SC State Forester elected chair of Forestry Research Advisory Council
April 20, 2015
Gene Kodama to lead body that informs world’s largest forestry research organization
COLUMBIA, SC – South Carolina State Forester Gene Kodama will serve as the next chair of the Washington, D.C.,-based Forestry Research Advisory Council. Kodama was elected Feb. 18 by the Council’s membership to serve as FRAC chair-elect, succeeding current chair Cassandra Moseley, director of the University of Oregon’s Ecosystem Workforce Program, Oct. 1, 2015.
In addition to providing advice to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture about national and regional research planning projects, FRAC’s other responsibilities include making recommendations about the coordination of forestry research within federal and state agencies, forestry schools and forest industries. The Council also advises the U.S. Forest Service’s Research and Development program, the world’s largest forestry research organization. FRAC has 20 members representing a cross section of groups interested in forestry research, including industry, state and federal agencies, academic institutions and non-governmental organizations.
As the chair-elect, Kodama will work with the chair and the organization’s designated federal official to develop agendas for Council meetings, manage discussions with presenters and FRAC members, and develop the annual Report to the Secretary. The chair-elect also participates in the briefing by the Chair to the USDA Secretary and his designees, The Forest Service Deputy Chief for R&D, and the Administrator of NIFA and his designees, and the designated federal official.
The Forestry Research Advisory Council is required by the Agriculture and Food Act of 1981 to provide advice to the Secretary of Agriculture on accomplishing efficiently the purposes of the Act of October 10, 1962. Commonly known as the McIntire-Stennis Act of 1962, the legislation authorizes the Secretary to encourage and assist the states in carrying on a program of forestry research through land-grant colleges or agricultural experiment stations and other state-supported colleges and universities offering graduate training in the sciences basic to forestry and having a forestry school.
The mission of the South Carolina Forestry Commission is to protect, promote, enhance and nurture the forest lands of South Carolina in a manner consistent with achieving the greatest good for its citizens. In addition to being recreational hotspots for hiking, biking, hunting, camping and horseback riding, the Commission’s state lands are demonstration forests for ecological responsibility and productivity. The state’s largest manufacturing industry in terms of jobs and wages, forestry generates a $17.4 billion impact on South Carolina’s economy.
