Lisa Deaton has been named the new area forester with the Virginia Department of Forestry for this region. She will be based out of the Gloucester office on Ware House Road.

Deaton, who served as VDOF’s Project Learning Tree coordinator for nearly 16 years, is familiar with the area, as she has had family ties here for the past 30 years.

As VDOF’s PLT coordinator, Deaton taught teachers, master gardeners, school children and the public about the benefits of forestry and other natural resources. She has also coordinated hundreds of PLT workshops and worked to secure grant funding to run the program.

When deciding to take the job in Gloucester, Deaton said, “I was ready to go back into the woods. I’m a forester by trade.”

Prior to coordinating the PLT, Deaton, a 1987 Virginia Tech graduate, worked for the U.S. Forest Service as a co-op forestry student and later as a procurement forester for the Union Camp company that owned the paper mill in Franklin.

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