Colorado Parks and Wildlife director Rick Cables is joining Vail Resorts, the country’s largest resort operator. He will serve as vice president of natural resources and conservation for the company, managing the resort operator’s navigation of federal regulatory issues surrounding its operations on public lands, the company said in a press release Tuesday.
The move comes two years after Cables took control of the merger of Colorado State Parks and the Colorado Division of Wildlife, overseeing about 900 employees.
“Rick got us through the transition. I think the agency is ready to move forward in as good a position as you can imagine,” said Mike King, director of Colorado’s Department of Natural Resources.
The Pueblo native and son of a Forest Service worker climbed the ranks of the U.S. Forest Service to become chief of the Rocky Mountain region before taking on the task of merging the culturally divergent departments of Parks and Wildlife.
Cables intends to remain with the agency through Aug. 6.
“My intent when I took this job was to stay three to five years or more, but circumstances change and opportunities come in different ways,” Cables wrote in a memo to Parks and Wildlife staff Tuesday.
King said the state will conduct a national search for Cables’ replacement.
In his 10 years as regional forester, Cables often worked with Vail Resorts, including the creation of the Hayman Restorative Partnership, which saw the company joining the National Forest Foundation to support a $4 million effort to restore 45,000 acres in the watersheds of the Hayman burn zone.
