07/21/2010
Kennamer Chosen as Member of Landscape Restoration Committee
EDGEFIELD, S.C. — James Earl Kennamer, Ph.D., chief conservation officer of the National Wild Turkey Federation, has been chosen as a member of the USDA Forest Service's Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Advisory Committee.
 James Earl Kennamer, Ph.D., the National Wild Turkey Federation's chief conservation officer, was recently chosen as a member of the USDA Forest Service's Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Advisory Committee. Click image for print quality version |
Members of the committee will review community based proposals covering a myriad of ecological restoration treatments to reduce wildfire risk, enhance fish and wildlife habitats, maintain and improve water quality and use woody biomass and small-diameter trees. The committee will then advise Tom Vilsack, secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, regarding their selections. The USDA Forest Service received 31 proposals from across the country for the committee to evaluate.
"The newly appointed Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Advisory Committee will serve as the eyes and ears for local and rural communities to ensure the USDA Forest Service provides healthy forests and waterways, which will help create green jobs and economic prosperity for our communities," said Vilsack. "The Committee's guidance will be invaluable in evaluating landscape restoration proposals that ultimately promote healthier, safer and more productive public lands."
Congress appropriated $10 million this year to supplement local resources and leverage non-Federal support for carrying out large-scale, long-term restoration projects feasible under this program. The program is a key part of Vilsack's restoration vision for the forests and rangelands under the care of the USDA Forest Service. The program is slated to receive $40 million in the president's 2011 fiscal year budget.
"Decades without land management have left many areas of our nation's forests subject to catastrophic wildfires, which endanger surrounding communities," Kennamer said. "It is an honor to help identify large landscape forest management projects that will benefit forests and habitat, protect communities and help create jobs, and it's a commitment I take very seriously."
Kennamer and 14 other committee members were chosen based on their technical expertise, points-of-view represented, geographic region of the country and diverse backgrounds.
For nearly 30 years, Kennamer, has played a key role in forging the partnerships between hunters and wildlife agencies, corporations and conservation groups that have helped restore turkey populations across North America. His leadership in wild turkey research and management has garnered respect throughout the conservation community, and helped the NWTF become the driving force in conservation it is today.
Having earned various achievement awards throughout his career, Kennamer is no stranger to receiving recognition for his conservation work.
In 2009 he was accepted as a Professional Member of the Boone and Crockett Club. In 2008, he was honored in Outdoor Life magazine's first top 25 list of people who have positively influenced our hunting and fishing traditions. Kennamer also was chosen as the recipient of the 2008 Alumni Fellow for the College of Forest Resources at Mississippi State University. In 2004, he received special recognition from the USDA Forest Service.
The NWTF is a nonprofit conservation organization that works daily to further its mission of conserving the wild turkey and preserving our hunting heritage.
Through dynamic partnerships with state, federal and provincial wildlife agencies, the NWTF and its members have helped restore wild turkey populations across the country, spending more than $306 million to conserve 14 million acres of habitat for all types of wildlife.
