Los Padres National Forest has selected Daryl Hodges as the new Santa Barbara District ranger. Hodges is currently the Forest Fisheries biologist on the Angeles National Forest in Southern California.
Hodges replaces John “Pancho” Smith, who accepted the position of Disaster Recovery coordinator for the U.S. Forest Service’s Southern Region in Atlanta, Georgia.
During his 27-year career, Hodges has served in a variety of natural resource positions starting in 1994 on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington as a stream surveyor. In 1999, while on the Gifford Pinchot, he was assigned to Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, where he spent five years planning and administering stream habitat enhancement projects as the Monument Fish biologist.
Hodges spent 10 years in the Southern Region on the Apalachicola and Chattahoochee-Oconee national forests in Florida and Georgia before accepting a position in the Pacific Southwest Region on the Plumas National Forest. He worked on the Plumas for four years then moved to the Angeles National Forest.
He recently completed an acting district ranger assignment on the Lincoln National Forest’s Guadalupe Ranger District.
Hodges is a native of Philadelphia and graduated from University of Maryland Eastern Shore in 1997 with a degree in general agriculture/animal science.
“I am thrilled to join Los Padres, and I am excited to work with the Santa Barbara community and the many visitors who come each year to enjoy these amazing public lands,” Hodges said.