About the Agency
Conserving forests, trees, and natural resources and protecting lives and property
Mission
Texas A&M Forest Service provides statewide leadership and technical assistance to ensure trees, forests and related natural resources are sustained for the benefit of all. The agency supports the state’s incident response capability, protecting against wildfire and responding to a range of all-hazard incidents.
Conserving Texas’ trees and forests, we help property owners maintain land and natural resources to ensure forestlands remain productive and healthy for both the environment and generations to come.
We are also one of the leading agencies for incident management in the state. From the initial response to ongoing recovery, the agency strives to protect Texas from wildfire and other types of disasters. We do this by fighting wildfire, responding to incidents, building capacity, and increasing public awareness about community protection and wildfire prevention.
In partnership with other agencies, local governments, and fire departments, we provide programs to aid communities, giving them tools and resources to actively protect themselves and properties.
About Texas A&M Forest Service
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Al Davis is the ninth director of Texas A&M Forest Service.
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Connect with our agency leadership.
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A comprehensive analysis of forest-related conditions, trends, threats, and opportunities and a strategy to address them.
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A comprehensive plan of how we mitigate against, prepare for, and response to wildfires and other natural disasters.
Core values
Texas A&M Forest Service LEADS
Our core values are embedded in our everyday operations and encounters.
- Leadership is our mindsets
- Excellence is our outcomes
- Accountability for our actions
- Duty to our mission and to Texas
- Service in our hearts
Texas A&M Forest Service creation
Texas A&M Forest Service was created in 1915 out of a need for a conservation plan and state forester for Texas.
In November 1914, W. Goodrich Jones and conservation-minded leaders in Temple, Texas created the Texas Forestry Association, a non-partisan, non-profit organization and lobbied to form a state forestry agency and develop a statewide plan for forest conservation.
Texas lawmakers created a new state agency and entrusted in it the responsibilities of monitoring and protecting the state’s forests. March 31, 1915, House Bill No. 9, An Act to Promote Forest Interests in the State created the Department of Forestry, subsequently renamed Texas Forest Service and now called Texas A&M Forest Service.
Legislative authority
The 34th Texas Legislature mandated Texas A&M Forest Service to “assume direction of all forest interests and all matters pertaining to forestry within the jurisdiction of the state.”
And in 1993, the 73rd Texas Legislature expanded our responsibility to include “Coordination of the response to each major or potentially major wildland fire in the state.” During all-hazard state emergencies, the State Emergency Management Plan calls for Texas A&M Forest Service to work with the Texas Division of Emergency Management to develop regional Incident Management Teams.
Texas A&M System and state government
Each state in the U.S. has a forestry agency, but Texas was the first in the nation to establish its state forestry agency as part of a land-grant college. Four other states have since done the same: Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and North Dakota. We are one of seven Texas state agencies headquartered not in Austin—but in College Station, Texas.
Signed into law in 1862, the Morrill Act fostered the land-grant mission, and has provided a broad segment of the population with a practical education that has direct relevance to their daily lives through research, teaching, extension, and service. We embody the service component of this land-grant institution and of Texas A&M AgriLife.
Open records request
We provide copies of records in accordance with the Public Information Act.
