From the Supervisor's Desk

Welcome to the National Forests in Alabama website.  I hope you are able to find the information that you are searching for and I encourage you to let us know if you have any ideas for improving our website.  Please send those ideas to Public Affairs at pa_alabama@fs.fed.us.

 

I am beginning my second year as Forest Supervisor in Alabama and continue to be impressed by the natural resources this State has to offer.  I am equally impressed with the work that is being done by various natural resource-based organizations, State agencies, and especially private landowners.  The people of Alabama truly care about their natural resources.

 

It seems that today more than ever, there is a focused view concerning the future of our nation’s natural resources.  Every news program, magazine or newspaper has an article about climate change, water shortages and loss of open space.  With two-thirds of Alabama, over 22 million acres, being covered with forests, these concerns reinforce the need for sustainable resource management.  It is also important to be able to anticipate what kind of changes in land use we will be seeing in the future in order to make the best management decisions today.

 

Sustaining forests requires managers to plan in anticipation of future conditions. The complexity and the rate of changes underway today demand a rigorous assessment of how they might impact the region’s forest ecosystems and the many services that the residents of the South and the world derive from them.  In order to do this, we need to understand the relationship between an action proposed today and possible future land condition scenarios.  Creating future scenarios requires insights on forces of change operating at broad regional levels, for example urban growth patterns, wood products markets, and climate. Evaluating the complex implications for forest ecosystems and communities requires careful science synthesis and analysis at a sub-regional or ecosystem-specific level. 

 

This year, the U.S. Forest Service and Southern Group of State Foresters hosted several workshops across the South.  The workshops focused on obtaining your ideas and concerns about issues and land use affecting the future of the South’s forests.  The information will be used to develop a modeling tool that forest managers, policy makers, and science leaders can use to forecast and then analyze potential changes in southern forests.   The Southern Forests Futures Project is a two-year effort focused on the changes affecting forests.  For more information about the project go to http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/futures.

 

We thank you for your support of our Nation’s national forests and encourage you to become involved in the process.

 

Miera Crawford Nagy

Supervisor