Success Stories

Region-wide
Thanks to a grant from the Southern Roundtable on Sustainable Forests the SGSF recently completed a project that involved convening non-industrial forest landowners in each of the member states and territories to discuss several aspects of forest ownership, especially the role of incentives in motivating landowners to keep and manage their forests. The resulting data will assist southern agencies in developing policies and landowner assistance techniques that will help ensure the sustainability of our vital forest lands.

• Southern Region Sustainable Forests Workshops Report, phase one
• Southern Region Sustainable Forests Workshops Report, phase two

Alabama
Linda S. Casey was sworn in on January 12 by Governor Bob C. Riley as Alabama's new state forester. Casey will not officially take the reigns of the Alabama Forestry Commission until Thursday, February 1, 2007.

Florida
A Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) was completed in September, 2006 for the Baker County community of Taylor. Surrounded by more than 700,000 acres of wildlands, including the Osceola National Forest, the area has seen its share of wildfire, including the 2003 Impassable One Fire which burned more than 200 acres inside the community and threatened several homes.

With the assistance of state and federal agencies the community developed goals and objectives for the plan, including prioritization of mitigation recommendations, including fuel reduction action steps such as prescribed burning and creating fire control lines; the setting of community education priorities; and identification of actions to improve wildland fire response.

The Taylor CWPP was recently put to the test as the 100,000 plus acre Bugaboo Fire swept through the area. On May 8, the fire caused the 1,700-acre community and its population of 1,500 to be evacuated. Only one outbuilding was lost and one other outbuilding damaged. Although fire officials have not yet fully analyzed the fire, many believe that the measures taken under the CWPP contributed significantly to the minimal losses in Taylor.

Georgia
Robert Farris has been named Interim Director of the Georgia Forestry Commission. Farris steps into the role following Governor Sonny Perdue's nomination of GFC Director Ken Stewart to become Georgia's Commissioner of Economic Development.

Kentucky
Hemlock woolly adelgid surveys were completed in the Northeastern, Eastern, Kentucky River and Southeastern districts. The adelgid was found in 10 sites in Bell and Harlan counties. The three most recent sites are at the Cumberland Gap National Park, Blanton Forest in Harlan County and in Kentucky Ridge State Forest in Bell County.

North Carolina
Wib Owen has been appointed the new State Forester and Director for the NC Division of Forest Resources. Owen had been employed by the state Wildlife Resources Commission since 1978.

South Carolina
South Carolina loggers are committed to protecting water quality, according to a report just published by the SC Forestry Commission. In a study of 200 randomly-selected logging sites, the agency found 98% were in compliance with state and federal environmental protection standards. The standards, called Best Management Practices, regulate logging practices that could damage water quality.

Texas
In January, 2007, the Texas Forest Service conducted the state's first all-hazard incident management team (IMT) course at the El Tropicano Hotel on the Riverwalk in San Antonio. The national course was funded through the Office of Homeland Security in conjunction with the Governor's Division of Emergency Management.

Virginia
The Virginia Department of Forestry earned the 2006 Special Achievement in Geographic Information System Award for its "exceptional work using GIS technology" through the creation of IFRIS - the Integrated Forest Resource Information System. IFRIS enables VDOF staff to better serve Virginia landowners by performing Web-based editing of geodatabases that store geometry of forest management activity areas and existing forest stand type/condition attribution using aerial photo imagery of each forested property.