Frank Beum

Frank Beum has been named as the new regional forester for the Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Region. Starting April 12, he will lead more than 2,000 permanent and seasonal employees and help oversee 22 million acres of national forests and grasslands in Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota.

The region includes both the Bighorn National Forest and Shoshone National Forest, where Beum worked as a seasonal employee in the early part of his long career. His first permanent job was on the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest, serving for eight years in both northern Colorado and southern Wyoming.

“Frank [Beum] will provide essential leadership carrying out agency and regional goals to work across landscapes with partners to regain ecological function, reduce the risks of damage to forests and grasslands and the surrounding communities, enhance the user experience, and manage the multiple uses and interests of these public lands,” said USDA Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen. “His work will support national priorities such as our role in containing the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring racial justice and equity, rebuilding the rural economy, and addressing the impacts of climate change.”

Beum is currently the deputy regional forester for natural resources for the Southern Region of the USDA Forest Service in Atlanta, overseeing 13 southern states and Puerto Rico. He has also served in acting roles as the associate deputy chief of the national forest system and the national director of forest management in Washington, D.C., as well as the acting regional forester in the Intermountain Region in Ogden, Utah.

Beum has worked in forestry for 40 years in various roles on seven national forests and five ranger districts in the Rocky Mountain and Southern Regions, as well as in the Southern Regional Office, the Washington Office, the Ohio Division of Forestry, and a college fellowship with the Wilderness Society. He began his Forest Service career in the Rocky Mountain Region as a seasonal forestry technician in 1981, putting in six summers of seasonal work on the Rio Grande, San Juan and Shoshone forests before landing a permanent position with the Medicine Bow-Routt.

Beum holds a bachelor’s degree in forestry at Ohio State University and a master’s degree in recreation resource management from Colorado State University. He and his wife, Jan, have two grown sons, who were born in Wyoming, a daughter-in-law, and one grandson.

Beum will replace Tammy Angel, who has served as acting regional forester for the Rocky Mountain Region since January. Angel will return to her position as deputy regional forester for the Rocky Mountain Region.