Carson names two new district rangers
Carson National Forest Supervisor James Duran has appointed two new permanent district rangers, the forest announced Monday (Feb. 5).
Amy Simms will lead the Questa Ranger District and Kelly Garcia will manage the Tres Piedras Ranger District. Both started last week, according to a press release.
Questa District Ranger
Amy Simms was raised in Taos. She has worked for the Forest Service for over 20 years, much of it on the Carson National Forest in recreation and fire. She has worked as a fire prevention technician; the recreation and lands program manager; and the public services staff officer for the last five years, overseeing recreation, real estate, special use permits and cultural resources across the forest. She was the acting Tres Piedras District Ranger for four months in 2022.
“The Carson has been my home forest all my life, and I’m so happy to be able to continue to be one of its many stewards,” Simms said in the release.
Simms has a bachelor’s degree in natural resource recreation and tourism, with an emphasis in park and protected area management, from Colorado State University. She is a proud graduate of Taos High School.
She enjoys running, biking,
skiing and seeing her family. “Both sides of my family are from New Mexico,” she said. “I have four younger sisters, and everyone
lives within driving distance from each other.”
Simms replaces former Questa district Ranger Adam LaDell,
who last fall moved to Montana to be the Spotted Bear District Ranger on the Flathead National Forest.
Tres Piedras District Ranger
Kelly Garcia hails from Mogote, Colorado, where he has been working on the Rio Grande National Forest as a rangeland management specialist. Like Simms, he’s a career employee, starting out as a volunteer in the late ‘90s. Most of his experience is in rangeland management, but he has also worked in botany, soils, hydrology, air pollution monitoring, wilderness, trails, travel management, and stock/ equine.
“I’m really looking forward to becoming part of the Carson family,” Garcia said in the release. “It really has some wonderful country and people.”
Garcia earned his rangeland management qualifications from Colorado State University. He received a bachelor’s degree in environmental science from Adam State University.
He enjoys hiking, backpacking, hunting, cross-country skiing and most everything else outdoors. He also farms, focusing on hay for horses.
Indoors, he enjoys a good movie. A favorite of his is “A River Runs Through It.” He is inspired by the footage, resembling Forest Service Centennial documentary “The Greatest Good,” and gets a good chuckle during the scene when the father suggested a career with the Forest Service was a poor option. Garcia said he would have much different advice.