[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 377-378]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    THE RETIREMENT OF ELEANOR TOWNS

 Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to a 
dedicated and distinguished public servant. Eleanor Towns, Regional 
Forester for the United States Forest Service's Southwestern Region, is 
retiring at the end of this month. Eleanor ``Ellie'' Towns will 
conclude more than two decades of outstanding achievement with the 
Forest Service.
  For the past four years, Ellie has served as the Regional Forester in 
New Mexico. In this position, she served as one of nine regional 
foresters in the agency and assumed leadership of 11 National Forests 
and 4 National Grasslands comprising more than 20 million acres of 
National Forest System lands in Arizona and New Mexico. Prior to this, 
Ellie was the Director of Lands for the Forest Service in Washington, 
DC and director of Lands, Soils, Water, and Minerals for the Rocky 
Mountain Region, headquartered in Denver, CO. She joined the Forest 
Service in 1978 and worked in a number of progressively responsible 
positions. She came to the Forest Service from the Bureau of Land 
Management. Ellie holds a bachelor's degree from the University

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of Illinois, a master's degree from the University of New Mexico, and a 
juris doctor degree from the University of Denver's College of Law.
  I am pleased and gratified that my work in the Senate has allowed me 
to get to know Ellie. We worked together in preserving the Valles 
Caldera National Preserve and in securing additional funding for 
hazardous fuels projects to reduce fire threats to communities adjacent 
to national forests. She also testified before the Energy and Natural 
Resources Committee several times and I can honestly say that she was 
one of the best witnesses the Forest Service has ever sent up here.
  Ellie's dedication and enthusiasm have provided the Forest Service 
with effective, professional management and direction. During her 
tenure, she has been successful in building strong relationships with 
many Forest Service partners and customers. In so doing, Ellie has 
garnered the respect, admiration and trust of here employees as well as 
all of those who have worked with her. She also promoted a 
collaborative stewardship in caring for the land and serving the people 
who own them. We will miss her, and I know that the Forest Service will 
miss her even more.
  The Forest Service and the nation owe Ellie Towns a great deal of 
gratitude for her fine work at the Forest Service, I wish her the best 
in all of her future endeavors.

                          ____________________