Steve Henson, the executive director of the Clyde-based Southern Appalachian Multiple Use Council, has been awarded the N.C. Forestry Association’s Outstanding Service to Forestry Award at the association’s 2010 annual meeting.

“Steve is one of the respected voices in the forestry community in North Carolina and the country,” stated NCFA Vice President Bob Slocum. “Over the years, he and his association have proven to be committed to helping North Carolina’s landowners manage healthy and productive forests.”  

A 1973 graduate of North Carolina State University, Henson — who lives in Haywood County — is a registered forester and an avid sportsman. He has authored numerous articles on wildlife and natural resource issues, stressing that active management benefits both timber production and wildlife habitat.

Henson has served in leadership positions with the Ruffed Grouse Society, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Council of Western North Carolina and on advisory committees for the Wildlife Resources Commission and the Forest Legacy Program. He also serves on the NCFA’s Board of Directors, the Friends of Forestry Political Action Committee and the National Forest Counties and Schools Coalition.  

Henson just completed a research project for the NCFA’s Forest Education and Conservation Foundation via a grant from the North Carolina Agriculture Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund to explore the concept of working forest conservation easements in North Carolina. The project included a production of a 30-minute DVD and the development of a comprehensive manual on the subject. In the DVD, NCFA Executive Vice President Bob Slocum helps Parker Lumpkin, a North Carolina landowner who has never seriously considered an easement on his property, to explore working forest conservation easements. To answer Lumpkin’s questions, Slocum conducts a series of interviews including a land trust executive, an experienced land-use attorney, and a landowner with a working forest conservation easement in place. The DVDs will be available to local forestry clubs in December by contacting the NCFA at 800.231.7723.