March 5, 2024 – Inyo National Forest is announcing the switching of White Mountain District Ranger, Philip DeSenze and Mount Whitney District Ranger, Taro Pusina. Effective on March 11th, 2024, Philip will be leading the Mount Whitney District out of Lone Pine and Taro will lead the White Mountain District out of Bishop.
Forest Supervisor, Lesley Yen said, “The Forest decided to make this change in order to facilitate better management overall for the two districts”. Taro and Philip are excited about re-energizing the southern districts of the Inyo National Forest and this management approach gives them that opportunity. Treating the two southern districts of the Inyo as a zone, sharing staff, and resources has worked well in the past and is becoming necessary given the number of large projects and concerns that span both districts. Additionally, this change is more environmentally responsible, requiring less commuting due to the proximity of Philip and Taro’s homes to their new duty locations.
Taro moved to Bishop in 2015 and served in a leadership capacity for both the Bishop BLM field office and the Inyo National Forest in Fire Management, making him well versed in issues specific to the White Mountain District that the Bishop area covers.
Philip recently returned from a year-long fellowship in the US Senate. Before that, he detailed as District Ranger on the Kern River Ranger District of the Sequoia National Forest, our neighbors to the south. The collaboration and communication with the Inyo National Forest during that time made him feel this switch would be advantageous to the forest. “I’m looking forward to continuing to work on the Inyo while advancing efforts on a new district that allows me to be closer to home,” Ranger DeSenze stated.
Supervisor Yen stated, “I look forward to continuing to work with both of these exceptional leaders on the Inyo National Forest into the future.”
