Nevada City, April 15, 2024 - Tahoe National Forest Supervisor Eli Ilano is departing the forest after 14 years. Ilano will join the Forest Service’s national office to lead the agency’s timber and biomass utilization initiative.
“Working with the communities, organizations and staff of the Tahoe National Forest has been the highlight of my career,” said Ilano. “I feel lucky to have had the chance to work here.” During his tenure, Ilano had a particular focus on building partnerships between the Forest Service and a wide range of organizations and government entities.
“Eli Ilano elevated the partnership between the County of Nevada and the U.S. Forest Service to new heights during his tenure as Forest Supervisor of the Tahoe National Forest, which occupies 195,000 acres of our heavily forested community,” said Nevada County Executive Officer Alison Lehman. “Together, we tackled not only forest health and wildfire prevention but also major recreational initiatives. Eli’s been an exemplary partner and friend – I will miss him and wish him well in his latest endeavors.”
“With Eli’s innovative leadership the Tahoe National Forest has demonstrated an effective model of landscape-level shared stewardship, a model being adopted by forests across the West,” said Matt Millar of the National Forest Foundation.
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- From Mother Lode Trails: Ilano was not beloved by all. He was the lead responsible for the unpopular decision allowing motorized e-bikes onto Tahoe National Forest NON-motorized trails. After a lawsuit backed by the BackCountry Horsemen, Wilderness Society, Gold Country Trails Council and others, he pulled back the original plan. In spite of close to 500 miles of motorized trails for e-bikes, that didn't stop his push to add e-bikes to the non-motorized trails - TNF rewrote the original plan establishing the motorized bikes on non-motorized trails and finally got it through the legal loopholes.
Read more here: https://www.motherlodetrails.org/alerts/aerc-national-letter-opposing-new-tahoe-national-forest-policy-allowing-motorized-e-bikes-on-non-motorized-trails.
and here:
https://www.motherlodetrails.org/alerts/wilderness-society-joins-outdoor-partners-asking-the-tahoe-national-forest-to-reverse-its-decision-to-allow-motorized-bikes-on-non-motorized-trails
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Ilano served as Forest Supervisor on the Tahoe National Forest from 2016 to 2024. Previously, he worked as Deputy Forest Supervisor for both the Tahoe National Forest and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. Ilano also served in an acting role as Deputy Regional Forester for the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Region. Previous to the Forest Service, Ilano served in roles for the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Senate and in the non-profit sector in various communities around the country.
As the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region conducts recruitment for the Tahoe National Forest Supervisor role, Matthew Jedra will serve as acting Forest Supervisor. Jedra joined the Tahoe National Forest as Deputy Forest Supervisor in 2020.
To read the complete article in YubaNet.com, go here:
https://yubanet.com/regional/forest-supervisor-eli-ilano-departs-tahoe-national-forest/
“Working with the communities, organizations and staff of the Tahoe National Forest has been the highlight of my career,” said Ilano. “I feel lucky to have had the chance to work here.” During his tenure, Ilano had a particular focus on building partnerships between the Forest Service and a wide range of organizations and government entities.
“Eli Ilano elevated the partnership between the County of Nevada and the U.S. Forest Service to new heights during his tenure as Forest Supervisor of the Tahoe National Forest, which occupies 195,000 acres of our heavily forested community,” said Nevada County Executive Officer Alison Lehman. “Together, we tackled not only forest health and wildfire prevention but also major recreational initiatives. Eli’s been an exemplary partner and friend – I will miss him and wish him well in his latest endeavors.”
“With Eli’s innovative leadership the Tahoe National Forest has demonstrated an effective model of landscape-level shared stewardship, a model being adopted by forests across the West,” said Matt Millar of the National Forest Foundation.
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- From Mother Lode Trails: Ilano was not beloved by all. He was the lead responsible for the unpopular decision allowing motorized e-bikes onto Tahoe National Forest NON-motorized trails. After a lawsuit backed by the BackCountry Horsemen, Wilderness Society, Gold Country Trails Council and others, he pulled back the original plan. In spite of close to 500 miles of motorized trails for e-bikes, that didn't stop his push to add e-bikes to the non-motorized trails - TNF rewrote the original plan establishing the motorized bikes on non-motorized trails and finally got it through the legal loopholes.
Read more here: https://www.motherlodetrails.org/alerts/aerc-national-letter-opposing-new-tahoe-national-forest-policy-allowing-motorized-e-bikes-on-non-motorized-trails.
and here:
https://www.motherlodetrails.org/alerts/wilderness-society-joins-outdoor-partners-asking-the-tahoe-national-forest-to-reverse-its-decision-to-allow-motorized-bikes-on-non-motorized-trails
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Ilano served as Forest Supervisor on the Tahoe National Forest from 2016 to 2024. Previously, he worked as Deputy Forest Supervisor for both the Tahoe National Forest and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. Ilano also served in an acting role as Deputy Regional Forester for the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Region. Previous to the Forest Service, Ilano served in roles for the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Senate and in the non-profit sector in various communities around the country.
As the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region conducts recruitment for the Tahoe National Forest Supervisor role, Matthew Jedra will serve as acting Forest Supervisor. Jedra joined the Tahoe National Forest as Deputy Forest Supervisor in 2020.
To read the complete article in YubaNet.com, go here:
https://yubanet.com/regional/forest-supervisor-eli-ilano-departs-tahoe-national-forest/
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