Caleb Hiner becomes Field Manager in Pinedale 20 years after his Father
by Bureau of Land Management
February 10, 2016
When Caleb Hiner stepped into the role of Pinedale Field Manager for the Bureau of Land Management in Pinedale, Wyoming earlier this month, he was stepping into shoes filled by his father some 20 years earlier.
It is rare to find a son or daughter working in the same exact position in the same public service office that a parent had decades earlier, but in the case of Caleb and his father Arlan Hiner, that has happened, but not by design.
Caleb originally aspired to become a trauma surgeon, but after a fateful class with renowned Wyoming geologist Dr. Charlie Love, Caleb decided to pursue geology. He began his professional career by working as a geologist with the BLM at Battle Mountain, Nevada. Later he worked as a planning and environmental coordinator on various environmental documents, including development on the Pinedale Anticline. In 2008, he moved to Worland, Wyoming to lead the Bighorn Basin Resource Management Plan Revision for the BLM. He later worked on Greater Sage-Grouse planning efforts and other resource issues for the BLM.
Caleb now returns to Pinedale, his hometown. Fond childhood memories include walking the Oregon Trail with this fifth-grade class and early hunting experiences with his dad on BLM land. Returning to his childhood home, but now helping to manage the lands under the management of the Pinedale Field Office, is something Caleb takes seriously. "It is an awesome responsibility to help care for roughly one million acres of public land," says Caleb, "I’m honored to be doing so with the help of a terrific, dedicated and capable staff at the BLM’s Pinedale Field Office. I look forward to serving the American public to the best of our abilities."
Many things have changed in Pinedale as Caleb takes the helm for lands management here. "It was colder here when I was a kid," he says with a smile, remembering one -60 degree winter night. Beside changes in the community over the past 20 years; ranging from less snow, to a local restaurant being picked up and physically moved to another location; the job Caleb is responsible for has changed considerably from when his father had it in the mid-nineties.
When Arlan Hiner was field manager for the Pinedale Field Office in the mid-nineties, roughly 50 Applications for Permit to Drill (APDs) were processed each year. Today, between 300 and 700 APDs are processed annually in the field office.
Air quality and the Greater Sage-Grouse were not major issues when Arlan served in Pinedale. Today, those two issues greatly influence public land use. Two of the country’s largest natural gas fields, the Pinedale Anticline and the Jonah Field, were undeveloped during Arlan’s tenure, but for Caleb, those two oil and gas fields will demand much of his attention.
The world has changed for Pinedale since the energy boom of 2002 to 2012. Pinedale’s population temporarily doubled. School populations skyrocketed. Businesses came and went, while land management became far more complex.
Arlan, a native Coloradan raised in ranch country, had simple advice for his son with his new role, "Just do what’s right." That’s good advice in a world of conflicting issues and substantial pressures, and Caleb plans to do just that.
For more information about Pinedale Field Office, visit the following website:
http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/field_offices/Pinedale.html.
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