DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT
Minutes from the Winter 2003 KT SAF Business Meeting
January 30, 2003
Chair Gary Schneider called
the meeting to order at 3:20 PM CST at Fall Creek Falls State Park in
Pikeville, TN. Approximately 50 people
were in attendance at the meeting.
Winter Meeting Report: There were 108 people registered for the winter
meeting. The topic for the meeting was
Laws and Regulations in Forestry.
The minutes from the Summer
KT meeting in Paducah, KY, July 26, 2002 were distributed for review. Tom Cunningham stated that under Chapter
Reports, West TN, the field day for deaf children should be “39 in
attendance”. Kerry Schell wanted to
correct that E TN Chapter meets at Shoney’s, not at different restaurants. Under SE TN, it is Prentice Cooper State
Park, not French. Jeff Stringer made a
motion to accept minutes. Glen Smalley
seconded. Ed Buckley called the
question. Minutes were approved.
2002 Budget status - Jerry handed out the 2002 budget. The budget came out +$2040.54 with a current
checking account balance of $11,882.88.
The student development fund is 25% of the meeting surplus.
2003 Proposed Budget - Jerry
handed out the proposed budget. The
projected income is $8082.16 and projected expenses are $9330.00. Jerry looked at the previous 5 years. Four out of 5 years we passed a deficit
budget. Only one year was actually was
a deficit budget (which was not planned as deficit). The Executive committee suggested adding $1000 as a contribution
to the leadership academy to help support it and amending the amount for a KT
member to attend from $750 to$1000.
Glen Smalley suggested putting some of the money in the checking account
into a CD to get more interest. There
was a discussion of the Foresters Fund.
If you don’t spend all of it, you send it back to National. KT gets 80% of the funding initially and
then 20% when the project is complete.
Red Anderson made a motion to
accept the budget. Jeff Stringer
seconded. Gary Schnieder called the
question. The budget was passed.
Jay Kutack, our SAF president, plans to visit at least 2
meetings a month this year. The first
priority this year is to select a new executive vice-president. The interim vice-president is Michael
Goergan. Jay expects 15-20 applicants
for the job. A nine-member selection
committee was established and is chaired by David Smith. After the next council
meeting, Jay and others will screen the applicants and then make an offer to
the top candidate. The current staff is
performing superbly. The Denver 2001
has been settled with the insurance company and we did not lose a substantial
amount. Jay’s plans include
perpetuation of the leadership academy.
KT’s substantial contribution to the leadership academy will propel the
effort for the academy. A letter will
go out challenging other state societies. Another goal is the resolution of the
RNRF situation. Field forester seminars
have started in Mississippi with 85 field foresters. This was a success. SAF
is looking forward for 3 or 4 annually.
The next seminar will be at Callaway Gardens, GA in April or May to
introduce foresters to the latest technology and then spread it to the rest of
the profession. Another objective Jay
has is mentoring the forestry students.
We need to engage the students.
Students who are enthusiastic and dedicated will go onto success
wherever they go. We have the
advantages of the CF credential. Before
Dec 31, 3000 applied for the CF hoping to evade the test. The next annual meeting will be in Buffalo,
NY Oct 25-29, 2003. Everyone was
pleased with the last convention. The
2004 convention will be held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in conjunction with
the Canadian Forestry Society. The 2005
Convention will be in Fort Worth TX Oct 19-23, 2005.
Tim French, Council member sent Gary a report to
share of the 2002 highlights. The
forest policy group was very active in bringing about the best Farm Bill in
many years with many segments dealing with forestry in a favorable way due to
the efforts of the SAF staff, council members etc. Membership is still declining although more slowly: 2000 - 17368;
2001- 17068, 2002 - 16,842. From 2000
to 2002 there was a decline of 526.
There is no forestry source issue or journal that doesn’t continue to
remind us that the focus needs to be on membership. The membership will come from the students who we need to
nurture. KT membership has made some
gains. We have 405 members. Our goal
was 433. SAF over the past year has
been getting input from us regarding our core values. The core values have been approved. There are four elements. Forests are a fundamental source of
global health and human welfare.
Forests must be sustained while simultaneously meeting environmental,
economic, and community aspirations and needs.
Foresters are dedicated to sound forest management and
conservation. Foresters serve
landowners and society by providing sound knowledge and professional management
skills. The leadership academy is in jeopardy.
Some of the best speakers on leadership are at this meeting. The council supported this academy, but
every year they lost money and felt that it needed to be cost effective. The 2003 Leadership Academy is on hold. They need to raise $30,000. By KT contributing $1000, we will show that
we feel it is important.
