Forest Service welcomes Duncan Leao as new Carson Deputy District Ranger
CARSON CITY — The Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest welcomes Duncan Leao as the Deputy District Ranger for the Carson Ranger District. In his new position, Leao will assist the District Ranger in overseeing staff and resources needed to manage over 400,000 acres of National Forest System lands in the eastern front of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, straddling the Nevada and California border.
“Duncan has worked for the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest for the past eight years,” said Deputy Forest Supervisor Jon Stansfield. “During that time, he has emerged as a leader on our Forest and will be a great addition to our leadership team in his new capacity in managing a complex multiple-use Ranger District.”
Leao holds a bachelor’s and master’s of science degrees in forestry with an emphasis in ecosystem management, hydrology, and watershed management from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. While in college, he worked three summers for the U.S. Forest Service as a seasonal firefighter on the Modoc National Forest in California. He also held various temporary forestry or fuels positions with private companies and government agencies as he worked his way through graduate school.
Leao accepted his first permanent job with the Forest Service in 2005 as a Fuels Planner, Forester, and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Planner on the Lassen National Forest’s Almanor Ranger District in Chester, California. Since that first job, Leao has moved for the past 16 years to other Forest Service positions with increasing levels of responsibility where he has been able to develop his passion for doing the right thing for the land, people, and natural resource, while balancing multiple objectives and challenges.
In addition, Leao worked for eight years, advancing his career on the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit in South Lake Tahoe, California, as a Forester, Vegetation Planner, and Forest Timber Management Officer. In 2014, he accepted a job as the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest Vegetation and Fuels Program Manager in Sparks, Nevada, before his current position as the Carson Deputy District Ranger.
Throughout his career, Leao also held numerous detailed positions, including serving as Acting Assistant Vegetation, Urban Lots, Fire, and Fuels Staff Officer on the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit and Acting District Ranger positions on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, including the Santa Rosa Ranger District in Winnemucca, Nevada, Bridgeport Ranger District in Bridgeport, California, and Carson Ranger District in Carson City, Nevada.
“I’m excited to build on my experience with collaboration and partnerships to address the many challenges facing the Carson Ranger District and local communities,” said Leao. “Because they are important values to me, I would like to continue working on delivering quality and diverse recreation experiences in the midst of increasing public use, improving National Forest System lands resiliency to catastrophic wildfires through a shared stewardship approach, and providing for clean water and air and other ecosystem services to communities now and into the future in my new capacity in helping to manage a complex multi-use district.”
For additional information on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, please visit https://fs.usda.gov/htnf or participate in the conversation at https://twitter.com/HumboldtToiyabe and https://facebook.com/HumboldtToiyabeNF/.