Los Padres National Forest Announces New Santa Barbara District Ranger

Source: Los Padres National Forest Service

Los Padres National Forest officials announced the selection of 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 replaced 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 beginning 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 theMonument 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 before moving 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. He and his wife, Gwen, have four children.

“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.