The NASF 2014 Jim Sledge Current Achievement Awardee for Forest Resource Management is Robert Atchison.
Atchison is an outstanding leader who has devoted a significant amount of time and energy to the advancement of national program polices and initiatives. He has been effectively playing such a key national Forest Stewardship Program role for more than a decade.
This individual was the principle author of the Kansas Forest Action Plan which serves as a national example tor effectively integrating all State and Private Forestry programs to address priority resource management landscapes. The Forest Action Plan defines these landscapes as special places in a way that resonates with the public and how it values the State’s most precious forest and natural resources.
Atchison was also instrumental in establishing the nation’s first Landscape Stewardship Forester position to work with landowners in way that is envisioned by the newly adopted national Forest Stewardship Program Strategy: FSP20Twenty. This has made Kansas a national leader with respect to the implementation of its Forest Action Plan and the Forest Stewardship Program. He was also the principle grant writer to NASF for advancing the visibility of and implementing the Forest Action Plan. Through this grant he has developed many effective landowner and public outreach and educational tools.
Atchison has been actively contributing to the advancement of the Forest Stewardship Program, since June of 1998, when he became the Rural Forestry Section Leader for the Kansas Forest Service. He was actively involved in two national Forest Stewardship Program Standards and Guidelines revisions and most recently he played a central role in the development of FSP 20twenty strategic plan.
In addition to all of the above this individual is a talented violinist. He frequently provides music for meetings of natural resource and other professional groups and youth groups. Moreover, he has won, on more than one occasion, the Arkansas State Fiddle Championship. He is also a Society of American Foresters Fellow.
We are pleased to have presented the Jim Sledge Current Achievement Award for Forest Resource Management to Robert Atchison.