On November 11-13, forty-four FRA members and guests convened in Starkville, MS, for the Southcentral Region / Forest Products Security Group Fall Meeting.  The Mill Conference Center at Mississippi State University was once again a fantastic venue for the joint meeting. This meeting featured eleven engaging speakers covering a myriad of wood supply chain and forest products security topics. A welcome dinner at Mugshots Bar & Grill on Tuesday evening (November 11^th) got things started off on a great note, providing an excellent off-site venue for fellowship and networking before beginning the general session the following morning.

Robby Toombs, FRA Southcentral Region Steering Committee Chair, began Wednesday’s (November 12^th) general session by welcoming all attendees to Starkville.  Wednesday morning presenters included:

Colton Hulsey (Fiber Procurement Coordinator at SDI Biocarbon Solutions) – Where Steel and Wood Meet. 

Hulsey provided an overview of Steel Dynamics decarbonization journey to “increase efforts to measure, verify, disclose, and meaningfully reduce its carbon footprint” and included an overview of their Columbus, MS operations.

Steve Bullard, Ph.D. (Associate Dean, College of Forest Resources at Mississippi State University) – Transformative Leadership: Lifelong Learning and You.

Dr. Bullard led an engaging discussion on the importance of several factors – Personality, Generation, Perspectives/Experiences, and Intentionality play in the leadership development process, including an emphasis on experiential learning.  Notable leadership experts W. Edwards Deming, Steven Covey, and Simon Sinek were featured in the presentation.

Eric McConnell, Ph.D. (Associate Professor, College of Forest Resources at Mississippi State University) – Trends in Logging, Equipment, and Foreign Ownership of Timberland in the South.

Dr. McConnell shared historical trends (30+ years) in logging costs, the importance of understanding the depreciation cycle for logging equipment repair and replacement decisions, equipment resale trends, and an analysis of foreign ownership of Agricultural/Timberland in the Southern US.

The morning session concluded with a Southcentral Region Steering Committee meeting. Clay Altizer, FRA Southwide Region Manager, shared information on the upcoming Timber Harvesting & Procurement Short Course, as well as updates on the region’s Outstanding Logger and Technical Writing Awards and future meeting scheduling. This session included an engaging roundtable discussion on critical issues and challenges impacting the wood supply value chain in the Southcentral Region.

Wednesday afternoon’s session was the beginning of the Forest Products Security Group portion of the meeting. A broad range of security-related issues and topics were on the agenda:

Aaron Gilland (President, Dendro Resource Management) – A Timber Theft Case Study. 

Gilland discussed the details of a unique timber fraud case and shared several important steps to avoid being the victim of a similar crime:  monitoring the product separation during harvest and comparing those numbers to cruise estimates, understanding the production capabilities of the logging firm, and comparing contractor-supplied load estimates with actual settlement information.

Brittany Mann (Manager of Global Fiber Projects, International Paper) – ForSite Overview.

Mann provided an overview of IP’s risk management mapping tool – ForSite, which is the cornerstone of IP’s EUDR compliance reporting. This tool is a quick and effective way to demonstrate responsible fiber sourcing and serves as a vital link between IP’s sales and marketing teams to fiber supply resources.

Tom Kazee (Founder / Senior Director of Operations, Woodland Security, Inc.) – The Prevention of Financial Crimes in Woodland Operations.

 Kazee encouraged attendees to adopt a sense of urgency related to internal controls, shared several recent examples of fraud cases in the industry, provided several recommendations for risk exposure, and compared routine vs enhanced controls.

Pat Holley (Columbus Area Manager, Weyerhaeuser) – Timber Security: Protecting Weyerhaeuser’s Forest Investment.

Holley began by sharing why timber security matters, provided an overview and company history of Weyerhaeuser’s Security Team, shared several recent timber theft cases, and provided examples of effective camera use for in-woods security purposes.

Robyn Smith (Associate Internal Auditor, RoyOMartin) – Twenty-Five Loads and Counting.

Smith shared details of a 2025 case involving trucks stealing product from their Corrigan, TX OSB mill. Twenty-five undocumented loads were discovered, and three employees and two truck drivers were involved in the case.

Wednesday’s events concluded with a social and group dinner at The Mill Conference Center.

Day 2 of the Forest Products Security Group began on Thursday morning, November 13^th, with the following presentations:

Jonathan Calore (Assistant Law Enforcement Chief, South Carolina Forestry Commission) – State Forestry Agency Law Enforcement Update. 

Calore discussed the history of the SCFC law enforcement branch, including the expansion to include timber transactions in 1990.  Statistics for South Carolina dating back to 1999 were featured in the presentation, which also included an overview of recent timber theft cases for several other southern states.

Jonathan Sherk (Principal Research Scientist and Engineer, Auburn University’s McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security) – Security Overview / Attack Surface Analysis & Risk Exposure.

Sherk briefed attendees on the McCrary Institute’s mission and its role in helping to protect two primary socioeconomic drivers of Alabama’s economy – poultry and forestry. His presentation discussed different types of cyber-attacks and available resources for companies to mitigate their cybersecurity risk exposure.

Aaron Gilland (President, Dendro Resource Management) – Leveraging Computer Vision in Forest Operations.

Gilland provided background information on the role of computer vision, implementation considerations, and the future direction for forest operations.

Adriana Costa, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor, College of Forest Resources at Mississippi State University) – Fraud and Misrepresentation in the Lump Charcoal Market in the US: A Closer Look Inside the Bag.

Dr. Costa shared research findings for a recent study analyzing what’s actually inside different bags of lump charcoal available for purchase in the US. Their findings revealed many discrepancies with respect to taxa, origin, and weight for numerous bags marketed under different brands.

FRA is grateful for our meeting sponsors – Canfor Southern Pine and Resource Management Service, LLC. We would also like to thank all meeting attendees for their support and participation in a successful 2025 Fall Meeting in Starkville. Please click here to view the presentations that we have approval to share with our members. The next Southcentral Region meeting will be a joint meeting with FRA’s Southeastern Region and the Southern Region – Council on Forest Engineering (SRCOFE) group at Auburn University on March 10^th – 12^th, 2026. The Forest Products Security Group’s next gathering will be a joint meeting with the Southeastern Region Steering Committee at a TBD venue in the Fall of 2026.