Parks and Wildlife Director

Rick Cables, Director

Rick Cables has been named the director of the newly created Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife.

Cables, a native of Pueblo, will oversee the new division and its 880 employees. The new division unites the existing Colorado Division of Wildlife and Colorado State Parks, a merger approved by state lawmakers and signed into law on June 6 by Governor John Hickenlooper.

Until his appointment to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Rick Cables was the Regional Forester of the Rocky Mountain Region since January 2001. 
 
As Regional Forester he was responsible for the administration of over 22 million acres in 17 National Forests and 7 National Grasslands, and cooperative efforts with state and private landowners in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and eastern Wyoming.
 
Cables, who was born in Pueblo, Colorado, graduated from Northern Arizona University Forestry School in 1976, and began his forestry career on the Kaibab National Forest in Northern Arizona.  After serving on several National Forests in New Mexico and Arizona, he became District Ranger on the Apache–Sitgreaves National Forest.  He then served two years in the Washington Office before he was selected to attend the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1989-1990.  
 
In 1990 Cables was promoted to Forest Supervisor of the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire and Maine.  In 1995 he became the Forest Supervisor of the Pike and San Isabel National Forests and Comanche and Cimarron National Grasslands in Colorado and Kansas.
 
Before becoming Regional Forester of the Rocky Mountain Region, Cables was Regional Forester of the Alaska Region, covering the Tongass and Chugach National Forests.

Rick and wife, Cindy, have three Children; Stewart, Wesley and Natalie.

Visit our "Key Players" page for bios on other members of State Parks' leadership.