Southern Forest Resource Assessment led by the USDA Forest Service's Southern Region and Southern Research Station in collaboration with the USEPA, US Fish & Wildlife, TVA, and state forestry agencies of the Southern United States

An Invitation The 200+ million acres of forest of the southern United States are among the most productive and diverse in the world. They produce a wide variety products and benefits for people while hosting a rich mixture of plants, wildlife and aquatic species. At the same time, pressures being placed on them are increasing as population in the region expands and the world's demand for forest products continues to grow. In order for public and private policy and decision-makers to respond appropriately in the new millennium when faced with the challenge of ensuring longterm forest resource vitality, they must be equipped with the best information available regarding the forest ecosystem's status, diversity and sustainability. To this end, the USDA Forest Service, US Environmental Protection Agency, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Tennessee Valley Authority, and southern state forestry agencies, are initiating a 2 year assessment of the forest resources of 13 southern states, and are interested in hearing what you, a landowner, citizen and/or user of southern forest resources, believe should be evaluated during the assessment process. We will be conducting 5 meetings around the South during August 1999 and we invite you or your representative to attend and hear more about the assessment. Most importantly, we'll provide you an opportunity to share your views in workshop fashion on the assessment questions we are considering. After hearing from you, the assessment team will refine and choose those questions we believe are most appropriate and answerable within the timeframe of 2 years, and get to work on them. Meeting locations, dates and times can be reached from the link below, as can the preliminary assessment questions we'd like you to review and discuss with us at the workshops. Meeting Dates and Locations Preliminary Questions We believe this assessment can be a relevant contribution to the longterm quality of southern forests and your help in focusing it at the beginning will help to ensure that potential is reached. We look forward to seeing you at one of the meetings or hearing from you. Co-Chairs: John Greis Southern Region jgreis@fs.fed.us phone: 404 347-7223 David Wear Southern Research Station dwear@fs.fed.us phone: 919 549-4093 This site hosted by the Southern Research Station

  modified: 17-APR-2000
  webmaster: John M. Pye