The Georgia Division of the Society of American Foresters took time at this years Southeastern SAF annual meeting to recognize three remarkable leaders, including the Warnell School’s Dr. Dale Greene, who have dedicated their lives to the prosperity of Georgia’s forestry community. As a way to say thanks for their tireless contributions, the Georgia Division inducted Greene, as well as Mr. Charles Tarver and Mr. Charles Place, Jr., into the Georgia Forester’s Hall of Fame.

Greene, professor of forest operations and timber harvesting at the Warnell School, spent his youth living in several small southeastern towns, including Magnolia and Hot Springs, Arkansas; Bastrop Louisiana; and Tyler, Texas. While his family was not directly involved in the forest industry, in each of these locations Greene was surrounded by abundant, healthy forests where he developed a passion for traditional outdoor recreation activities such as hunting and fishing.

In Arkansas, Greene’s grandmother owned fifty acres that used to grow cotton, but was rehabilitated into forestland during the soil bank programs of the 1950s. Not only did this land serve as a playground for him, it also served as a laboratory where he learned that one can “manage a forest to produce revenue, while at the same time developing wildlife and other natural benefits,” he said. This idea of forestland management for multiple products, including profitable timber harvesting, provided Greene with direction for a career path.

After high school, Greene earned a forestry degree from Louisiana State University (B.S. ’81). He graduated with the intention of working in industry, but found an economy that was “flat on its back” and few available job opportunities. Greene also knew a graduate degree would be necessary for future career development, so he immediately enrolled in Virginia Tech University (M.S. ’83) to study in the college’s industrial forest operations program.

“If you had told me I was going to become a university faculty member at that time I would have said you were stark raving mad,” Greene said, but as with many southern gentlemen, he met his wife to be in his first week at Virginia Tech and his future priorities began to change. Jeanna Greene was planning a doctoral degree from Auburn University, so Dale contacted some faculty he knew in the Auburn forestry program, and they invited him to earn his Ph.D. in lower Alabama (Ph.D. ’86).

After graduating from Auburn, Dr. Greene applied for, and received a teaching/research position at UGA where he has established himself as one of the nation’s premier researchers on improving timber harvesting operations.

“I wanted my program to work directly with logging contractors, not through the timber companies,” Greene said. This method allowed him to conduct important research into sawhead feller-bunchers, mechanizing delimbing, and now into the potential of forest biomass for energy production.

Even before Greene’s research program was firmly established he became a dedicated servant for Georgia’s forests. Over his twenty year career he has worked extensively with the Georgia Forestry Association on the Logging Operations Committee (1989-92), as Treasurer (1993-2001) and chair of the Logging Operations Committee (1989-92); served on the Forestry Best Management Practices (BMP) Revision Task Force; the Forest Resources Association Supplier Relationships Committee; Georgia Forestry Foundation (treasurer, 2005-07); and the Council on Forest Engineering (National Chair 1993, Southern Chair 1990).

More recently, Gov. Perdue appointed Greene to serve on the Georgia State Board of Registration for Foresters in 2004. He was elected chair of the Board in 2007.

Greene lives his life’s philosophy – “Find something you love, then it’s really not like work,” and encourages students to do the same. And if it is forestry that you love, then he recommends students attend comprehensive programs like the Warnell School’s Center for Forest Business to learn not just about growing trees, but also how to manage people and finances.

According to Bob Izlar, director of the Center for Forest Business at UGA, “Dale’s outstanding record of research, coupled to his service to the forests industry on both the national and local levels, make him a clear choice for membership into Georgia’s Hall of Fame.”

Photo by JP Bond