Head of USFS's Tahoe Basin Unit to leave

The forest supervisor for the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit announced Friday she will leave in April to manage a 2.3 million-acre forest in Colorado.

Maribeth Gustafson, 49, has worked for U.S. Forest Service for 24 years. She arrived at Lake Tahoe to manage its 165,000 acres in 2000.

Gustafson will be supervisor for the White River National Forest in Glenwood Springs in central Colorado.

"I leave with mixed feelings," Gustafson said. "Tahoe is such a wonderful place. I wouldn't leave here just to go anywhere. This is a pretty special forest, too. It's a promotion. I applied for (the job) and feel fortunate to have gotten it."

Gustafson described her five years at Lake Tahoe as ones of constant change that involved reorganizing departments, hiring more staff, and focusing priorities so the agency could better handle the federal government's commitment to restore the lake.

During Gustafson's tenure, the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit moved from an old complex on Emerald Bay Road to a new $5 million building off Al Tahoe Boulevard.

Also under Gustafson's leadership, the agency adopted a management plan for Cave Rock, a volcanic core between Zephyr Cove and Glenbrook.

Gustafson is leaving Tahoe to manage the most popular forest in the country, which more than 9 million people a year visit.