Scott Klopfer has been named director of the Center for Natural Resources Assessment and Decision Support (CeNRADS), succeeding Stephen Prisley, who accepted a position with the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement. Prisley will be the council’s representative to CeNRADS and will maintain office space at the center.

Klopfer, director of the college’s Conservation Management Institute, said he is excited for the opportunity to work with CeNRADS’s staff and partners. He plans to expand the great work done to date and leverage it for broader applications and impact.

“CeNRADS was established as a visionary effort to work with external stakeholders in leading an assessment and modeling effort to provide better data and better predictions of our forest resource inventories in Virginia and beyond,” said Dean Paul Winistorfer.

“Steve Prisley accomplished what many of us could only envision, pulling together a research team and data to invoke an entirely new modeling effort in forest inventory geared towards predictions of future conditions,” Winistorfer continued. “We have a tool that is extremely important for the current and future management of our forest resource in Virginia and beyond. We have every intention of continuing this pioneering effort under Scott’s direction.”

As CeNRADS continues to refine and improve its model, it will begin to look at other attributes like water and carbon, as well as management techniques, which are important in forest harvest operations. “This work is critically important for the future sustainability of our forest and natural resources, and we are excited to embark on the future under Scott’s leadership,” Winistorfer said.

Read the full press release.

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