Julie Hall is the district ranger for the U.S. Forest Service’s San Jacinto Ranger District.

Photo by JP Crumrine

The San Bernardino National Forest has a new district ranger. Julie Hall has arrived from the Inyo National Forest to be the San Jacinto District ranger. The recent federal government shutdown may have delayed her official start, but she already is a community member.

She and husband Jeff have purchased a home in Pine Cove. “We’re excited to be part of the community. I did not want to commute. I want to be here with our partners, employees and community,” she said.

“I’ve learned the Forest Service is a key part of communities, especially rural ones,” she continued. “I want to send a message to the community that I will be part of the community.”

Hall comes from a Forest Service family. Her father retired from the Forest Service. She grew up on ranger stations in southeast Alaska and northern Minnesota. She knows small towns, having graduated from Bishop High School in Inyo County.

But during college in Santa Barbara, she studied history, planning to become a teacher.

Her Forest Service career began as a part-time employee in 1985 and she became full-time on the Inyo National Forest in 1991. Inyo is north of the SBNF and southwest of Yosemite National Park along the Nevada border.

During her career, she has “… worked through recreation, engineering, civil rights and administration.” She has served details as a district ranger. And she is familiar with the SBNF and San Jacinto mountains since she was the air tanker base manager at Hemet-Ryan Air Base before Forest Service operations were moved to San Bernardino County.

She has nothing but happiness and praise for the Forest Service. “I give the Forest Service credit. I was a very shy and quiet girl. The Forest Service did a great job teaching people how to speak with groups and engage with issues,” she said proudly.

And she has her goals. “The number one priority will be to deal with fire and fuel vegetation management,” she stated. “I definitely recognize that vegetation and fuel management is a critical issue for us.”

She also plans to focus on ecological restoration. This includes with partners on the Hill and other agencies, such as the Bureau of Land Management.

And setting priorities seems to be the hard part of Forest Service work. “You never seem to get done all you want to do,” Hall said. “Prioritizing is difficult. There are so many number ‘ones’ and hard to make something number ‘two.’

“I am very excited to be here and hope to become a part of the community not just a bureaucrat,” she said.

Hall is married and has three adult children. Jeff is a firefighter and paramedic in San Bernardino County.