NAUFRP’s purpose is to advance the health, productivity, and sustainability of America’s forests by providing university-based natural resource education, research, science, extension and international programs.

• Member institutions provide the most reliable, objective, and innovative research on forest ecology, management, utilization, and policy.
• Our members create the curricula for today and future forest stewardship needs.
• Through natural resource research, member organizations create and disseminate new knowledge that spans the biological, physical, social, economic, and political sciences.

Our member institutions’ programs develop future leaders, create intellectual capacity, secure financial investments, and advance cutting-edge technology to sustain forest resources.

• Virtually all leaders in the forestry profession received their formal education and continued professional development from a university member-institution.
• Our group’s commitment to cultural diversity and inclusion ensure that the future natural resource workforce and perspectives reflect the diversity of the Nation’s people and values.

We connect educators, professional managers, scientists, conservation leaders, policy makers, landowners, and forest users to jointly address diverse ecological and human challenges.

• Partner organizations include international, federal, state, and local governments, private companies, conservation organizations, professional societies, landowners, non-profits, and many others.
• We hosted the top leaders in forestry and conservation for a forest research summit in January 2006 aimed to define new strategic directions and rebuild our research capacity in the 21st century.

Our vision for America’s forests is that there will be a national long-term investment to maintain, enhance, and protect the quantity and quality of our forests and the benefits and intrinsic values forests offer.

Today, U.S. forests cover roughly the same amount of land area as they did in the 1920s — 749 million acres — a credit to the trained professionals sustaining these forested resources. We will continue to invest in the health, productivity, and sustainability of our Nation’s forests so that we are positioned competitively in the rapidly evolving global marketplace and in delivery of ecological services to our citizenry.

Membership Qualifications

Membership is open to American institutions offering educational programs that lead to a professional degree in forestry or conducting research in forestry supported by the McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry Research Program. McIntire-Stennis funding, along with nonfederal matching funds, constitutes a base support for long-term research efforts and provides the central linkage in the federal-state partnership. The association also welcomes, as affiliate members, administrators from member institutions who have an interest in forestry.

Structure

The General Assembly, composed of one representative from each member institution, is the governing body of the association, but it delegates much of its authority and responsibility to the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee consists of the president, president-elect, secretary-treasurer, the immediate past resident, a representative for 1890 institutions, four regional chairs and standing committee chairs for extension, education, diversity, international, policy, and research programs.

The association is organized into four regions reflecting the climatic and geographic diversity of the resource and the varying patterns of forest land ownership. The regional boundaries match those established by the USDA in its programs.

Interrelationships

The structure of NAUFRP is intended to facilitate coordination of forestry issues with the units of the Association of Public and Land-Grant University (APLU), and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), and the U.S. Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
NAUFRP also works with state governments, forest industry, trade associations, conservation and environmental organizations and forest landowner groups to ensure the responsiveness of research and extension programs to national, state and local needs.

What NAUFRP Member Institutions Offer

• Education of the nation's future forestry professionals and scientists.
• A broad range of expertise from a team of forest scientists in fields as diverse as biology, biometrics, ecology, economics, engineering, hydrology, management science, outdoor recreation, policy, and wood science, who can also draw upon scientists in related disciplines found on most university campuses.
• Modern research facilities and equipment.
• A scholarly environment created by comprehensive library collections, opportunities for intellectual debate and the freedom to pursue scientific questions.
• Independent credibility through the scholarly credentials of university-based forest scientists.
• Familiarity with state and local issues, concerns and opportunities of individual states.
• Involvement in regional, national and international projects.
• Participation in information-transfer systems as cooperative extension and continuing education.

NAUFRP Membership Benefits

• Membership provides representation in D.C. for virtually all matters related to forest research funding, especially McIntire-Stennis funding. Randy Nuckolls is our legislative liaison, and he provides regular updates on the status of bills brought before Congress. Randy also works closely with the NAUFRP Policy Committee on legislative matters of importance to NAUFRP.
• Membership also enables direct participation in meetings with key forestry stakeholders (e.g., U.S. Forest Service research leadership team, National Association of State Foresters, National Alliance of Forest Owners)
• Membership allows direct cultivation of relationships with national program leaders from NIFA and NSF via the NAUFRP Research Committee
• NAUFRP members meet annually with staffers and members of Congress to promote forest research and support for McIntire-Stennis, RREA, and related federal funding streams
• Membership provides access to a large national database on enrollment trends and faculty salaries. The Education Committee currently is conducting a student survey to understand factors that affect student recruitment and retention.
• Membership gives us a seat at the table of the most influential university-related research groups. These include:
  • The Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources (BANR), a National Research Council organization and one of the few areas in which natural resources is on a relatively level playing field with agriculture
  • The Forest Research Advisory Council (FRAC), which is mandated to provide advice to the Secretary of Agriculture on matters related to the purposes of the McIntire-Stennis Act. FRAC also provides advice related to the Forest Service research program. The Deputy Chief of Forest Service R&D serves as the Executive Secretary of FRAC.
  • The Budget and Advocacy Committee (BAC), which is one of two standing committees of the Board on Agriculture's Policy Board of Directors, and is responsible for the preparation of an annual budget recommendation for those matters relating to agriculture and related areas that are of special concern to the member institutions.

NAUFRP By-Laws