HSD Meeting - Came out with the following recommendations to
council.
The recommended that we
establish a committee to see how we can raise money for the Leadership academy.
They are looking at former students, foundations, etc. In parts of the US, federal employees are
prohibited from holding office in any non-federal organization, unless they get
an exemption from above. It is not
universally implied. Informally
conversations are going on with Dale Bosworth, the Chief, to remedy the
situation. HSD recommended to SAF that we embark on a back to basic forestry
campaign to develop an aggressive communication plan with basic tools to
communicate basic, sound advice on forestry with the public. There are a number
of individuals practicing forestry who may not have graduated from an
accredited school. They therefore may
not qualify for membership or certification.
HSD came up with a plan to rectify this.
50 year awards
Townley Bergmann, Arthur
Wardner, Don Kettenbeil, John Ramage
Jay Kutack made the
presentations to Don and John.
Executive Committee
Summary
The executive committee met
last night. Gary reviewed the
highlights. The results of election
were Jerry Crow as Chair-elect and Jeff Lewis as Secretary. Dr. John Rennie has agreed to hold an ethics
course for the next year or so at every winter meeting. Kentucky will take a part in holding this
course as well. KT has shown our
support for leadership academy through allocating money to support it. Two task forces were established to review
the Daniel Boone and Cherokee Forest Plans.
Jeff is heading up the DB taskforce.
Wayne Clatterbuck is heading up the Cherokee. They will have 90 days to comment after each plan is
released. They are looking for
individuals who will serve on these taskforces. The executive committee discussed how to retain membership. Several years ago, HSD thought one of the
ways to recognize members would be through 10-year interval pins. Gary asked to see a show of hands of who
thinks it is a good idea or will make a difference. About 60% agreed. Gary is
requesting Chapter Chairs review membership to order the pins. Kerry said someone needs to clarify if you
get a 10- year pin if you have 15 years.
Every year we have chapter elections.
The national office waits for the results of the elections and then
publishes the results. They need the
results by Dec 8. We are either not holding elections on time or sending the
information in on time. KT is holding
the chapter chairs responsible for getting the results in on time. The University of the South has 8000 acres
of forestland and an Office of Forest Management. The current administration is looking at eliminating the
positions. The executive committee
approved writing a letter to the university administrator, indicating the value
of their acreage and pointing out eliminating the position may jeopardize what
they have. The letter will go to the
Policy chair for review. Larry Doyle
suggests contacting the bishops the various dioceses.
East Kentucky - Rudean Reynolds reported they had their spring
meeting at Kingdom Come State Park and discussed the new linear park created on
Pine Mountain. The East Kentucky
Chapter came up with a proposed position statement that promoted forestry
education and ample opportunity to interact when parks are created. The fall meeting included at demonstration
of a feller buncher and cable logging.
They updated a position statement of the Effective
Forest Stewardship in Kentucky, which states that future laws shouldn’t inhibit
forest management.
West Kentucky - Jason Utley reported that the chapter hosted the KT
summer meeting, which was sponsored by MeadWestvaco with a field tour of fiber
farm. Ken Negray organized an
information booth at the FFA convention.
KT received a plaque for being a 35-year participant for FFA. About 5000 FFA students visited the forestry
booth. West Kentucky will be hosting
the 2004 winter meeting.
East Tennessee - Kerry Schell announced that the Chapter meets the
first wed of every month at 7:30 at Shoney’s on Clinton Highway. Only 1 Tennessee Department of Forestry
member attended. Steve Scott promises that will change. ETN got together with the UT student
chapter and had a pizza party. On Oct
11, 2002 the chapter held a GPS training which Don Hodges, Dave Buckley, and
Mark Young put on. Incoming Chair -
Jeff Holt; Don Hodges - chair elect; secretary-treasure - Brent Galloway. Kerry says it was expressed that committee
chairs take control of the exec committee meeting and that chapter chairs
should be the nucleus and that is correct that this is a grass roots society
and that the chairs are responsible for getting the issues to the exec
committee.
South East Tennessee Chapter had 4 meetings last year covering logging
systems; SFI at MeadWestvaco; - wildlife practices at Prentice Cooper State
Park; and an ethics meeting in Athens.
CFE credits were assigned to each meeting.
Middle Tennessee Bruce Kauffman is the incoming chair. They will host the summer meeting June 12,
13 in Oneida, TN. The topic will be
Restoration and Legacy in the Cumerlands with field trips to Pickett State
Forest and the Big South Fork. Lodging
is at the Holiday Express.
