Cabe started his NCFS career in 1992 as a Special Projects Forester in Lenoir assisting landowners with reforestation projects in the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo.  He took a permanent position in Elizabeth City in 1993 as a Service (field) Forester writing management plans, administering cost-share funds, and wildfire fighting.  He left the NCFS in 1997 to pursue a teaching career at Southeastern Community College in Whiteville.  In 1998, he moved to Edenton to marry Linda Winslow and started a forestry consulting business, which included writing plans, timber inventory, appraisal, timber sales management, land sales, and prescribed burning.  His son Jackson was born in 2002, and he put the business on the back burner to concentrate on being an at-home dad.  In 2007, he went back to the NC Forest Service as an Assistant District Forester in Elizabeth City, managing a team of eight employees that provided forest management services to landowners in a nine-county area.

In 2015, he joined the Fire Staff of NCFS as the Fire Environment Forester. His duties include development of policy, products and training for field personnel related to fire weather, fire danger, fire behavior, forest fuels, and smoke management.  His current projects include preparing the NC Fire Danger Operating Plan and a live fuel moisture monitoring pilot project.