BRANCH HONORED FOR ACTIVISM

The Forest Resources Association awarded its 2006 National Outstanding Forestry Activist Award to Mike Branch, of Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation, in Fernandina Beach, Florida, for his strong campaigning, nationally and locally, on behalf of forestry and logging.

FRA Chairman Jim Brody congratulated Mike at FRA’s 2006 Awards Dinner, June 3, in Orlando, Florida, presenting him with a plaque and cash award, commenting, “on behalf of all of us who depend on the sustainable harvest of trees, please accept our congratulations as FRA’s sixteenth annual National Outstanding Forestry Activist.”

Mike thanked Jim but noted, “while I thank you for this award, I thought this was part of my job—but it is really part of all of our jobs. We all should take every opportunity to support sustainable forestry. I thank my God for giving us dominion over this earth. We should manage the earth, but manage it correctly.”

Mike (shown at center) thanked his wife, Julie (left), and his employer, Smurfit-Stone, for supporting his work in forestry activism, and spoke some words commemorating his father, for instilling in him his love for forestry and conservation.

Mike Branch is definitely pro-forestry (“4S TRE”), as his car license plate affirms. Over the years, Mike has been promoting the virtues of modern forestry as a recent President of the Florida Forestry Association (FFA) and Chair of FFA’s Communications Committee, where he was instrumental in organizing the Florida Forestry Teachers Tour for the past four years. He also serves as a member of the St. Johns River Water Management District’s Governing Board and chair of their Regulatory Committee, where he promoted forestry as the “very best land use.”

As a member of the Sustainable Forestry Board’s (SFB) Resource Committee, Mike Branch helped with the review and implementation of the 2005-2009 Sustainable Forestry Initiative® Standard. He also serves on the Florida Forestry Council, where he helped strengthen Florida’s Best Management Practices for Forestry.

In addition, Mike is an active member of the Forest Resources Association’s Pro-Active Forestry Communication and Education Committee, where he participates in the annual “Make A Cut On Us” legislative contact event for congressional aides at a Washington, DC-area Christmas Tree farm.

Donations from 15 FRA members support FRA’s Forestry Activist Award: Blomberg Logging & Trucking, Bowater, E.D. Bessey & Son, Fiber Industry Consultants, Forest Investment Associates, Godfrey Lumber, Green Bay Packaging, MeadWestvaco, RISI, Ponderay Newsprint, Potlatch Corporation, The Price Companies, Smurfit-Stone Container, Temple-Inland Forest Products, and Weyerhaeuser.

Candidates for FRA’s National Outstanding Forestry Activist Award, which recognizes exemplary activism in support of America’s forest products industry, are nominated following regional competitions.

 

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