For Release: January 9, 2001
Contact: Cindy McKee 303.239.3670

BLM Colorado Appoints Doug Koza, Associate State Director

Ann Morgan, State Director, announces the appointment of Doug Koza as Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Associate State Director in Colorado. Koza is currently the Deputy State Director for Natural Resources, BLM Utah, where he has served since November 1996.

"I'm very pleased to have Doug join the BLM Colorado management team,"said Morgan. "He brings to the position excellent management skills, a wide range of expertise in the BLM's natural resource programs, and the leadership qualities necessary to meet our multiple use management challenges."

Koza began his federal career in 1976 as a BLM geologist in Ely, Nevada. In 1978, he transferred to U. S. Geological Survey in geothermal resources development. He returned to BLM in 1983 and held positions in the fluid minerals program in California and Nevada. Following these field assignments Doug was appointed Chief, Branch of Fluid Minerals in the Washington D.C. office in 1988. He returned to the West in 1992 as Deputy State Director for Mineral Resources in the Utah State Office and then as Deputy State Director for both Minerals and Natural Resources in 1996.

Koza was born and raised in Massachusetts and holds a B.A. in geology from Boston University and a M.S. in geology from the University of Connecticut. Doug and his wife Janeen have a 18-year old son and two girls, ages 5 and 7.

Koza replaces Mike Pool who was appointed State Director in California, August 2000. He will assume the Associate State Director position on March 25, 2001.

BLM Colorado manages 8.4 million surface acres and 27 million acres of subsurface mineral estate, with a full-time workforce of 530 and annual budget of $43 million.

-blm-