Molly Juillerat was backpacking these forests at six and summiting Mount McLoughlin at ten. The land got into her early. She never really left it.

That instinct eventually became a career — district botanist, district ranger, more than two decades in natural resources management — and in 2024, a calling: Forest Supervisor for the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. Nearly 1.8 million acres across seven counties, 260 miles of Wild and Scenic rivers, and more than 340,000 acres of designated Wilderness. It’s a big job, and it went to someone who had been preparing for it her whole life.

We talk about the Oakridge mountain biking scene, managing visitor influxes on public land, preparing for wildfire season and applying hard-won lessons from past fires, what a day in the life of a forest supervisor actually looks like, the concept of leaving a place better than you found it, what these forests face right now, and what it means to steward a landscape you grew up in. Plus her most-used outdoor gear before our camera died.

LinksRogue River-Siskiyou National Forest: fs.usda.gov/rogue-siskiyou
USDA Forest Service: fs.usda.gov

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Hosted & Produced by Emily Berlant & Heather White / Go Wildly Podcast
Theme Music: “Rainmaker” by Jared Masters — used with permission

KeywordsGo Wildly Podcast, Go Wildly, Southern Oregon podcast, outdoor podcast, Emily Berlant, Heather White, Molly Juillerat, Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, Forest Supervisor Oregon, USDA Forest Service, public lands Oregon, wild and scenic rivers Oregon, wilderness management Oregon, wildfire preparedness Oregon, forest ranger day in the life, district botanist, district ranger, Klamath Falls Oregon, Mount McLoughlin, Oakridge mountain biking, visitor management public land, Leave No Trace, natural resources management, Lewis and Clark College, Oregon State University, Southern Oregon University, public land stewardship, national forest Southern Oregon, whimsy