About ACF
The Association of Consulting Foresters of America, Inc. is a national organization committed to serving independent consulting foresters who manage forests and market forest products for private woodland owners.
Mission: To advance the practice of professional consulting forestry.
Vision: To be the preeminent resource driving excellence for professional consulting foresters, with our members recognized as the gold standard, empowering landowners and stakeholders to make informed decisions and implement responsible management of forest and natural resources.
Core Values:
- Professional and ethical excellence
- Belief in a strong free enterprise system
- Commitment to science-based stewardship of natural resources
- Cooperative relationships among ACF foresters
Values Statements:
The Association of Consulting Foresters of America:
- Promotes professional, ethical, science-based, and economic expertise in management of forest and natural resources.
- Endorses the free enterprise system, including all rights and privileges inherent to the ownership and management of private property.
- Believes that private forest and natural resource management activities are essential enterprises that yield public benefits.
- Encourages and promotes cooperative relationships among ACF foresters.
- Believes that where subsidies are conducive to economic viability of private forest and natural resource management, such subsidies are most effectively and economically applied through the private sector.
- Supports fair and equitable income, estate, and property tax policy that promotes long-term investment in forest and natural resources.
- Recognizes that healthy and economically viable forestlands and forest products industries provide the greatest good for the nation.
- Believes forest and natural resources education, fire protection and research are public services that are beneficial to society.
- Believes that management of public forestlands for multiple-use best serves the public interest.
- Recognizes that ecosystem services markets can benefit forest landowners and society.
History
The Association of Consulting Foresters (ACF) was founded in 1948 when 15 charter members from 13 states determined that:
"There was a strong need for a professional organization to acquaint consultants with their colleagues, protect the field from charlatans by uniform standards specially designed for consulting work, disseminate new techniques as they evolved, and provide foresters, as well as their clients, with a means of locating consulting foresters of proven ability and character in every part of the country."
Furthermore, in matters vital to consultants, but of little or no consequence to the forestry profession in general, consultants felt they should be able to take a united stand.
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