[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 7 (Tuesday, February 5, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S343-S344]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     RETIREMENT OF ELEANOR S. TOWNS

 Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, today I recognize the retirement 
of a dedicated public servant and to thank her for her contributions to 
our Nation. Since 1998, Eleanor S. Towns has been the Regional Forester 
for the U.S. Forest Service's Southwest Region located in Albuquerque, 
NM, and in that capacity, has been responsible for the management of 22 
million acres of National Forests in the Southwest.
  Eleanor Towns brought to her work a rich and diversified educational 
background and varied work experiences. Born in Rockford, IL, she 
received her undergraduate education at the University of Illinois, 
graduating in 1965 with an A.B. in communications. She received her 
master's in guidance & counseling from the University of New Mexico in 
1968, and her juris doctor from the University of Denver College of Law 
in 1982. She worked with the Bureau of Land Management before 
transferring to the Forest Service in 1978 as Director of Civil Rights 
in the Rocky Mountain Regional Office in Denver. She held progressively 
more responsible positions before becoming the Rocky Mountain Region's 
Director of Lands, Water, Soils and Minerals in 1994. In 1995, she was 
admitted to the Federal Senior Executive Service and assumed the 
position of Forest Service Director of Lands in Washington. In April 
1998, she was promoted to Regional Forester for the Southwest Region.
  My office has had the pleasure of working with Eleanor Towns since 
her arrival at regional headquarters in Albuquerque. Despite 
deteriorating facilities when she first arrived, a situation that has 
since been rectified, she remained attentive to the multiple issues

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of concern to New Mexico and the Forest Service. Whatever the complex 
and contentious area of public land stewardship, I have found her to be 
professional, responsive and decisive. For example, she gave our office 
tremendous help during the creation of the Valles Caldera National 
Preserve and the development of what we called the ``Happy Forests'' 
legislation.
  Throughout her Federal career, Eleanor Towns was an effective manager 
of critically important program areas, and was often called upon to 
tackle some of the more difficult problems of the Department of 
Agriculture and the Forest Service, including western water rights and 
employee discrimination cases. Her greatest assets have been her 
interpersonal skills. Known as ``Ellie'' to her friends and colleagues, 
she was a bridge builder--between management and employees, between the 
government and the public, and among divergent interest groups. Her 
qualities of good humor, common sense, adroit communication skills, 
coupled with technical expertise, have made her one of the most 
effective managers in the Federal Civil Service. Our Nation and its 
resources are the better because of Eleanor Towns, and the Forest 
Service is a more effective organization. On behalf of the Senate, I 
want to thank her for her service to the Nation and wish her and her 
family all the best in retirement.

                          ____________________