NCSAF Luncheon: Jan 31
Forest Health & Integrated Vegetation Management: A Contemporary View

McKinley-Ben Miller, State Forester for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Arizona

On Thursday, January 31rst, NCSAF members met at the Whitten Building in Washington, DC for a luncheon presentation by McKinley-Ben Miller, state forester for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) I n Arizona. Mr. Miller highlighted some of the challenges facing land management agencies as they attempt to manage a large, diverse landscape and he discussed some approaches to integrated vegetation management that might improve the agencies’ ability to manage and understand broad landscape needs.

Mr. Miller explained that the agencies need a reasonable framework of assessment and evaluation to determine if planned or implemented actions are appropriate for the space and the time in which they occur. He further explained that cohesive and realistic land management decisions result when people manage at scales they can comprehend and get their hands around, rather than at enormous and unfathomable expanses.

Mr. Miller additionally gave a most intriguing and thoughtful definition of a forest as “a unique bio- physical collection of trees.” He explained that he had determined this definition upon discovering that a single definition of a forest seemed to be lacking in the field at large. He further went on to say that he “consider[s] this definition to be universal and all encompassing of any group of trees, growing in any definable location, which numbers two or more.” This definition was illustrative of Mr. Miller’s willingness to think broadly and creatively about forests, their construction and their management.

As a former US Forest Service and Tribal forester, a current BLM forester, and a former student of forestry in a variety of places including the Adirondacks and Goettingen, Germany, the broad reach of experience and perspective McKinley-Ben Miller provided the NCSAF group was enlightening. After the luncheon, several attendees remarked that Mr. Miller’s ability to engage them in forest management issues was refreshing and invigorating.

Brief Presentation Description

To facilitate the prudent practice of interdisciplinary ecosystem maintenance & management, a reasonable framework of assessment and evaluation is needed to determine if planned or implemented actions are appropriate for space & time in which they occur. A contemporary view of integrated vegetation management will be presented and discussed to address some of the challenges facing our ability to manage a large, diverse landscape.

Biography

McKinley-Ben Miller, a former US Forest Service and Tribal forester, is currently the State Forester for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Arizona.  McKinley earned a technical A.A.S. degree from Paul Smiths College of the Adirondacks in New York followed by a Masters degree in forest management from the University of Goettingen, Germany.  He has practiced forestry from the Monongahela National Forest in WVA, to the Pueblo of Laguna & BLM in New Mexico to the Grand Canyon State of Arizona.  McKinley is here on a detail to D.C. as the Stewardship Contracting coordinator for the BLM.

CFE Credits = 0.5