Courtesy photo
Curtis Keetch was appointed as the Acting Aspen-Sopris District Ranger, the White River National Forest announced Friday.
Keetch takes the helm after the departure of Karen Schroyer, who was the district ranger for more than five years. She was promoted to deputy forest supervisor in the Mount Hood National Forest in Oregon.
Keetch has been the district ranger on the Blanco Ranger District in Meeker since 2016. He has been working full-time for the Forest Service since 2003 when he became a wildlife biologist on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest in Idaho.
He will oversee the Aspen-Sopris Ranger District while the White River National Forest Staff goes through the process to find a permanent ranger.
“I’m looking forward to working with our partners in the Roaring Fork Valley and all the dedicated employees on the district,” Keetch said. “It will be a great opportunity to work in an area with such high visitor use and unique resource management challenges.”
Keetch grew up in a small community in southeast Idaho on a family-owned cattle ranch. He learned to love and respect the outdoors at an early age. In high school, he spent his summers helping on the ranch and working as a seasonal Forest Service employee on timber, fire, range and recreation crews.