Contact American Forest Resource Council

Tom Partin

President

Tom Partin is the CEO of AFRC. He directs the work of all AFRC staff members and consultants to assure the needs and preferences of the membership are met, in both the short and long term. He is the association’s principal voice on matters of policy and speaks on its behalf to elected officials, Congressional committees and staff, and the media. He oversees the day to day operations of the association and the implementation of its budget.

As part of his role at AFRC, Tom was active in the formation of the Federal Forests Resource Coalition, a group of regional associations concerned with federal timber supply on the national level. He has also served as chair of Keep Oregon Green and has chaired the Forest Industry Association Council and the National Council of Association Forestry Executives.

Prior to becoming an association executive, Tom worked for 25 years in the timber industry, primarily in Eastern Oregon. His positions included forester, logging manager, resident plant manager, regional manager overseeing multiple facilities, and company vice-president. During that time, he also set up an operation in Europe and helped source raw materials for that mill.

Tom has been an active leader in his local community, serving as mayor, county planning commission chair, and parks and recreation district chair, among other offices.

Tom holds a B.S. in Forest Management from Oregon State University and is a member of the Society of American Foresters, Phi Kappa Phi and the Society of Association Presidents.

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Ann Forest Burns

Vice President

Ann Forest Burns coordinates forest policy and litigation strategies, including responses to regulatory and legislative initiatives, to promote balanced and sustainable management of our public forests to provide a predictable and consistent flow of raw materials to members’ manufacturing facilities. She serves as staff to the Legal Committee, overseeing the work of AFRC’s staff attorney and private attorneys representing AFRC as plaintiff or intervenor in litigation to further member interests in sound public forest management.

Prior to her career as an association executive, Ann practiced timber and forestry law for over 30 years. She has been employed by private timber companies and was associate professor of forest policy and law at the University of Washington College of Forest Resources. She was elected a Fellow of the Society of American Foresters in 1996. Ann holds a B.S. in forest management from the University of Washington and a J.D. from Willamette University. She is licensed to practice law before the courts of Washington State, the Western District of Washington, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Court of Federal Claims.

She is a member of the Society of American Foresters, Washington State Bar Association, Oregon Women In Timber and Xi Sigma Pi.

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Scott Horngren

Attorney

Scott Horngren is responsible for representing AFRC and its members in lawsuits involving regionally significant legal issues involving access to, and timber supply from, public and private forests. He assists the staff in reviewing environmental documents prepared by federal agencies and advises AFRC on development and amendment of regulations and statutes affecting the forest industry.

Scott was a partner with the Haglund, Kelley, Horngren, Jones & Wilder LLP with a practice emphasis in public lands law litigation and natural resource law. Scott has been involved in several landmark legal cases such as the Mission Brush, Five Buttes decision, B&B Fire, NEPA intervention and many others.

He began his career with Northwest Pine Association in Spokane Washington. He holds a B.S. in Forest Management from Oregon State University and a JD from Lewis & Clark Northwest School of Law. He is admitted to practice in Oregon, the Ninth, Tenth and Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. District Courts of Oregon and Colorado and the Court of Federal Claims.

He is a California registered professional forester and a member of the Society of American Foresters.

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Cindi Kaneshige

Administrative Assistant

Cindi Kaneshige oversees the day-to-day procedures of AFRC's offices and provides all administrative support for the association’s staff. She is responsible for the association’s accounting functions and finances. Cindi’s other duties include legal assistant to our staff attorney, assistant editor of the AFRC News, organizing the annual meeting, managing the association’s website and overseeing the employee benefit program.

Cindi is also the secretary of AFRC’s Political Action Committee and is responsible for the accounting and record keeping for the PAC. In addition to her work for AFRC, Cindi is the administrative assistant and bookkeeper for the Western Resources Legal Center.

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Ross Mickey

Federal Forest Manager

Ross Mickey works with federal, state and local government and elected officials on forest policy issues. He maintains close working relationships with members of the press and community leaders providing industry's perspective on key forest policy issues. He staffs the Wildlife Program, Federal Timber Program and is Chair of the National FTPC Contract Subcommittee. He has worked extensively with wildlife biologists and ecologists trying to incorporate forest management with wildlife protection.