West Tennessee Dave Mercker, the Chapter Chair is at UT completing
his PhD. The chapter held a meeting
taking deaf children on a field trip, which was a great success.
University of the South Karen Kuers reported that the Department of Forestry
and Geology had Forestry, Geology, and Natural Resources degrees. They have 44 students enrolled with 25% in
Forestry, 25% in Geology and 50% in Natural Resources. All majors spend time together. They have an environmental studies
concentration, but not a major. This
year they will have an Environmental Studies major with emphasis areas of
biodiversity and education, and environmental policy. The University has asked for support in convincing the
administration not to abolish the Office of Forest Management position.
University of Kentucky Jeff Stringer reported that the Department of
Forestry is in flux. They are looking
for new chair. Don graves is stepping
down. Applications were due in last
week. There are 6 faculty slots
open. The department is at about
60%. The positions will be filled after
chair is filled. The College of
Agriculture is trying to fully capture the Natural Resources Degree, which is
partially taught outside the college.
There may be a change in the name of the department to the Department of
Forestry and Natural Resources. To fully
capture natural resources, the department needs to be set up as a school. This is needed to be competitive nationally.
The outlying area of Robinson Forest was mined to provide resources to the
Department of Forestry. Due to
mismanagement of money and shortfalls, they have lost that money. Several faculty positions have been
lost. The budget situation in the state
is not good. They have frozen travel
and filling positions. SAF may have to
provide input to the dean in the future.
University of Tennessee Dave Buckley reported that the student chapter is
located in the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and Wildlife, which has
majors in Forest Resource Management and Forest recreation. There are 22 members in chapter. Nine students went to the National
Convention. The chapter had joint
meeting with East TN chapter. The
members are 16 juniors, 5 seniors, and 1 grad student. They will attend the AFC Conclave in spring
at Clemson University.
Tennessee Department of
Forestry Ed Smith reported that the new state forester, Steve Scott, has been
on board 6 month. As of January, they
hired 8 new foresters, which will fill most of the vacancies. They don’t know what will happen with the
new administration. Dave Walters is
dealing with a 7.5% reduction in budget.
Travel has been curtailed. State
forests are certified as stewardship forests and are licensed under SFI. Ed discussed forest health issue. They had only a few fires last fall. They are dealing with gypsy moth in Campbell
County. The Southern pine beetle numbers are down. They have some spots of hemlock wooly adelgid.
Kentucky Department of
Forestry - no report.
Daniel Boone National
Forest Ron Taylor reported that in
April the draft forest plan will be released and the forest supervisor wants
SAF’s comments. Gladie Cultural
Environmental Learning Center will be opening in the Red River Gorge which gets
about 1 million visitors and is famous for rock climbing, cliffs, and natural
bridges. There have been changes in
proposed planning regulations. We have
until February to comment. These
changes won’t affect Boone plan.
Morehead had a 1 mbf timber sale and 1/4 mbf hazard trees sale, mostly
white oak. They will be having a
stewardship pilot project to test different contracting procedures to improve
forest health. It will using best value techniques and trade value for
services. Forests no longer have
purchaser credit. This will have conservation
credit such as doing tsi, building ponds, vernal pools, etc to help pay for the
timber. Morehead will be implementing a
1260-acre prescribed burn, which UK will be researching.
Cherokee National Forest Red
Anderson reported that they have been working on their plan. He delivered the draft plan to GPO
yesterday. It should be released to the
public by the end of Feb. Red will not
be able to participate in the review of the plan for SAF. The Cherokee has three vacant primary staff
positions. The Tellico District Ranger
position has been filled. The other
district ranger and administrative officer jobs have not been advertised
yet. They have had a lot of turnover recently. The Cherokee had no fall fire season. There is about 90,000 acres of pine affected
by the southern pine beetle. The new
forest plan has recommendations on how to recover from the SPB attack.
The audit committee
met. Red Anderson, Clint Strohmeier and Laurie Smith declared that everything
was in good order.
Gary wanted to thank all of
the officers of KT.
The Summer Meeting
June 12-13 Oneida, TN.
Joe Burckle announced that
the Social and the Ethics Class are in the room next door
Dr. Rennie’s Ethics Class is
at 6 pm
The Quiz Bowl will be
at the end of the hall in the lobby.
Glen made a motion to a write
letter thanking Bill Banzaf for years of service to SAF.
John Wood seconded the
motion. Gary called question.
Gary passed the Gavel to Red
Anderson
Red thanked Gary for his
leadership of KT.
Red closed the business meeting.