Forestry
Kansas Forest Service
The Kansas Forest Service, successor to the Kansas Commissioner of Forestry Office, is the Nation’s fifth oldest state forestry agency. Created by legislative act in 1887, the Kansas Forest Service serves rural landowners, communities, rural fire districts, forest and arboriculture industries, and citizens of the state through its Conservation Tree and Shrub Planting, Fire Management, Community Forestry, Rural Forestry, Marketing and Utilization, and Forest Health programs. The Kansas Forest Service is housed as an independent agency within K-State Research and Extension. The agency receives its direction from a mission statement that reads: "Care of Natural Resources and Service To People Through Forestry." (We will have a new mission statement in January, 2023.)
The Kansas Forest Service consists of a state office and several district offices. The state office is located in Manhattan, KS, just west of the Kansas State University campus. This facility houses the state forester, program coordinators, statewide specialists, and support staff. Also on the grounds, the Rural Fire Program Shop assists with federal excess property for loan to rural fire departments across the state. The Conservation Tree Planting Program greenhouse produces container-grown evergreen seedlings for sale to landowners for conservation plantings.
Evergreen and deciduous tree collections, a shrub collection, and several rare and unusual species can be found throughout the Kansas Forest Service state office property, at what is known as the Kansas Forest Service Demonstration Arboretum and Honor Grove, which has been accredited at level one by The Morton Arboretum. Since the late 1970s, trees have been planted on the property to honor foresters and staff who have retired or passed away while in service to the agency, known as the Honor Grove. Oaks, pines, pecan, male Osage-orange, eastern redbud, Kentucky coffeetree, Ginkgo, and black walnut are among the species found in this space
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