Karen Bennett, UNH Cooperative Extension’s Forestry Specialist and a longtime expert source of practical information for timberland owners, was recently honored for her long service to the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association (NHTOA) with NHTOA’s Kendall Norcott Award. The award, named for NHTOA’s first executive director and forester Kendall Norcott, is the NHTOA’s most prestigious award and recognizes outstanding achievement in forestry and timberland management.
Jasen Stock, Executive Director of NHTOA, says Karen’s career experience translates into a dependable, reliable, well-informed resource that has helped the state’s landowners for many years. “The Kendall Norcott Award honors exceptional service to our organization and our members,” says Jasen, “and Karen is the perfect person to honor this way. Her help and support have been a mainstay of not just NHTOA but also for New Hampshire’s timberland owners. She’s invaluable.”
Karen says she’s honored by this recognition from NHTOA. “They help private landowners and working with private landowners has been the focus of my forestry career. It’s been meaningful work,” she says. “Really, there’s no better thing in your life than family and meaningful work.”
Karen joined UNH Cooperative Extension in 1979. She worked in Hillsborough and later in Merrimack County as a County Forester, helping people care for their forest land. She assumed her Extension Specialist role in 1996 where she specializes in private forest lands management providing education to landowners, land managers, conservation volunteers, and public decision-makers. She shares information about forest and wildlife management, current use taxation, selling timber, caring for shade trees, trail and road layout, forest ecology, soils and many other topics of concern to woodlot owners. She was the project manager and editor for Good Forestry in the Granite State. And, most recently, she is the co-director of the Northeast Silviculture Institute, an educational program for forestry professionals.
NHTOA is a non-profit statewide coalition of landowners, forest industry professionals, government officials, and supporters who work together to promote better forest management, conserve our working forests, and ensure a strong forest products industry.