Prior to moving to the northwest to start his association work, Ross worked for the Forest Service for 10 years where he gained a wide breadth of experience from sale preparation to operations research developing FORPLAN models for the development of land management plans. He also held positions of responsibility for wildlife, archeology, recreation and range management activities.

Before joining AFRC, Ross was Vice President of Forest Policy for the North West Timber Association. He holds a B.S. in Forestry from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Andy Geissler

Western Oregon Field Forester

As Western Oregon Field Forester, Andy represents the industry on federal forest projects in western Oregon. He is responsible for tracking Forest Service and BLM projects from the scoping stage until the project is sold. Project layout, logging and economics are all reviewed by this position.

Prior to his move to Oregon, Andy worked in the Midwest as a forester with the Missouri Department of Conservation in 2005 & 2006 where he set up timber sales and timber stand improvements on state land. He also developed stewardship plans for private forest landowners and assisted in their execution. In 2006, Andy moved to the northwest and worked as a forester for The Washington State Department of Natural Resources. Andy was responsible for timber sale layout, contract compliance, road and logging system design, and fire suppression.

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Jacob Groves

Washington State Manager

Jacob Groves represents member interests for forest practices, staffs the State Timber Program, coordinates legal matters, tracks public relations issues, and address technical needs of the membership in the State of Washington. He is responsible for reviewing and commenting on projects on the Gifford Pinchot, Olympic, and Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forests from the scoping stage until the project is sold.

In 2006, he began working for AFRC as the Western Oregon Field Forester where he worked on federal forest issues in Oregon. Jake is a third-generation forester with prior work experience fighting wildland fires and cruising timber. Prior to completing his college education, he was enlisted for four years in the United States Air Force and was deployed for six months during Operation Enduring Freedom serving out of Incirlik, Turkey.

Jake holds a B.S. in Natural Resources (Forest Ecology) and a Master of Forestry (Forest Biology) from Oregon State University.

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Rick Svilich

Consultant

Rick Svilich is responsible for monitoring the vegetation management programs on the Klamath, Shasta Trinity, Mendocino, and Six Rivers National Forests from the scoping stage until the project is sold. He also tracks the timber sale programs for the Jackson Demonstration State Forest and the Redding BLM office.

Rick worked for the Forest Service for over 34 years serving as a District Timber Management Officer, District Silviculturist, District Fuels Officer, Klamath National Forest Silviculturist, and as the Klamath National Forest Timber and Vegetation Manager. He also instructed Stewardship Contracting to Forest Service employees in five separate sessions.

Rick completed an intensive eight week training for silvicultural certification and became certified in Region 5 as a Silviculturist in 1981 and maintained his certification throughout his entire career. He made numerous presentations on a variety of subjects at workshops and training sessions throughout his career. He also did a three month detail in the Regional Office as the Regional Silviculturist. He retired from the Forest Service in January 2006.

Rick holds a B.S. Forest Management from Utah State University and is a member of the National Association of Forest Service Retirees.

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Jerry Jensen

Consultant

Jerry Jensen is responsible for monitoring the timber sale programs on the Los Padres, San Bernardino, Sequoia, Sierra and Stanislaus National Forests from the scoping stage until the project is sold.

Jerry worked for the U.S. Forest Service for over 37 years. He served as Regional Sale Administration staff, Fire and Timber Staff Officer, District Timber Staff Officer, Forest Check Cruiser and Timber Sale Administrator. Jerry served in the US Army for two years and spent two years in West Pakistan with the US Peace Corps working on an aerial inventory project.

Jerry is a member of the Professional Forester’s Examining Committee (PFEC), State of California and is a member of the Tuolumne County Resource Advisory Committee (RAC). He has also taught timber sale administration training courses under contract by the Forest Service.

Jerry holds a B.S. in Forest Management from Humboldt State. He is a California Registered Professional Forester (RPF 1136), as well as a member of the Society of American Foresters, National Association of Forest Service Retirees, and Forest Landowners of California.

