The U.S. Forest Service has selected Jerome “Jerry” Perez to be the new National Director of Fire and Aviation Management in Washington, D.C. He is currently the Forest Supervisor of the Angeles National Forest in Southern California.
The position has been vacant, occupied by acting personnel, since Shawna Legarza retired 18 months ago, June 30, 2020. Since then employees detailed temporarily to the job included Klamath Forest Supervisor Patty Grantham, Helena-Lewis and Clark Forest Supervisor Bill Avey, and Southwest Region Fire Director Jacob Nuttall.
“I welcome Jerry’s 32 years of experience and expertise as he leads our outstanding firefighters and guides the fire and aviation program to meet the challenge of preventing and managing wildfires,” said Forest Service Chief Randy Moore. “He steps into this position as the agency focuses on significantly increasing the pace and scale of hazardous fuels treatments focused in areas that have the highest risks of wildfires and threats to vital infrastructure.”
Prior to working on the Angeles NF Mr. Perez served as California State Director for the Bureau of Land Management and was the Oregon/Washington BLM State Director. Before his stint at the BLM he worked for the Forest Service in several positions, including Deputy Regional Forester for the Intermountain Region in Utah, Forest Supervisor on the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky, Deputy Forest Supervisor for the Stanislaus National Forest in California, and was the National Litigation Coordinator in the Washington Office.
He has a Forestry degree from West Virginia University and a law degree from Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Mr. Perez also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana, Africa.
Years from now Historians will call this…
“The worst mistake ever made”.
And we wondering why the wildland firefighting environment is in such shambles.
-We have local line officers with no fire experience calling the shots.
-We have County Sheriffs with no purview of wildland firefighting as the lead firefighting agency in their respective Counties.
– Now the U.S. Forest Service has…Jerry…the lawyer at the helm.
We’re so screwed. What a terrible, terrible decision.
SO, the dude that was selected to lead the firefighting effort at the National Office…is a lawyer with. o fire experience whatsoever. F_____g great. We’re doomed.
I spent 5 years on the staff of a District arranger who was on a top fire leadership team the entire time. I have no idea how successful he was, but it was an open joke among his staff that he had minimal skills as a manager. When he was guven a directed reassignment, I was appointed as Acting DR with specific direction to identify serious personnel problems in the timber sale prep and the timber sal administration departments and have recommendations for action for whomever would replace me.
I mention this to illustrate that experience in fire manage tdoes not necessarily equal competence as a manager of programs and people. My hope is the new appointee will be competent in both areas. At any rate, we need to give him a chance to do his job.
When I was selected for a job inaccurately described in the vacancy announcement that turned to be the first PIO on the Sierra NF, I had a steep learning curve and little support from the Forest Supervisor, but I learned quickly, made an occasional error, and was contacted by local media for information for several years after I returned to my district recreation and land staff job. Earlier in my career I was promoted to a job as a right- of- way agent to get access the numerous private I holdings in the Tahoe NF–a task I knew nothing about. With support from my boss and a more experienced colleague, I was successful, including securing RO approval to seek ccndem action to secure legal access that 2 predecessors failed to accomplish.
I don’t see any aviation experience. Yet, his title does happen to include the term “aviation”. The Forest service is fraught with problems, one of the most serious (as demonstrated during the 2021 season) is finding someone who has a background sufficiently deep enough in aviation skills to successfully manage a wildly fleet of air tankers.
I am sure the Chief has a fairly good handle on what needs fixing in the FS fire program, and hired the best person from the list available to him. We would all feel more comfortable if our Director had an extensive fire background, but they don’t.
What we need more than comfort is for the agency to make substantial progress on some of our major challenges: recruitment and retention, employee health (physical and mental, OWCP), failed culture of “do more with less”, and maybe the biggest challenge – majority of fire employees just don’t believe the agency cares about them and are tired of the lip service.
Congratulation to Jerry on the promotion. The agency is currently failing it’s fire employees, but that can be turned around. We are at a critical juncture where we need strong leadership with bold new answers.
We’ve “gotten away with” treating employees poorly, but that won’t cut it anymore. And, it was never right.
Has he ever dug line?
What a disappointment. Jerry seem’d like a nice guy when he was the State director for CA BLM, but I remember him being presented with a bunch of fixable problems and not doing anything to solve them before he left to the Angeles. Plus he doesn’t even have a fire background…
I’m sure this is a time and grade issue, where folks on the non-fire side of the agency can climb into a GS 12/13 position in 5-10 years where it takes fire personnel their whole career to get enough time and grade to get to a GS-11( if their lucky)…It shows how serious the administration is taking the recruitment/retention issue, and all the other problems.
Looking back at previous Directors like Jerry Williams, Tom Harbor, Joe Cruz and Shawna, I have to ask: what wildland fire quals and background does Mr. Perez besides being Forest Supe on the Angeles NF? He seems to be closer aligned with someone like Mary Jo Lavin, and we know how that worked out.
Shawna had a ton of fire experience. I don’t seem to recall a tidal wave of extraordinary accomplishments that created significant improvement to the fire community at large under her tenure. Some could argue that during her tenure, the situation got worse. Jerry probably deserves a chance before the rotten tomatoes get thrown at him.
Shawna was one of the best leaders we had in the agency. We still miss her today. We welcome Jerry and look forward to his leadership.