ISSUES: During the fall of 1998 the membership voted to accept the new bylaws and charters for the K-T Society. During the Winter 1999 meeting the new bylaws and charters were first implimented.

In December of 1998 the Tennessee Forest Management Advisory Panel published their report. The K-T Society was represented by Stan Malone on the panel. Several other SAF members were on the panel representing a variety of interests. The report was presented to the govoner and Tennessee legislature. Sound recommendations were made in the Panel report. It is important that we persue the implimentation of the report. Several members of the committee and their associates are trying to allow the report to die without action because no management action is their prefered approach.

I wrote a letter to the Chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority asking that he consiter putting a Professional forester on the new Advisory commite that was being formed for the Land Between the Lakes. A forester was not put on the committee. I was informed that one of the first advisory committee meetings would have several speakers talk about preservation of LBL rather than the present management of the area. I asked Allen Houston if he would become involved in the meeting to provide a balance of ideas. Allen asked to be put on the agenda and was given 5 minutes. His comments were excellent. He spoke as a concerned individual. Attached are his comments. It is important that individual Foresters let there voices be heard at these kinds of meetings and media events.

I submitted to the Tennessee Conservation League, a nomination for Land Between the Lakes to be recognized as the Conservation Organization of the year for their years of outstanding resource management. The review committee missunderstood the nomination. They turned it down as a nomination for the Director as conservationist of the year. I recommend the nomination be resubmitted next year. Attached is a copy of the nomination.

POLICY: The National office is reacting to public policy decisions of congress and federal agencies, based upon policy papers and taskforce reports that have been developed over the years. It is critical that each State society become involved in these task force reports to insure appropriate representation. The following reports were reviewed and commented on by myself and Wayne Clatterbuck Chiarman of the Policy committee.

Commments were made by myself and Wayne on "Forest Management Certification Task force Report" and "SAF Task Force on Proposed Public Land management Legislation" which became the published policy statements in "Forest of Discord (options for governing our National Forests and Federal Public Lands)" The Extension Foresters from University of Tennessee, Virginia Tech. and University of Kentucky were asked to review the Forest Stewardship Council's Appalachia Regional Standards. Wayne Clatterbuck responed and indicated that his response would also be similar if responding for the K-T Society. No request was made of the society to review the standards.

The Forest Service began several initiatives to change their policy and regulations. The Forest Service began again the process to change the planning regulations. The new regulations respond to a committee of scientists report requested by President Bill Clinton. The Forest Service stopped road building on the National Forest while it developed a roads management policy. The President requested the Forest Service to stop all road building on present Roadless areas totalling 40 million acres; to do an Environmental Impact Statement to support the roading ban and develop regulaitons to control road building in present "unroaded" areas. The forest Service is going to propose a new policy and set of regulations for road construction on all of the National Forests in the first few months of 2000.

The Land between the Lakes was transfered to the Forest Service from the Tennessee Valley Authority in the summer of 1999. The Forest Service is working with present LBL employees to make the transition from the TVA procedures and authorities to the Forest Service procedures and authorities.

ACTIONS: A draft Member Handbook was presented to the Executive Committee at the winter meeting. The executive committee passed a motion to have the Handbook provided to all members as well as new members and tranfers. The Handbook was consolidated and updated. Copies were made for each member. The copies were given to each chapter for distribution to its members before the summer meeting in June. A list of new members for 1999 was obtained from the National Office. A copy of the handbook along with a letter of welcome was sent to all new members, transfered members and reinstated members.

In May a letter was sent to all members that had not payed their dues encouraging them to maintain their memberbership in the Society and becomming actively involved in the K-T program. Over 60 letters were sent out. approximately 10 returned undeliverable.

This year the National Future Farmers of America convention was located in Louisville, KY. Larry Doyle worked with the State to put together the Forestry Contest at Bernheim Forest. Many SAF members assisted in this effort. I worked to put together a display for the Career exhibit hall. The display came from the National office. It was designed to promote membership in the SAF. We modified it to be a career display. Several SAF members stayed with the display to answer questions. The K-T Society stayed with the display on Wednesday and Friday and two people came down from the Indiana SAF to be with the display on Thursday. If this is done next year a display needs to be made that emphasises both a Career in Forestry and what a forester can do to help an land owner.

Richard A. Wilcox

1999 Chairman Kentucky – Tennessee Society of American Foresters