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Bill Wickman

Consultant

Bill Wickman is responsible for monitoring the timber sale programs on the Lassen, Plumas, Modoc and Tahoe National Forests from the scoping stage until the project is sold.

As a private consultant Bill has worked with the forest products industry including small logging contractors as a field representative as well as advocate between the Forest Service and contractor. He is still active in agency training in stewardship and mechanical fuel treatment. He has assisted the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and Park Service in fuels and stewardship training. Bill is the Chairman of the Plumas County Economic Recovery Committee, a committee that works to improve the social and economic wellbeing of Plumas County. Bill is also a spokesperson for the Sustainable Forest Action Coalition (SFAC). SFAC has members in eighteen counties in northern and central California who work together with state and federal representatives to address natural resource issues that affect these small rural counties. Sustainable management of our national forests to maintain and enhance a supply of sawlogs and biomass while improving watershed health is a key objective of SFAC.

Bill worked for the Forest Service for over thirty years. He served as a Soil Scientist, Logging Engineer, Timber Sale Contracting Officer and Head of the Timber Sale Program in the Pacific Southwest Region. He was responsible for the national development of service contracts to assist in the treatment and removal of forest products. He also led the national effort to develop uniform training in sale administration and was a key member of the national effort to reestablish logging engineering training and developed the new class for Mechanical Fuel treatment. He also served on regional and national teams in the development and implementation of the Stewardship Authority.

Bill served as adjunct faculty at Feather River College, instructing courses in Forestry and Ecosystem Management for five years. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in Physical Geography at California State University and Forest Engineering Institute #14 at Oregon State University.

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Maurice Williamson

Consultant

Maurice Williamson is responsible for monitoring the timber sale program on the Colville and Okanogan/Wenatchee National Forests from the scoping stage until the products are sold.

As a private consultant, Maurice has worked with the forest products industry including landowners, logging contractors, and timber sale purchasers in various capacities including purchaser representative on USFS timber sales.

Maurice started his career with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, has worked for the Wyoming Division of Forestry, Cambria Forest Industries, Georgia Pacific Corporation, and San Poil Lumber. In 1981, Maurice started his full service forestry consulting firm that has employed from four to twenty employees and has provided services for hundreds of forest landowners. His volunteer responsibilities include Board of Trustees for Washington Forest Protection Association, and Eastside Policy Director for Washington Farm Forestry Association.

Maurice has served on various committees for Washington State fire prevention and suppression programs, forest health legislation, the Small Landowner Advisory Committee; Past President of the Washington Farm Forestry Association; University of Washington, Rural Technology Initiative Advisors Board, Center for Streamside Studies; and Eastern Washington Resource Advisory Committee.

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Irene Jerome

Consultant

Irene Jerome is responsible for monitoring the timber sale programs from the scoping stage until the project is sold on the Deschutes, Fremont-Winema, Malheur, Mt. Hood, Ochoco, Umatilla, and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests in Region 6 and for the Boise and Payette National Forests in Region 4.

As a private consultant Irene has worked with private landowners, logging contractors, and the forest industry in a wide range of roles from developing forest management plans, to administering private timber sale logging contracts. Irene and her husband Jim, who retired from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, operate a small precommercial thinning and juniper cutting business that specializes in treating woodlots less than 40 acres.

Irene began her career with the U. S. Forest Service where she spent 15 years working in all phases of timber management from planning and sale administration to Timber Management Assistant. After leaving the Forest Service Irene spent several years working for private industry procuring logs, overseeing logging contracts and working on company fee lands in the Cascades and in eastern Oregon.

Irene has a B.S. in Forest Management from OSU, a B.S. in Business and Economics from EOU and is a graduate of the Forest Engineering Institute at OSU. In addition Irene is a member of the Society of American Foresters and serves on the Eastern Oregon Regional Forest Practices Committee as well as on numerous committees in Grant County, Oregon where she makes her home.

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Tom Partin

Ann Forest Burns

Scott Horngren

Cindi Kaneshige

Ross Mickey

Andy Geissler

Jacob Groves

Rick Svilich

Jerry Jensen

Bill Wickman

Maurice Williamson

Irene Jerome

AFRC Offices & Biographies

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