus in Central Oregon. She loves recreating outdoors with her family, which includes her husband, their toddler, and two dogs!
