Jack Ward Thomas

Who is Jack Ward Thomas?

Jack Ward Thomas was the thirteenth chief of the U.S. Forest Service, serving during the Clinton administration years of 1993-1996.

He was born September 7, 1934, in Fort Worth, Texas. His undergraduate education and degree was from Texas A&M University. He worked for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for ten years. Then while working as a USFS research biologist at Morgantown, WV, he received an MS in wildlife ecology from West Virginia University. He headed a Forest Service research unit at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He received his PhD in forestry there in 1972. In 1974 he moved to La Grande, Oregon working as the chief research wildlife biologist and program leader at the USFS Forestry and Range Sciences Laboratory.

On December 1, 1993 he was appointed Chief of the U.S. Forest Service. During his time as head of the USFS, the Northwest Forest Plan was adopted. After retiring from the Forest Service, he accepted a position as Boone & Crockett Professor of Wildlife Conservation at the School of Forestry of the University of Montana in Missoula.