New position will deepen forest-based outreach statewide, including to family forest owners
AUGUSTA — The Maine Timber Research and Environmental Education Foundation (Maine TREE) has hired Kelly French as its new program and outreach coordinator. This position is responsible for sustaining and expanding the reach of Maine TREE’s forest-based community programming, including the coordination of the Maine Tree Farm Program and its more than 1,400 tree farms totaling over 400,000 acres.
Kelly grew up in northern New York but has spent a great deal of her life on her family’s tree farm in western Maine, where her love for woodland ecosystems grew. She received her B.A. in biology from Colgate University in 2015 and is about to complete her graduate education, receiving an M.S. in forest resources from the University of Maine.
“In the face of many pressing natural resource issues including climate change, being good stewards of our forest lands is more important than ever. As such, I am extremely excited to be coming on board in this role, where I will be able to actively serve our forests and communities here in Maine,” French shared in starting this new role.
With the economic importance of Maine’s forest sector, the ecologically significant role for forests to play in addressing climate change, and the central role forests play in the social fabric of our communities, this new position will strengthen the breadth of outreach at Maine TREE, with a special focus on engaging the thousands of family forest owners in our state.
Founded in 1989, Maine TREE’s mission is to educate and advocate for the sustainable use of the forest and the ecological, economic and social health of Maine’s forest community. The suite of programs coordinated out of Maine TREE engage a broad spectrum of stakeholders to the state’s forested landscape. Those programs include Project Learning Tree, the Forests of Maine Teachers’ Tours, the Maine Tree Farm Program, the Certified Logging Professionals, the Holt Research Forest and Keeping Maine’s Forests.