Veteran
Forester is awarded Board of Regents Fellow Service Award
Jan. 17, 2019 — COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The Texas A&M University
System Board of Regents have recognized James B. Rooni of Texas A&M Forest
Service as a 2017-2018 Regents Fellow Service Award recipient.
Rooni was one of seven system employees recognized
Wednesday evening at a presentation ceremony among the TAMUS Board of Regents
at the Texas A&M Hotel and Conference Center in College Station.
“These outstanding individuals are doing incredible
work on behalf of the A&M System and the entire state of Texas,” said
A&M System Chancellor John Sharp. “They exemplify the values and commitment
to excellence that define the A&M System and I am grateful for their
dedication.”
Hired by the state agency in 1997, Rooni has spent the
last 21 years providing leadership and service to the citizens of Texas in all
areas of forestry, including developing self-sustaining municipal community
forestry programs to delivering direct technical support and education to
private landowners. He is an integral leader in the fight against Oak Wilt and
as such is personally responsible for conserving and protecting thousands of
high-value trees.
“Jim is held in high regard by his colleagues as ‘the’
subject matter expert for the prevention and suppression of oak wilt,” said
Bill Oates, Associate Director for Texas A&M Forest Service. “He is also an
unselfish public servant with a mission to protect the health of our vast
forest resources.”
Rooni has managed complex agency response and recovery
efforts to several natural disasters. For example, in 2011, Texas experienced
the worst drought and wildfire season in recorded history, to include the most costly
wildfire in the state’s history destroying more than 1,600 homes and taking the
lives of two Texans and nearly two million trees. Rooni helped organize twelve
public, private and non-profit organizations into one cohesive group — The Lost
Pines Recovery Team. As a result, more than four million seedlings were planted
within the Bastrop County Complex fire footprint.
Since2009,
Rooni has developed the Central Texas Conservation Partnership Initiative, a
collaborative effort supported by other agencies and entities, which has led to
over 40 regional workshops designed for interface landowners in rapidly growing
counties in central Texas. To date, the CTCP effort has leveraged nearly 2.2
million dollars in matching USDA-SPF grants in support of these programs.
Rooniworked
to advance the Central Texas Restoration and Recovery Program. This effort
supports reforestation programs by providing landowners with seedlings grown at
the West Texas Nursery that will thrive in Central Texas. Since 2005, the
nursery has distributed nearly ten-thousand custom seedlings to landowners in
Central Texas.
Due to continual decline in the traditional bare-root
conservation seedling market, Texas A&M Forest Service has worked to create
new products for new markets. Rooni established the West Texas Nursery Contract
Grow Program. Since 2008, the West Texas Nursery has been providing public and
private clients with custom grow contracts for special projects throughout
Texas.
Also notable is his forest recovery work in protecting
and restoring the unique ponderosa pine species around the Davis Mountains, and
reforesting areas devastated by the Blanco River flooding in spring 2015.
“The success of these restoration projects would not
have happened without Jim’s leadership skills,” said Oates. “I’ve not seen
anyone better at building relationships and leveraging the resources with our
collaborators.”
The Board established the Regents Professor Awards
program in 1996 and the Regents Fellow Service Awards program in 1998 to
recognize employees who have made exemplary contributions to their university
or agency and to the people of Texas.
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Photo attached: Jim Rooni, his wife, Kate Rooni, and
their daughter Mae Rooni attend the presentation ceremony at the Texas A&M
Hotel and Conference Center in College Station, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 16,
2019.
Contacts
Texas A&M Forest Service Communications
979-458-6606, newsmedia@tfs.tamu.edu