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The Lolo National Forest has had an active couple of years. After major fires including the Copper King Fire in 2016 and Sheep Gap Fire in 2017 come restoration and salvage efforts.

Nate Kegel, a 1999 graduate of Thompson Falls High School, was recently honored by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) for his efforts with the Lolo National Forest as the Managerial Engineer of the Year. He and his wife Corrie, also a 1999 TFHS graduate, traveled to Washington, D.C., to accept the award on April 5.

"It was a bit overwhelming," Kegel said. "I just tried to take it all in."

Kegel is an Assistant Forest Engineer and oversees a team of 12 engineers across the Lolo National Forest, from Seeley Lake to Thompson Falls.

"We have a really good forest leadership team, including district rangers," Kegel said. "And a really good engineering staff that does a considerable amount of work. I feel fortunate to have that and they played a big factor in making the award a possibility."

Last fall, Kegel was honored with the Managerial Engineer of the Year for Region 1 of the USFS, which includes Montana and North Idaho. From there, he was automatically up for the national competition, which included the top engineers from each of the nine USFS regions.

"I thought (the regional award) was pretty awesome because I know most of the people in the region and there are a lot of people I look up to," Kegel said. He noted that he works hard to collaborate not only internally but with USFS external partners and stakeholders to create good relationships.

"I do a lot with our partners, especially in Mineral and Sanders counties where you have 80 to 90 percent national forest," Kegel said. "The road system in particular is a big piece of that, and we have a lot of cooperative roads that start out as county and lead up into forest." He said he works on joint projects with the counties, coordinating with commissioners. "In this climate when you're trying to create good relationships and the Forest Service has such a strong presence, you have to have good relationships." He said the partnership work in the Lolo National Forest is being recognized at the national level. Last year, he coordinated with Sanders County on the Copper King salvage project.

"The award represents a collective effort that took place on the Lolo this year," Kegel said. "It was an impressive effort to get through a quick turnaround on salvage logging," he said, referring to the Copper King effort.

Last fall, Kegel also was awarded for a project with Trout Unlimited that received the National Rise to the Future award. Kegel said they collaborated with Trout Unlimited and fisheries biologist John Hanson on a restoration project at Cedar Creek near Superior that was important for bull trout. The project, which took several years to complete, included moving a road away from a stream to create a better environment for bull trout.

Kegel said he also works with other resource areas within the USFS. "That's a big thing with engineering. We have to be an integrated resource area because others rely on us to help implement projects," he said, including working with fisheries, timber, land, and special uses staff.

Kegel has worked for USFS for 15 years, starting out as a seasonal employee working on the trail crew and fire crew.