Casey Sigg, CAS ’13, spent many youthful years adventuring in the outdoors of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where his father was raised. Always being drawn to nature and outdoor adventure, in college Sigg took a summer job working at Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska. This experience piqued Sigg interest in pursuing a career in natural resources.

After graduating from Oakland University with a Bachelor of Arts in English, Sigg returned to the north and took a job as a tour guide at Coldfoot Camp in Alaska’s Brooks Range, which serves as a year-round basecamp for those who are looking to explore the arctic outdoors. While being a tour guide in the Alaskan outback is a very romantic and adventurous job, Sigg knew that it was not a realistic profession.

During research for his guided tours, Sigg was influenced by the writings of Bob Marshall, a renowned forester. In his writings, Marshall described forestry as “the mental adventure of science and the physical adventure of being in the woods.” Sigg found himself wondering if becoming a forester could be a long-term career.

“It was a perfect combination of all my interests,” he says. “The fact you get to work outside, manage forests within the bounds of ecology, then analyze data and make decisions which benefit society is so appealing.” After earning his Master of Forestry from Michigan Technological University, Sigg became a forester with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in Denver, Colorado.

The BIA is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, which is the federal department that manages natural and cultural resources. As a forester with BIA’s Branch of Forest Inventory and Planning, Sigg works to support all native tribes in the management of their forests, to include forest inventories, training and support, and services necessary to facilitate all phases of resource inventory and management planning. All of these components are critical to the successful management of their trust forest resources.

“Forestry is like any other enterprise. If you don’t know what you have, you can’t manage it,” Sigg explains.

He works with tribal foresters to design inventories that are statistically sound and efficient. In knowing what they have, tribes can create long-term forest management plans to achieve their goals, which may include sustainable timber harvesting, wildlife habitat, clean water, improving forest health or the harvesting of nontimber products such as maple syrup and berries “Tribes face a lot of challenges, but I’d argue they are using some of the most innovative forest management practices,” he says.

Human use of the forests has a tremendous impact on the ecosystem, and therefore it is important to play an active role in caring for them. “Much of our public perception of a ‘good’ forest is one where people have no influence,” Sigg says. “But forests in America have always been managed, with Native Americans being the original stewards.”

Without managed forests, the U.S. would run out of harvestable timber, lose wildlife habitat, and water and air quality would suffer. Foresters, like Sigg, ensure communities are working together to balance the health of forests with human use.