The Minnesota Forest Resources Partnership recently announced the selection of its officers for 2013.

New officers include Chairman Dennis Thompson, a forester with Aitkin County Soil and Water Conservation District, and Vice Chairman Dick Moore, the Beltrami County natural resource management director/land commissioner.

The Minnesota Forest Resources Partnership is a non-profit corporation of the state’s largest land managers and landowners including: the Chippewa and Superior national forests, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources; Minnesota Association of County Land Commissioners, Minnesota Power; Molpus Timberlands; Minnesota Forestry Association and private landowners; forest industries including Boise Paper, Potlatch, and UPM Blandin; and the University of Minnesota.

Koochiching County Land Commissioner Dennis Hummitzsch serves on the MFRP Board of Directors.

Thompson, a district forester with the Aitkin County Soil and Water Conservation District, specializes in working with private forest landowners, having written more than 350 stewardship plans covering 39,500 acres. In 2007, Thompson successfully developed a Forest Stewardship Council group certification program for private forest landowners in Aitkin County. Today, the management of that group includes 20 landowners and 4,692 acres. He is a board member of the MFA, Minnesota DNR State Stewardship Committee and adviser to the Minnesota SWCD Forestry Association.

Moore began his forestry career in 1978 as a member of a heli-tack fire crew in the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana. Coming full circle, one of Moore’s first positions after graduating from college was on the crew performing forestry inventory in the Beltrami County Forest in 1982. His recent positions include serving as the director of forestry and natural resources/forest administrator for the 270,000-acre Douglas County Forest in Wisconsin and as area manager for the Montana DNRC in Billings.

MFRP Executive Director Kathleen Preece stated that the MFRP is extremely pleased to have Thompson and Moore accept the leadership positions for 2013.

“Minnesota faces, in this decade, numerous challenges for its forest resources,” Preece said in a statement.

“This includes the invasion of the non-native insect, the emerald ash borer, as well as challenges to the health and vitality of the state’s forest products’ industries,” she stated. “Having Dennis Thompson and Dick Moore in leadership roles will help to position Minnesota in a way that we can ensure the sustainability of our forest resources and forest-dependent economic opportunities. The MFRP looks both with anticipation and expectation for 2013.”