U.S. Forest Service chief to keynote forum

Chief Michael Dombeck of the U.S. Forest Service will be in Madison July 19 to deliver the keynote address at the Intelligent Consumption Forum on forest use, a forum and project run by the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.

The Intelligent Consumption Project emerged from the Academy’s conference last fall on environmentalist Aldo Leopold (“Building on Leopold’s Legacy: Conservation for a New Century”) and focuses on developing a consumption ethic as a companion to Leopold’s land ethic.

The Intelligent Consumption Project is based on the premise that we all must take responsibility for the choices we make every day as consumers of forest products. To appropriately assume that responsibility we must have accurate and useful information. To that end, the Intelligent Consumption Project brings together state and national representatives from all sides of the debate on forest use – from industry, agriculture, business, environmental groups, universities and state and federal agencies – to develop a viable consumption ethic.

Presenters at the forum, which runs July 19-20, include Doug MacCleery, assistant director of forest management, USDA Forest Service; Paul DeLong, director, Bureau of Forestry, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources; Nadine Bailey, president, Timber Producers Association; Gigi LaBudde, ecologist, Sustainable Woods Coop; Phil Guillery, director of forestry, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and the Community Resource Forest Center; and Jim Bowyer, professor, Department of Wood and Paper Science, University of Minnesota.

Those presentations take place Wednesday, July 19. The following day will be devoted to break-out sessions and an open forum. Please see the Academy web site for more details.

For more information, please contact Joan Fischer at the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, (608) 263-1692.