Vision

AFA strives to be the respected leader and credible information source for all issues related to forestry.

Mission

AFA advocates for the sustainable use and sound stewardship of Arkansas’s forests and related resources to benefit members of the state’s forestry community and all Arkansans, today and in the future.

 

AFA represents one of the state's largest manufacturing sectors which directly employs some 24,736 Arkansans and contributes more than $1.38 billion annually in payroll. AFA also represents an estimated 2,500 certified family forest owners in the state, as well as 125,000 other non-industrial private forest landowners, who together own nearly 56 percent of Arkansas's forestland.

 

Click here to see AFA's Strategic Plan.

Forestry Issues

AFA members are finding ways to meet the demands for essential forest products, with the world's growing population, while maintaining fresh water and air supplies, enhancing fish wildlife habitat and conserving significant sites and recreation areas. Meeting all of these needs is perhaps one of the forestry community's greatest challenges today, and AFA members are meeting them head on.

AFA Education Foundation

The AFA Education Foundation (AFAEF) sponsors a Landowner Education and Assistance Program for landowners seeking forest management information. As part of this program, AFAEF holds a number of landowner education workshops throughout the state and publishes a variety of educational guides to provide landowners the information they need to make sound forest management decisions.

 

AFAEF also serves as an information and education source to Arkansas's teachers and students. AFAEF offers teacher training as part of the Project Learning Tree curriculum as well as summer teacher training workshops and other activities.

 

AFA History

In 1947, leaders in the forestry community established the Arkansas Wood Products Association. The group changed its name to Arkansas Forestry Association in 1971. Since 1947, this organization has been the only private, nonprofit organization that speaks for the entire forestry community in Arkansas.

 

AFA Presidents

1947	R. E. Van Dusen
1948	V. H. Whitten
1948-49	Bruce Anthony
1950-51	Spencer Fox
1952-53	E. N. Beisel
1954-58	Waldo Tiller
1959	Mark Townsend
1960-June 62	P. M. Dacus
June 62-1963	George Clippert
1964-66	Herman Wilson
1967	T. A. "Tommy” Reynolds
1968-69	Graham Griffith
1970-71	Tom Faust
1972-73	John Elrod
1974-75	Charles Black
1976-77	John Ed Anthony
1978-79	J. C. Dellinger
1980-81	W. H. Fox
1982-83	R. V. Warner
1984-85	James Bibler
1986-87	Harold Humphries
1988-89	O. H. "Doogie” Darling
1990-91	Joe Fox
1992-93	Dave Elkin
1994-95	Allen Bedell
1996-97	John McEntire
1998-99	Steven M. Anthony
2000-01	Ron Pearce
2002-03	Peggy Clark
2004-05	Frank Wilson
2006-07	Randy Crowder
2007-09	Glenn Gray
2009-10	Miles Lacy
2011-13	Allen Morgan
2013-15	Ray Dillon
2015-17 2017-19 2019-20 2021-22 2023-24 2025-Present	Pete Prutzman David Cawein Robert Gray Mark Karnes Tammy Waters Greg Hay

AFA Executives

1947-53	Osro Cobb
1959-63	Waldo Tiller
1964-67	Art Smith
1967-77	M. F. "Dobbin” Taylor
1975-77	Bill Chestnutt
1978-80	Bill Harbour
1980-90	B. J. "Merf” Pavlovich
1990-98	Chris Barneycastle
1998-08	J. Kelly Robbins
2008-present	Max Braswell