Granite State Division

Chair

Alexa Kosalek
Term: 1/1/23 – 12/31/23
akosalek@landvest.com

Alexa is a District Forester with LandVest, Inc. She provides land management consulting services to a host of clients with properties from 25 to 15,000 acres. While she currently spends the majority of her time in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, her career started in the Great Woods region of New Hampshire, and she continues to provide services to Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. She started her involvement with SAF as a Student, where she spent two years on the Student Executive committee as a District 6 Student Representative, and one of those years serving as the chair of the Student Executive Committee. She is excited to be continuing her involvement as a transitional member, by chairing the Granite State Division Executive Committee.

Chair – Elect

Connor Breton
Term: 1/1/23 – 12/31/23
Connor.R.Breton@dncr.nh.gov

Connor is a forester with the NH Division of Forests and Lands, serving under a cooperative agreement with NH Fish and Game to meet habitat objectives on state lands and wildlife management areas. Connor grew up, studied, and developed as a forester in NH. He attended UNH from 2012-2018, earning a B.S. in Environmental Science and an M.S. in Natural Resources (Forestry). Prior positions held were with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Southeast Land Trust of NH (SELT). Out of the woods, he enjoys being with family, camping, and riding motorcycles. This is Connor’s first term on the Granite State Executive Committee.

Past Chair

Ethan Belair
Term: 1/1/23 – 12/31/23
ethan.belair@tnc.org

Ethan Belair is the Natural Climate Solutions Forester with the Nature Conservancy’s Global Climate Science Team, which studies the impacts of implementing natural climate solutions, primarily in forests. His current work focuses on measuring and modeling how forests respond to human interventions from local to global scales. He is an affiliate faculty member at the University of New Hampshire, where he previously worked as a faculty member and extension forester. His prior work has centered on improving the practice of silviculture in forest management, and has included elements of forest biometrics, wildlife habitat improvement, remote sensing, and human demographics. He holds an M.S. in Forest Biology from Purdue University, and a B.S. in Forestry from the University of New Hampshire.

Secretary

Sam Taylor
Term: 1/1/23 – 12/31/23
staylor@manchesternh.gov

Sam Taylor is the watershed forester for Manchester Water Works, where he has worked since late 2022 managing forests in the Sucker Brook and Massabesic Lake watersheds. Prior to joining Water Works, he worked with the State of New Hampshire, Division of Forests and Lands as the forestry and wildlife program forester for the NH South Region. Sam holds an A.A.S. in Forest Technology from the Thompson School at UNH. He has served as GSD-SAF secretary since 2016.

Policy Chair

Don Floyd
Term: 1/1/23 – 12/31/23
dfloyde6l@gmail.com

Don is a retired professor of forestry and dean of the Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management at the University of New Brunswick, in Canada. He previously served as a professor of forest policy at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Floyd is a fellow of the Society of American Foresters.

A life-long conservationist, Floyd is a former board chair of the Atlantic region for the Nature Conservancy of Canada. He lives in Concord, NH, with his wife, Sally, border collie Acer, and too many deer, porcupines, and black bears.

Treasurer

Susan Romano
Term: 1/1/23 – 12/31/23
susanromano2017@gmail.com

Susan Romano is a retired professor of forest/wetland ecology and GIS spatial analysis who failed retirement and now owns Saddleback Mountain Environmental, licensed as both a forester and a wetland scientist. Susan previously worked for Western Illinois University where her teaching and research centered around the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. She has a Ph.D. in Plant Biology from Southern Illinois University, a M.S. in Botany from Western Illinois University, and a B.S. in Forest Resource Management from Southern Illinois University. Susan’s husband, Mike Romano, is happily retired, and their son, Tyler, shares his talents in GIS and as a biologist with his work at Saddleback.

Education Chair

Tim Fleury
Term: 1/1/23 – 12/31/23
tim.fleury@unh.edu

Merrimack County Forester

NESAF Representative

Ted Howard
Term: 1/1/23-12/31/24

Ted is professor emeritus at the University of New Hampshire where he served as academic administrator and faculty member for forty years. He has previously served in leadership capacities for the Granite State Division and the New England Society of American Foresters. He holds a BS in Natural Resources (UMaine), Master of Forestry (Duke), and Ph.D in Forest Management (Oregon State University).

Tree Farm Committee Representative

Geoffrey T. Jones
Term: 1/1/22 – 12/31/22
geoffreytjones@gmail.com

Geoff Jones is a professional forester with 43 years of experience. He received a BA in Biology from KSC and an AAS in Forest Technology from the TSAS/UNH. He is the former director of land management with SPNHF, where he served for 30 years. In 2010 he founded Loveland Forestry, offering forestry and residential tree removal services to discriminating landowners. Geoff was a charter member of the New Hampshire Timber Harvesting Council; served on the UNH Thompson School Forest Advisory Committee from 1984-present; served on the 1997 and 2010 committees that developed the “Good Forestry in the Granite State” guidebook. He is author of several articles including the publication: “A Guide to Logging Aesthetics: Practical Tips for Loggers, Foresters, and Landowners”. Geoff is the recipient of many state, regional, and national awards, including: 1993 GSD/SAF New Hampshire Forester of the Year Award; 1994 NELA Outstanding Contributions to Forest Industry Education Award; 2006 NELA Outstanding Management of Resources Award; 2006 NESAF Austin Cary Practicing Professional Award; and the 2018 SAF President’s Award for “Outstanding Field Forester” (Representing New England, New York, & Quebec).
Geoff serves on the Stoddard conservation commission (since 1996) and has been the chair since 1999. He is a US Coast Guard Vietnam Veteran (1969-73).

Awards Chair

Matt Chagnon
Term: 1/1/22 – 12/31/22
matt.chagnon@unh.edu

Matt retired in 2019 after 39 years of teaching in the Forest Technology program at the Thompson School of Applied Science at UNH. He earned an AAS from that program in 1979 and continued at UNH to earn a BS (1986) and MS (1988), both in forestry. Matt is a past chair of the Granite State Division of SAF and served six years on SAF’s Committee on Forest Technology School Accreditation. He was the 2016 recipient of NESAF’s Ernest M. Gould, Jr. Technology Transfer Award. Matt is a member of the NH Timberland Owners Association and served on the board of directors. He is still active as a co-owner of Granite State Lumberjack Shows, producing the lumberjack events for the nationally televised Stihl Timbersports. Now that they are retired, Matt and his wife Rose spend a lot of time on their woodlots and with their grandchildren.

Newsletter Correspondent

Steve Eisenhaure
Term: 1/1/23 – 12/31/23
woodlands@unh.edu

Steve is the Land Use Coordinator for UNH.

Term: