Eng Joins DNR as New State Forester for Alaska
Helge Eng joined the Department of Natural Resources as Director of the Division of Forestry and Alaska state forester, after a 21-year career at California’s forest management and wildlife firefighting agency.
At the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Eng had been deputy director for forestry since 2015. He had previously spent two years as assistant deputy director for resource protection, nine years as state forests program manager, and three years as state forest biometrician for the department.
In Alaska, Eng directs a staff of about 264 employees charged with two major missions. The division’s Fire and Aviation program protects life, property and other values at risk from wildland fire on about 150 million acres of state, municipal and private lands, including federal lands by agreement. The program plays a critical role in emergency management activities, including Incident Management Teams essential to effective, prompt response to disasters of all types in Alaska and other western states.
He has served in a variety of membership and leadership roles in forestry, including registered professional forester and member of the Society of American Foresters, member of the California Licensed Foresters Association, chair of the Northern California Society of American Foresters, and state representative on the Society of American Foresters Policy Committee.
Eng earned a bachelor’s in forest resources management from the University of British Columbia. At Oregon State University, he earned master’s and doctoral degrees in forest management, as well as a master’s in statistics.
At the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Eng had been deputy director for forestry since 2015. He had previously spent two years as assistant deputy director for resource protection, nine years as state forests program manager, and three years as state forest biometrician for the department.
In Alaska, Eng directs a staff of about 264 employees charged with two major missions. The division’s Fire and Aviation program protects life, property and other values at risk from wildland fire on about 150 million acres of state, municipal and private lands, including federal lands by agreement. The program plays a critical role in emergency management activities, including Incident Management Teams essential to effective, prompt response to disasters of all types in Alaska and other western states.
He has served in a variety of membership and leadership roles in forestry, including registered professional forester and member of the Society of American Foresters, member of the California Licensed Foresters Association, chair of the Northern California Society of American Foresters, and state representative on the Society of American Foresters Policy Committee.
Eng earned a bachelor’s in forest resources management from the University of British Columbia. At Oregon State University, he earned master’s and doctoral degrees in forest management, as well as a master’s in statistics.
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In mid-May it was 19°F and windy at the Aurora Hotel in Deadhorse. As I stood in the parking lot surveying the surroundings, I chatted with a gentleman from Texas who works for Nabors Alaska Drilling and was in town as part of a crew tasked with getting a previously inactive drill rig up and running. He said that, according to his supervisor, spring is the windy season on the North Slope. The gusts were bracing, numbing the fingers holding my camera, but most of my attention was focused on what I could capture through the lens: work trucks, shipping containers, buildings obscured by snow whipped up by the wind.