Dr. Svend Heiberg, is credited with the initial proposal to establish an Association of Forest Landowners in New York State. Dr. Heiberg was a Dean at the State University of New York College of Forestry at Syracuse University. He was internationally known for his work in silviculture. His insight and first-hand observation of successful forest owner associations in Scandanavia sparked the movement. At the college, Dr. Heiberg headed up a faculty committee on Forest Landowners which led to several land owner forums.

Out of those forums, came the organization of a New York landowner group. The first meeting of the newly formed NYFOA took place in January of 1963 with the first annual membership meeting taking place that July. Shortly thereafter, the Association was incorporated and the first issue of the New York Forest Owner magazine was published. Numerous well-known names in New York forestry have graced the leadership and Board of Directors of the Association. Today, membership continues to grow supported by over fifty years of service to New York forest stewards.

Click here for a more comprehensive history of NYFOA written by ESF Professor Hugh Canham on the occasion of our 50th anniversary in 2013.

Past Board Presidents:

• Theodore T. Buckley
• Dr. Eugene Klochkoff
• David H. Hanburgh
• John W. Stock
• Hendrick W. VanLoon
• William Lubineck
• Lloyd G. Strombeck
• C. Eugene Farnsworth
• Robert M. Sand
• Howard O. Ward
• Robert L. Edmonds
• Paul B. Steinfeld
• Mary Soons McCarty
• Richard Garrett
• J. Morgan Heussler
• Allen Horn
• Stuart McCarty
• Don Wagner
• Bill Minerd
• Jill Cornell
• Ron Pedersen
• Geoff Yancey
• Alan White
• Dan Cleveland
• Mike Seager
• Jim Minor
• Charles Stackhouse
• Art Wagner