Forest Ranger from Allegany County receives state honor

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil Seggos today announced the awards for the distinguished actions of 40 DEC Forest Rangers from across the state. "DEC Forest Rangers are the state's first line of defense in protecting the environment and safeguarding our natural resources, and I am honored to present these distinguished awards to recognize the incredible efforts of our law enforcement personnel," said DEC Commissioner Seggos. "Their knowledge of land navigation, wildfire firefighting, first aid, and technical rescue techniques are critical to the success of their missions, which take them from remote wilderness areas and rugged mountainous peaks, to white-water rivers and vast forested areas ravaged by fires." DEC's Division of Forest Protection awards are presented every three years and recognize the courageous acts and outstanding service of this state law enforcement branch tasked with wilderness search and rescue missions, forest fire suppression, state land patrols, and backcountry public education efforts.Among those honored:

Forest Ranger Pete Liebig's (of Houghton) accomplishments are many. He is a leader among Rangers for his Incident Command System knowledge and skills. Pete is currently one of the incident commanders on the NYS Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services Incident Management Team. A sample of his most recent accomplishments include:

 

-Incident Commander for the NYS DHSES IMT deployment last year for Hurricane Harvey to Texas.

-Incident Commander for the NYS DHSES IMT deployment for Lake Ontario Flooding-Incident Commander for the NYS DEC Hoosick Falls Incident
-Planning Section Chief for the Dannemora Fugitive Search
-Planning Section Chief for the Roosa Gap Wildfire
-Planning Section Chief for the NYS DHSES IMT deployment to Nassau County for Superstorm Sandy
-Planning Section Chief for the NYS DHSES IMT deployment to Breezy Point for Superstorm Sandy

Ranger Liebig has also been involved with the NYS Wildfire & Incident Management Academy for many years. Most recently as ICS mentor, Planning Section Chief and Incident Commander. He is a member of NYS Forest Ranger Search and Rescue advisory committee where he played a key role in developing and implementing a week-long emergency management in-service training for all Division members. Furthermore, Ranger Liebig has instructed numerous courses during Forest Ranger academies: including Land Navigation, Intermediate Land Navigation, Search and Rescue Field exercises and Firearms.