Today we are proud to announce the launch of our new website and logo designs as a part of the continuing evolution of our brand identity. After 31 years, our business has grown in geography, offerings, and project complexity, and we felt it was time for a look that was reflective of this modernization. This update of our logos and website is indicative of what we’ve become since 1988: a multi-disciplinary natural resources firm focused on customer service and driven by modern technology and science. We feel it captures the essence of who we are: reliable, integrated, professional, and contemporary.

 

We recognize our brand and website need to function reliably within modern digital environments like the web, social media, and smaller mobile devices. This required professional graphics and colors which were cleaner, simpler, and consistent regardless of the media. Our new branding distinguishes between our different businesses by logo and color, but also recognizes the integration of each business into the SFC brand family. Furthermore, this new family of brand identities promotes our history of growth as an organization, recognizing the ongoing addition of new business lines, products, and services.

Our new SFC logo pays homage to our past with a classic and practical treatment of our familiar trinity of pines. The first step to forest stewardship is land ownership and that is represented through the Southern Forestry Realty logo, which contains the origin of every southern pine forest, a pinecone. Our newest subsidiary, Wiregrass Ecological Associates, has a classic and minimalist logo inspired by the wiregrass species itself and reflective of its modern approach toward environmental solutions.

For the last 31 years, SFC and its family of companies have provided industry leading natural resources solutions to public and private sector clients across the Southeast. While our professional core values and trusted customer service will always remain the same, we hope you appreciate our new logos’ representation of our integrated approach to solutions and commitment to redefining natural resource management.

At the request of the Georgia Heirs Property Law Center, Wiregrass Ecological Associates (WEA) visited the Colquitt, Georgia community and spoke to the graduating class of a six-week workshop meant to educate landowners on a litany of land ownership issues. The Georgia Landowner Academy is a three-month program offered for landowners wanting to learn how to manage the business, agricultural, and natural resource responsibilities of land ownership. Forester Alex Harvey presented on behalf of WEA and Southern Forestry Consultants (SFC) to the program graduates on the topic of Preparing and Marketing Your Timber Sale. Mr. Harvey educated landowners on proper management their forestland, challenges to management, common mistakes to avoid, and helped connect those landowners with the resources imperative for their success.  He concluded his presentation with remarks on the role of forest management and land retention in building generational wealth and strengthening bonds within rural communities. Mr. Harvey earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Forestry with an emphasis in Wildlife Management from Mississippi State University. Prior to joining WEA, he worked to as an advocate and resource for small, non-industrial private forest landowners in partnership with the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  

The Georgia Landowner Academy is sponsored by Georgia Outreach for Landowner Development (“GOLD”) and its partners, Georgia Heirs Property Law Center, Golden Triangle Resource Conservation and Development Council of Southwest Georgia, Fort Valley State University, Georgia Forestry Commission, University of Georgia (“UGA”) Extension Program, UGA D. B. Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the following USDA agencies: Farm Service Agency, Rural Development, National Agricultural Statistics Service, and the Georgia office of Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). 

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The Georgia Heirs Property Law Center (The Center) is a not-for-profit law firm dedicated to increasing generational wealth, social justice, and community stability by securing and preserving property rights of low and moderate income Georgians. The Center’s services include title clearing, will creation, estate planning, and connecting clients with programs to increase the value of their land and homes. Staff travel throughout the state from offices in Atlanta, Athens, and Fitzgerald.  – https://www.gaheirsproperty.org/

The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment), in partnership with Wiregrass Ecological Associates (WEA) and its parent company Southern Forestry Consultants (SFC), have announced a pilot program to create more diversity within natural resource professions.  The need for diversity in forestry and natural resource consulting is imperative, not only to address minority communities that are underserved from the forestry profession, but also to foster more inclusive relationships between land owners and professionals that have not existed historically.  WEA and SFC will engage the first apprentice under this program and work with the candidate to develop and implement a robust professional development and training program. The Endowment will engage with both WEA and the apprentice to garner feedback that will allow program enhancements and the sharing of best practices with the broader community.

“Years of investment in our highly-successful Sustainable Forestry and African-American Land Retention Program designed to expand the ranks of black families engaged in active forest management, highlighted the disparity of minorities in the ranks of consulting foresters. Increasing the number of foresters and forestry technicians representing various people of color not only increases the number of bright young natural resource professionals overall – which is greatly needed – but it also increases the likelihood that more minority landowners will become interested and engaged in forest management,” said Carlton Owen, President and CEO of the Endowment. “When all is said and done, a talented and diverse army of consultants benefits both forests and the communities that rely on them.”

The People of Color in Forestry Apprenticeship Program will undoubtedly have a tremendous impact in addressing the unique challenges and needs of natural resource stewardship in underserved and socially disadvantaged communities.  The benefits of this program will serve not only the natural resources profession but also future generations of minority land owners, through engagement around the retention, legacy, and heritage of forest management. WEA and SFC are proud to be the lead consulting firm to take part in this visionary endeavor.

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The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities is a not-for-profit public charity working collaboratively with partners in the public and private sectors to advance systemic, transformative, and sustainable change for the health and vitality of the nation’s working forests and forest-rich communities  – www.usendowment.org 

Wiregrass Ecological Associates, LLC (WEA) and Southern Forestry Consultants, LLC (SFC) are pleased to announce Alexis (Alex) A. Harvey has joined our team in the Gulfport Office. Mr. Harvey will serve as the Mississippi Area Manager for WEA and Forester for SFC.

He holds a B.S. degree from Mississippi State University in the Forestry with a Wildlife Management concentration. He is also a Registered Forester in Mississippi and Alabama and a Forestry Technical Service Provider in Alabama with the USDA.

Prior to the consultancy world, Mr. Harvey served as Sustainable Forestry Program Manager with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund in partnership with the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In this role, Mr. Harvey helped to develop and pilot the African American Sustainable Forestry and Land Retention Program which has garnered high accolades.

Under appropriations from the Environmental Protection Agency, he also developed a program to address the unique challenges and conduct outreach and education for underserved and socially disadvantaged landowners around the issue of conservation easements.

Prior to working in the nonprofit world, he gained over 7 years of experience with the USDA Forest Service on the Allegheny National Forest in northwestern Pennsylvania. In this role, he gained expertise in natural resources policy, silviculture, oil and gas development on federal and private lands, watershed management, human dimensions of wildlife management and a host of other environmental issues including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Mr. Harvey has also worked with two state agencies (Mississippi Forestry Commission and Florida Division of Forestry) as a Service Forester. Mr. Harvey is the President of Legacy Land Management, LLC which is a Certified Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) in Mississippi and Louisiana and a Certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) with the Mississippi Development Authority.

We are excited to have Mr. Harvey join our team in Mississippi and contribute his project management experience in both silviculture and governmental affairs. He is excited to help lead our Mississippi operations into the future.