Bill Anthony feels like he is coming home as the new Sisters District Ranger.

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Anthony served as District Ranger in Boulder, Colorado, since November, 1992, but he has tight connections to Central Oregon.

Anthony, 45, worked in the Deschutes National Forest Supervisor's Office in Bend from 1979 through 1987, and met his wife, Tracey, in Bend in 1981. The couple has friends and family in the Sisters area.

"I never thought I'd have a chance to come back exactly here, but I always wanted to come back to the Pacific Northwest, especially the east side," Anthony said. "It's kind of a coming home for us."

Anthony brings a wide range of skills and experience to his new job in Sisters.

He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Penn State, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Arizona, and a Master of Forestry degree from Utah State University. He has held a variety of administrative posts in the Forest Service during his 18-year career.

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Anthony recently served as acting Forest Supervisor for four months on the Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grasslands headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado. Prior to his Boulder Ranger District assignment, Anthony was in the Rocky Mountain Regional Office in Lakewood, Colorado ,where he served as Assistant to the Director for Renewable Resources for two years.

He also put in three years with the Information Systems Staff at the Forest Service national office in Washington, DC. During this assignment he spent most of his time working in land management planning.

Anthony will need all the business and management skills he can muster to meet the Sisters District's mission at a time when budgets are shrinking fast while the demands on the forest are growing even faster.

"Our amount of work is directly proportional to the number of people on the face of the earth," Anthony reflected. "How do you balance how different people like to use their public lands, and how do you preserve that for future generations so they have options with it?"

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Like many government agencies, the Forest Service has seen its budgets shrink in recent years, forcing the agency to figure out new ways of doing business.

"You wind up really wrestling with what are the priorities, what things can you really get done," Anthony said.

Anthony hopes the Sisters community will help establish those priorities. He believes strongly that local people should be involved in working out solutions to some of the thorny issues that face the forests.

He plans to meet informally with community members to get an idea of what Sisters area residents expect from the forest lands that surround them.

"I'm going to spend a lot of time next month visiting a lot of people, getting to know the people in the community," he said.

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Anthony, who was chosen from a pool of 58 applicants for the job, is just getting a feel for the challenges presented by the Sisters District. The district offers a host of recreation opportunities and large stretches of wilderness, and also problems with disease and concerns about fire.

"Forest health is obviously an important issue," Anthony noted.

Restoring watersheds and aquatic habitat, and returning forest conditions to open stands of ponderosa pine, unchoked by heavy build-up of underbrush, are primary missions of the district. So is protection from catastrophic wildfire, which threatens not only property and lives in the Sisters area, but the very existence of the pine forest.

"I love the forests around here," Anthony said. "The forests in Central Oregon are some of the most beautiful forests I've ever seen. Some of these ponderosa pine stands are jewels. You'd hate to lose them."

Anthony's love for the forests extends off the job. He and his wife and seven-year-old son Nick enjoy mountain biking, skiing, hiking and camping. Anthony is an avid wind-surfer, and he's eager to get a fly-line into some of the local streams.

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In fact, everything his family enjoys is, "everything Central Oregon is great for," he said.

"This is about a dream come true."