Regional Coordinator:
David A. Hoge
Rural Forestry Program
Manager
USDA Forest Service
Southern Region
1720 Peachtree Road,
N.W.
Suite 846N
Atlanta, GA 30309
Phone: (404) 347-1649
Fax: (404) 347-2776
Email: dhoge@fs.fed.us
Through Economic Action Program delivery, informational, technical and financial assistance is provided to States, local governments, rural communities and private businesses to expand existing or develop new markets for forest based goods and services, better respond to changing economic, social and environmental conditions, and promote forest resource sustainability.
Under the auspices of the national “Working Together for Rural America: 2000 and Beyond” strategy, program delivery tries to integrate natural resource management and rural community assistance in order to produce desired outcomes including sustainable resource management via collaborative stewardship, improving capacity of rural communities to manage change and develop diverse economies, and effective institutional infrastructure, communication and outreach.
The sources of authority for the Economic Action Programs can be found in the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978, as amended, and the National Forest Dependent Rural Communities Economic Diversification Act of 1990, Section 2371 Sub-title G, Chapter 2, Title XXIII (Public Law 101-624, 7 U.S.C. 6611) as amended, and various Appropriations Acts.
Economic Action includes Forest Products Conservation and Recycling, Market Development and Expansion, Rural Development and Economic Recovery. Assistance to and through State Foresters and National Forest Supervisors is provided to stimulate viable forest based economic development and maintain and enhance rural community sustainability.
Forest Products Conservation and Recycling, Market Development and Expansion, and Rural Development assistance is provided to individual businesses, local or tribal governments, non-profit organizations and institutions through State forestry agencies and local cooperators. Economic Recovery assistance is provided to local or tribal governments, non-profit organizations or institutions near National Forests by the Forest Service and local cooperators.
The Southern Region will look to Economic Action programs and services to facilitate its response to the findings of the “Forest Products Utilization and Marketing Report: Recapturing Existing and Creating New Markets for Small Diameter Softwood and Hardwood Forest Resources.” The report documents the South’s environmental and economic challenges and offers several recommendations that could make southern forest products utilization opportunities more viable regionally, nationally and globally.