Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture

Overview

Hans M. Williams

Dean
Forestry Building, Room 103
Phone (936) 468-3301
Fax: (936) 468-2489
atcofa@sfasu.edu

The Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture is situated near the U.S.D.A. Forest Service Stephen F. Austin Experimental Forest, Texas Parks and Wildlife Alazan Wildlife Management Area, five wilderness areas, several million acres of private commercial forests and four national forests. The university also is situated in the heart of the nursery/landscape, beef cattle and poultry industries of East Texas. The forestry, environmental science, geospatial science and agriculture programs take advantage of these resources and cooperative efforts with industry and producers for hands-on education and meaningful research opportunities.

The college’s facilities contain classrooms, laboratories, student computer rooms, greenhouses, an arboretum, a native plants garden, state-of-the-art poultry houses, a center for livestock production and geographic information systems laboratories. The Forest History Collection, housed in the university library and associated with the Forest History Foundation, has many manuscripts dealing with the history of the East Texas lumber industry. Laboratories of the U.S. Forest Service’s Southern Research Station, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, located in the SFA Forestry Center, also are available for graduate instruction and research.

The Center for Applied Studies in Forestry consists of an interdisciplinary team of forestry scientists conducting research on topics related to the sustainable management of our nation’s natural resources. Horticulture faculty members perform research at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center and the SFA Mast Arboretum. Agriculture faculty members conduct research on beef, poultry, equine and swine production at the Todd Agricultural Research Center.

Mission

The mission of the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture is to maintain excellence in teaching, research and outreach; to enhance the health and vitality of the environment through sustainable management, conservation, and protection of our forests and natural resources; and to enhance the production and economic viability of agricultural commodities. The mission consists of the following objectives:

The college is dedicated to comprehensive undergraduate and graduate education, basic and applied research programs, and service.
For all academic programs, students receive classroom and field-based experiences to prepare them for their professional careers. Academic courses provide learning opportunities that encourage and inspire students to approach forest resource, environmental, agricultural and social issues in a critical yet creative manner; to identify and analyze key elements; and to articulate ethical solutions.
The college has a strong commitment to a research program that encourages basic and applied studies in natural resource management, environmental topics, agricultural production and social values. Research projects focus on issues that have local, regional, national and international implications.
To complete the college’s mission, a service program provides professional expertise, information and training. Practicing professionals, industrial forest landowners, family forest owners, timber investment organizations, not-for-profit environmental groups, industry, public agencies, farmers, ranchers, poultry producers and society in general are beneficiaries of these services.