Any day spent at Custer State Park is a great day! This day had the added bonus of getting to meet and make a new friend.

When I arrived at Senior Forester Bill Hill’s office at Custer State Park at 7:30 AM, he was talking with a seasonal employee about assignments for the day. I took the opportunity to learn a bit about him by looking at the items on his office walls. One diploma documented his Associate degree in Forestry from Paul Smith’s College of Arts and Science in New York. The second diploma was from the University of Idaho, confirming his Bachelor of Science degree in Forest Resources.

Just as the seasonal employee was leaving, I noticed a sign on Bill’s wall that said, “A healthy forest is no accident.” As we proceeded to spend our day together, it became clearer to me how much planning it truly takes to keep the over 50,000 acres of forest land healthy at Custer State Park.

As we visited a few minutes before attending an emergency preparedness meeting, Bill and I talked about his role in the park. Having been at Custer State Park for over sixteen years, he knows his job well. As Senior Forester for at the park, Bill said he is responsible for the forest management program which entails long and short-term planning and overseeing timber stand improvement and timber sales. It also includes planning and maintaining the forest’s inventory, monitoring the health of forest lands and supervising one full-time forester, one summer intern and many contractors.

Bill said his work days consist of updating the inventory database on the computer preparing timber sales in the field, writing forest management prescriptions, taking phone calls, administering timber sales and other contracts and doing reconnaissance of areas to see what is needed.

When asked what he enjoys most, he said being able to make decisions to manage the forest. “I get to work with the big picture, I’m not limited to one specialty area of forest management,” he said. “The huge variety in the tasks I do keeps the job exciting.” When asked about his least favorite part of the job, Bill talked about dealing with bureaucracies.

After attending the park’s emergency preparedness meeting, we headed to Bill’s pickup to tour the park. As we drove past the entrance to the Black Hills Playhouse, Bill talked about the importance of balancing the expectations of almost 2 million annual Custer State Park visitors with the need to manage the forest through timber cutting and fires. Bill stated, “We work hard to manage the forest in such a way that the view from vehicles on park roads is not impacted.”

Another challenge faced by the park foresters, according to Bill, is the mountain pine beetle epidemic. Taking time to work on this issue takes time away from the normal projects the staff is trying to get done. Bill described the infestation like a slow moving fire. There is some time to try to prepare, and both fire and these beetles are a natural part of the Black Hills. The forest management involves removing the infested trees to keep the beetles from moving forward and thinning stands to make them less susceptible to mountain pine beetle attack.

As we looped back to the office, Bill talked about the impact the extended drought is having on the forest. “Insufficient water causes stress to the trees which makes them predisposed to diseases, insects and fire,” Bill stated. “This is a serious issue in the Black Hills at this time,” he added. Anytime there is a fire at the park, in addition to possibly taking lives, burning buildings and changing the view, it impacts the future timber sales that provide revenue. This brings obvious budget issues.

As we got closer to the park office, I thought of another sign I had seen on Bill’s office wall - “Foresters - our job is growing.” How true, both with the growth of each tree and with the scope of the work needed to manage over 50,000 forest acres. It looks to me that Bill is up to the challenge. It sure is a good thing that he likes variety in his work!

Hometown: Born in New York City and raised in a small town in Massachusetts

Family: Wife - Brenda, Son- Ed (17)

Resides: Home - near Rockerville

Previous work: Logging and timber cruising in Idaho for 3 years, 4 years purchasing timber rights from landowners for forest industry in the Black Hills and 1 1/2 years working for the SD Division of Forestry immediately before coming to work at Custer State Park

Hobbies: golfing, owning and training horses with his wife and participating in family activities