WASHINGTON—At their virtual annual meeting today, the nation’s state and territorial foresters elected a new slate of officers to the National Association of State Foresters’ governing executive committee.
Joe Fox, state forester of Arkansas, will lead NASF as president in 2021. As the director of the Forestry Division of the Arkansas Department of Agriculture, Fox is responsible for the statewide delivery of wildland fire protection services and technical forestry assistance on both public and private lands.
“It is an awesome thing for me to represent state foresters and Arkansas as president of NASF,” Fox said. “Wise forest management and safe wildland fire operations are central to our collective work and dependent on our collective capacity. My greatest hope for this year is that we are able to build greater collaboration and communication within the forestry community. Together we can achieve so much more for our forested landscapes.”
Before Fox was appointed Arkansas state forester in 2012, he was the director of conservation forestry for The Nature Conservancy’s Arkansas field office. There, he directed and promoted forestry conservation projects and forest land acquisition throughout the state. Fox is a native Arkansan who worked for 20 years as a procurement forester for a family-owned lumber business in Pine Bluff and Sheridan. He has served as president of the Arkansas Forestry Association and chairman of the Arkansas Forestry Commission and holds two bachelor’s degrees from North Carolina State University in forestry and agricultural economics.
NASF also elected Christopher Martin, state forester of Connecticut, as the association’s new vice president and Kacey KC, state forester of Nevada, as its new treasurer. Greg Josten, state forester of South Dakota, will serve on the executive committee as immediate past president. Each will serve a twelve-month term.
As his first order of business, Fox appointed the following state foresters to chair NASF’s standing committees:
- FOREST MARKETS COMMITTEE
Chair: Scott Bissette, Assistant Agriculture Commissioner for the North Carolina Forest Service - FOREST RESOURCES MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE
Chair: Forrest Boe, State Forester for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources-Division of Forestry - FOREST SCIENCE AND HEALTH COMMITTEE
Chair: Rob Davies, State Forester for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation-Division of Lands and Forests - URBAN AND COMMUNITY FORESTRY COMMITTEE
Chair: John Erixson, State Forester for the Nebraska Forest Service - WILDLAND FIRE COMMITTEE
Chair: George Geissler, State Forester for the Washington Department of Natural Resources
To learn more about NASF, its members, and standing committees, visit www.stateforesters.org/who-we-are.
Media Contact: Whitney Forman-Cook at wforman-cook@stateforesters.org or 202-624-5417