About The Office of the Engineer

In October of 2022 the Board chose Ethan Mace to serve as the Water Engineer.  Before working for the Board, Ethan spent 15 years as a senior hydrologist with the Montana DNRC’s Water Resources Division, where he provided water right and water management expertise and helped to negotiate and implement federal and Tribal water right compacts. He also served as an ecologist and biologist for the US Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station where he specialized in stream morphology, riparian ecology, and dendrochronology.  Ethan has a history and still enjoys designing and executing prescriptive management treatments for upland and riparian forests. Ethan has served federal and private wildland fire operations as an engine boss, resource advisor, fire researcher, advanced faller, initial attack smoke chaser, and prescribed fire enthusiast. Early career years found him conducting fish population surveys through a snorkel and living in waders as a stream surveyor on the Lolo National Forest.  He is thankful to have worked on a wide array of forest, riparian, steam, and fisheries habitat improvement projects and to have helped inform and manage water uses that include irrigation, stock, DCMI, wetlands, and instream flow.  Ethan’s formal education included mathematics at the Colorado College and natural resources at the University of Montana, where he earned a B.S. in Wildlife Biology with an aquatic emphasis and an M.S.  in Resource Conservation with an emphasis on riparian ecology.