[env-trinity] Redding Record Searchlight- Bureau's north state boss returns to Montana to lead nine-state division

[Tom Stokely]

http://www1.redding.com/redd/nw_local/article/0,2232,REDD_17533_3838957,00.html

Reclamation chief leaving 
Bureau's north state boss returns to Montana to lead nine-state division 

By Alex Breitler, Record Searchlight
June 8, 2005 

SHASTA DAM -- The top Bureau of Reclamation official in the north state is returning to his rural roots after nearly a decade managing water in the north state. 

Mike Ryan, an engineer by training, will return to his home state of Montana by month's end to oversee the bureau's Great Plains office. 

     
      
     
>From his office in Billings, Ryan will head bureau operations in nine states from the Canadian border to the southern tip of Texas, including 80 dams and reservoirs, 21 power plants and more than 1,000 water service contracts. 

It's not easy to leave Shasta County, Ryan said Tuesday. 

"I've seen a lot of places, and this community is one that fit my family almost perfectly, except for one thing: It's not Montana," he quipped. 

His years here weren't without controversy. Proposals to raise Shasta Dam are being protested by American Indians who say their cherished cultural landmarks will be flooded. And environmentalists have decried a series of long-term water contract renewals for irrigation districts. 

Ryan presided over many contract meetings with districts as far south as Sacramento and said the negotiations were challenging, indeed. 

"But everybody stayed at the table and continued to be optimistic," he said. 

Ryan said he was also pleased with efforts to modernize the bureau's power facilities. In California he managed nine dams and six power plants, producing about 4 million kilowatt hours of electricity every year, bureau officials said. 

Ryan also chaired the Trinity Management Council, and said restoration of the Trinity River must remain a key goal for the next manager, who has yet to be named. 

"We cannot lose hope about the ability to restore that river system," he said. 

Before coming to Shasta County in 1996, Ryan managed the bureau's Klamath Basin office. He and his wife, Shelly, have three children: John, 22; Anne, 17; and Kate, 13. 

Reporter Alex Breitler can be reached at 225-8344 or at abreitler at redding.com.




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