New supervisor ready to embrace 'character' of Flathead Forest

Like many promising high school athletes, Kurt Steele had his sights set on one day playing baseball in the major leagues. And the Oregon native was already well on his way at the age of 18, when his impressive pitching arm caught the eyes of recruiters from both the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox.

Although training with such teams was certainly a childhood ambition, Steele ultimately decided to hold off and start at the collegiate level instead, where he hoped four years of additional experience would bolster his talents, making him even more appealing during future drafts.

So he enthusiastically added his name to Oregon State University’s list of incoming freshmen and to the college’s roster of athletes. But after what Steele describes as a “humbling first year” playing for a large university among other talented players, he began considering what a future could look like outside of the stadium.

“Going from a smaller high school in Corvallis, Oregon, to D-1 baseball was a bit of a shock, but overall it was a great life experience it’s fun to look back at and reflect on,” Steele said.

Although baseball was no longer his primary focus, he came on as the team’s first undergraduate assistant coach in 2007. The team won the national championship that year.

Soon after, Steele, who started his position as the new supervisor of Flathead National Forest last week, would graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in natural resources with a focus in forest ecosystems, and a double minor in forest management and fisheries and wildlife.

While the studies of choice were a far cry from his baseball aspirations, they aligned well with some of his other values. Steele and his older brother Scott, both of whom were adopted at young ages, had spent a great deal of their childhoods with their parents, Stan and Karen Steele, fishing and horse camping in the backcountry where he learned the importance of forest stewardship.

“I knew I enjoyed my time outdoors. I love the mountains, loved fishing and rafting, so when I was looking at a few different career routes after college, I was thinking about firefighting or the Forest Service or possibly law enforcement and my education kind of fit with those,” Steele said.

Immediately after graduation, he fell into an “opportunistic situation” and landed a job as a forester on Oregon’s Willamette National Forest at the age of 23.

“It was the first place I landed a permanent job in the Forest Service and it really jump-started my career. I’ve loved working for the agency ever since,” Steele said.

The job launched what would become a succession of impressive titles for Steele throughout his 20s and on into his 30s. He served as a district ranger on the Superior National Forest in Minnesota and would eventually complete three temporary supervisor assignments on the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Illinois, the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana and the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest in Idaho.

Sprinkled throughout those successes are several stints in firefighting, which he actually pursued before his time in the Forest Service, joining various crews during his junior and senior summers in college and then after.

He has worked as a firefighter on the Umatilla National Forest and the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, serving on engine crews and rappel teams. He also filled in with the Rogue River Hotshots, a wildland fire suppression crew in Oregon.

Steele’s career has taken him all over the map. But coming back to the Pacific Northwest area had been a long time goal of his and is one he accomplished after landing his roles with the Nez Perce-Clearwater and Bitterroot National Forests.

“I’ve been all over the place, but the Western side of the United States is home,” he said.

When the job opened up for supervisor of the Flathead National Forest following Chip Weber’s retirement announcement in 2019, Steele said the opportunity aligned well with what he and his wife, Melissa, wanted.

“We were being really selective with what positions I was putting in for. We knew the next job I took was going to be in a place where we would be able to settle in for the tenure,” Steele said. “We saw this community as a place where we could eventually watch our son Jack (age 5) graduate 10-plus years down the road. So we really hope this is it, that we’ll be here for awhile.”

As for his new role as supervisor, Steele, 35, said everything is still very fresh as his first official day was Feb. 18, but he looks forward to getting a better pulse on the local communities.

“My first priority here will be finding out more about this area’s culture. Every national forest has its own character and whether it’s Whitefish, Columbia Falls or Kalispell, I want to be a sponge in those communities and learn what folks would like to see more of, what their concerns are and how they would like to see us improve,” Steele said.

Steele said although the forests are different, some of his experiences at prior locations will help guide him in his new role. For example, just as grizzly bears and management of their habitats are a primary matter of concern among many here in the valley, managing endangered salmon and steelhead in his prior positions garnered similar amounts of public interest.

“We are a multiple land-use agency. We try to do what’s best for the wildlife, what’s best for the people and what’s best for the resource,” Steele said. “How we balance all of that and move forward is what keeps the job fun and interesting.”

Steele also considers himself an avid recreationist. He spends much of his free time rafting, fishing, hunting, backpacking and also riding ATVs — a combination of outdoor activities that runs the gamut and is something he says has given him different perspectives on how to respectively and appropriately utilize multi-use landscapes.

“Sometimes folks tend to think you’re in one category or the other, maybe you like motorized access or you don’t, or maybe you think too much human activity disturbs wildlife,” Steele said. “But I think we are fortunate here to have millions of acres of prime wilderness and we can figure out a way to have a little bit of everything.”

Reporter Kianna Gardner can be reached at 758-4407 or kgardner@dailyinterlake.com