Tree improvement specialist joins MU Center for Agroforestry
Mark V. Coggeshall, a tree improvement specialist, joined the University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry in January. Mark has over 20 years experience in genetic tree improvement programs in Indiana and Kentucky. He will focus on tree improvement of black walnut and pecan.
He received an undergraduate forestry degree from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Mass. and a master's degree in forest genetics from Mississippi State University. As a tree improvement specialist for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Forestry Division, Mark's work in genetic tree improvement covered a variety of hardwood species, including black walnut. He leaves his current position as plant propagator at the Blenheim Arboretum and Research Forest in Clermont, Ky. where he was responsible for propagation of all plants within the arboretum collection.
Mark Coggeshall has served on a variety of committees including being founding chairman of the North Central Fine Hardwoods Tree Improvement Cooperative and chairman of the Walnut Council Tree Improvement Technical Committee.
| Mark Coggeshall |
Garrett named to national small farms committee
Gene Garrett, director of the University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry, has been named by Department of Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman to serve on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Advisory Committee on Small Farms. The 19-member committee will serve for 2 years, reviewing USDA programs and strategies to implement small-farm policy and advise the secretary on ways to improve programs. Garrett believes that as the nation's timber demands increase, the small farm can play an important role in helping meet domestic wood needs..
| Gene Garrett |
New faces
| Both Larry Godsey (right) and Dusty Walter (center) recently joined the staff of the MU Center for Agroforestry. Larry is the center's new economist and will work on the benefit/cost analysis of agroforestry practices. Dusty will be working as an agroforestry technical training specialist. Here they discuss an alley cropping practice for pecans with landowner Gene Nuse (left). Nuse farms 93 acres near Fayette, with 40 of those acres devoted to agroforestry. Both Dusty and Larry are MU graduates and bring extensive field experience to their positions. |