{"id":18481,"date":"2010-12-13T19:35:24","date_gmt":"2010-12-13T19:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/162.217.168.59\/?p=18481"},"modified":"2023-03-22T16:56:55","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T20:56:55","slug":"marylandstateforesterelected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forests.org\/fr\/marylandstateforesterelected\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland State Forester Elected To SFI Inc. Board"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON<\/strong> \u2013 Maryland State Forester Steven W. Koehn was elected last week to the independent\u00a0Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc.\u00ae (SFI\u00ae) Board of Directors.<\/p>\n

Koehn is past president of the National Association of State Foresters, which passed a policy statement in\u00a02008 stating that all forest certification programs make positive contributions to forest sustainability. \u201cI\u00a0welcome the opportunity to work with SFI to raise awareness of the important role certification plays to\u00a0encourage sustainable management of America\u2019s forests,\u201d he said today.<\/p>\n

Koehn has been director and state forester with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Forest\u00a0Service, for almost 10 years. He played a vital leadership role in the passage of the Maryland Sustainable\u00a0Forestry Act of 2009, which recognizes that an important way to improve the health of Maryland’s vast\u00a0Chesapeake Bay ecosystem is through healthy forests.<\/p>\n

Koehn said he is particularly interested in working with the U.S. Green Building Council to open up its\u00a0LEED certified wood credit to all certification programs. \u201cLimiting the forest certification credit, as the\u00a0LEED rating tool currently does, denies credit to the vast majority of domestic well-managed forests and\u00a0certified forests,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is not good for our forests or our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 18-member multi-disciplinary SFI board of directors, which is totally responsible for independent,\u00a0non-profit SFI Inc., represents environmental, social and economic sectors equally. Current board\u00a0members include representatives of environmental, professional and academic groups, independent\u00a0loggers, family forest landowners, public officials, labor and the forest products sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe SFI program values the important contribution made by public land managers like Steve Koehn,\u201d\u00a0said SFI President and CEO Kathy Abusow. \u201cSteve is a highly motivated and innovative leader whose\u00a0work in Maryland has received national recognition. The SFI board will benefit from his enthusiasm,\u00a0experience and commitment to responsible forest management, certification and green building.\u201d<\/p>\n

BACKGROUNDER: STEVEN W. KOEHN
\n<\/strong>Steven W. Koehn has been Director and State Forester of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources,\u00a0Forest Service, since February 2001. He is responsible for statewide delivery of all technical and financial\u00a0forestry assistance on both public and private lands. Earlier this year, he won a Champion of Trees award\u00a0from the non-profit Arbor Day Foundation for advancing public forestry policy.<\/p>\n

His office is responsible for the management of the 200,000-acre\/81,000-hectare State Forest system,\u00a0including the 60,000-acre\/24,000-hectare Chesapeake Forest, a unique public and private partnership and\u00a0Maryland\u2019s first Sustainable Forestry Initiative-Forest Stewardship Council dual-certified forest.\u00a0Maryland aims to have all its state forests certified by April 2011.<\/p>\n

Koehn has been with the Maryland Forest Service since 1984. Before becoming state forester, he served\u00a0as associate director, supervisor of resource management and project forester. From 1993 to 2002, he also\u00a0taught forest ecology, forest management, forest stand delineation and forest conservation planning at the\u00a0School of Professional Studies in Business Education at Johns Hopkins University.<\/p>\n

He is currently past president of the National Association of State Foresters, and has held leadership\u00a0positions in the Chesapeake Bay Program Forestry Workgroup, Society of American Foresters, Maryland\u00a0Association of Forest Conservancy District Boards, Maryland Forests Association, and the American\u00a0Forest Foundation\u2019s Center for Conservation Solutions Operating Committee.\u00a0Koehn received his Bachelor of Science, Forest Science, from Pennsylvania State University. Koehn and\u00a0his wife have two daughters, and live in Parkton, Maryland.<\/p>\n

BACKGROUNDER: SFI INC. BOARD OF DIRECTORS<\/strong>
\nDecember 2010
\n<\/strong>Board members representing the environmental sector, which includes non-profit environmental or\u00a0conservation organizations:<\/p>\n