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The Kootenai National Forest has announced a new Forest Supervisor who is a native of Plains. Chad Benson will assume duties of overseeing operations on the Kootenai, which includes the Cabinet Ranger District in Sanders County.

For a brief period, Benson worked as an engineer at the Cabinet District in 2001 before transferring to Missoula to work for the Lolo National Forest’s Supervisor’s Office. In 2006, he relocated to the Powell Ranger District on the Clearwater National Forest in Idaho serving as District Ranger.

Continuing to work for the Forest Service, Benson then returned to the Lolo National Forest in 2009 to a District Ranger position on the Ninemile District. He then served two detail positions in 2014, one as a Region One Headquarters’ Legislative Affairs Specialist and the other as Deputy Forest Supervisor at the Custer Gallatin National Forest in Bozeman, Montana, where he ultimately received a permanent position.

In the fall of 2018, Benson became the Acting Forest Supervisor on the Kootenai National Forest and has now taken on the role permanently.

Benson graduated in Engineering Science from Montana Tech in Butte, Montana. After college, he was a project engineer and manager for a construction company that built infrastructure for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games. Benson and his wife Aubree have two boys, Lane and Brett.