The 2003 Owen Lecture Series is continuing a tradition held at Mississippi State University for over a decade as the vice president of Weyerhaeuser Co.’s Southern Timberlands group will speak Friday at MSU.
Mike Branson of Hot Springs, Ark., is the College of Forest Resources’ 2003 Carlton N. Owen Lecturer. Since last year, he has been responsible for the company’s 10-state forest management and harvest operations, which includes some 700,000 acres in Mississippi and nearly 5 million acres overall.
His 9 a.m. public presentation in the Tully Auditorium of Thompson Hall will highlight issues of forest resources stewardship.
Branson, who has worked in the forest products industry for more than two decades, will discuss the “new” world of forestry. He served as vice president of plywoods with the Weyerhaeuser Co.’s Southern Timberlands, a Washington-based international forest products company, and has been working in the forest products industry for more than 20 years. He now serves as vice president of Southern Timberlands.
Dr. Terry Sellers, Jr., a professor of forest products and 2003 chairman of the Owen Carlton Lecture Series, spoke on some of the reasons Branson was chosen to be the 2003 speaker.
“Mr. Branson is an executive of a company known for its sustainable philosophy for land-based and forest-resources-based management and utilization,” said Sellers. “Weyerhaeuser Co. incorporates forest planting with management, forest harvesting and products utilization, real estate and mineral/petroleum development and wildlife/fisheries protection and access. In other words, Weyerhaeuser Co. is known to be a good steward of its land and forest resources for its company’s objectives as well as for society in general.
“Mr. Branson was selected to be this year’s speaker because he is familiar with these environmentally sensitive issues of management from a Regional National International perspective.”
The Owen Lecture Series Branson was established through a 1992 gift from Owen, a 1974 MSU graduate and Greenville, S.C., resident. The lecture series commonly features speakers that address issues of business management and methods employed for the conservation of forest resources.
For more information about the lecture series, contact MSU’s Forest and Wildlife Research center at 325-2953.