FORESTRY
PROFESSOR RECEIVES
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE
AWARD
BLACKSBURG,
April 29, 2003 - The
2003 Distinguished
Service Award of the
Virginia Forestry
Association (VFA)
was recently awarded
to Harry Haney, Garland
Gray Professor and
Extension Specialist
in the College of
Natural Resources
at Virginia Tech.
VFA's
Distinguished Service
Award was created
to recognize individuals,
groups, associations,
or corporations that
have made a significant,
continuing, and lasting
contribution to the
conservation of Virginia's
forest resources and
to the enhancement
of Virginia's forest-based
community. The recipient
of VFA's Distinguished
Service Award is an
individual who exemplifies
the qualities of leadership,
commitment, integrity,
and good citizenship
in his own work.
In
addition to teaching,
research, and extension
Haney is a fourth-generation
forest landowner.
For more than 28 years,
he has been assisting
forest landowners
in how to manage timber
properties to achieve
their objectives and
how to transfer holdings
to their heirs with
minimum tax disruptions.
He will be president
of the Forest Landowners
Association from 2003-2005.
The
long-time professor
is the author of four
landowner guides on
income tax, investment
analysis, estate planning,
and conservation easements.
In addition, he has
conducted more than
500 programs on these
topics and written
more than 135 technical
publications on forestry.
Haney has counseled
thousands of southern
landowners on a myriad
of problems.
"Perhaps the most
publicly visible mark
of Haney's commitment,"
says Harold Burkhart,
a University Distinguished
Professor and forestry
department head, "is
Harry's bus tour program,
where he offers forest
owners and members
of the public educational
tours of several tree
farm tours each fall
throughout Virginia.
These tours provide
up-to-date practices
and solutions to contemporary
problems."
After
graduating with a
forestry degree from
Auburn University,
Haney flew helicopters
for three years for
the U.S. Army. He
then spent three years
working as a procurement
forester and a logging
supervisor in Choctaw
County, Alabama, before
working two years
as a forest manager
for St. Regis Paper
Co. in Florida. He
decided to go back
to school and earn
a master's degree
in forestry from Yale
University in 1969
and continued on for
a Ph.D. in forest
economics at Yale,
he joined the Department
of Forestry at Virginia
Tech in 1975. "His
work experience, educational
background, common
sense, and outgoing
personality have enabled
him to establish one
of the most outstanding
forest economics and
timberland tax-extension
programs in the nation,"
adds Burkhart. "To
the extent that I
have been successful
in forestry and in
life," notes Haney;
"I give a large part
of the credit to my
tree farm partner
and wife, Jackie."
Haney
has received numerous
honors for his work,
including the national
Technology Transfer
and Extension Award
from the Society of
American Foresters,
Man of the Year in
Forestry Award from
the VFA, and the Outstanding
Forestry Alumnus Award
from Auburn University.
He was the first Extension
faculty member of
the College of Natural
Resources at Virginia
Tech awarded a named
professorship and
the first forestry
faculty member to
receive the university's
Alumni Extension Award.
Photo available by
contacting news.bureau@vt.edu.
