Blanco District Ranger Curtis Keetch will be taking a break from his Meeker post to serve as acting district ranger on the Aspen-Sopris Ranger District until the position can be filled permanently.

Current Aspen-Sopris ranger Karen Schroyer is leaving the district to take a promotion as the deputy forest supervisor on the Mount Hood National Forest in Oregon.

“I’m looking forward to working with our partners in the Roaring Fork Valley and all the dedicated employees on the district,” Keetch said in a statement. “It will be a great opportunity to work in an area with such high visitor use and unique resource management challenges.”

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Curtis has been the district ranger on the Blanco Ranger District since 2016. He has been working full-time for the Forest Service since 2003, when he became a wildlife biologist on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest in Idaho.

Curtis and his family moved from Idaho to Norwood, Colo., in 2009 to work as a zone wildlife biologist for the Grand Mesa-Uncompahgre-Gunnison National Forest. Curtis and his wife Nikki have three daughters.

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Curtis grew up in a small community in southeast Idaho on a family-owned cattle ranch. He learned to love and respect the outdoors at an early age. In high school, he spent his summers helping on the ranch and working as a seasonal Forest Service employee on timber, fire, range and recreation crews.