Treat of the Day: Texas A&M AgriLife honors Jason Ellis with Vice Chancellor’s Award in Excellence

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) -Texas A&M Forest Service District Forester Jason Ellis has been awarded the 2022 Vice Chancellor’s Award in Excellence for Public Service in Forestry.

This is the highest employee award given by Texas A&M AgriLife.

Ellis has worked at Texas A&M Forest Service for 20 years. Since 2006, he has managed the Jacksonville District, a three-county area on the western fringe of the Texas Piney Woods.

“As a District Forester, Jason has excelled in assisting non-industrial private forest landowners with the sustainable management of their forestlands,” said Jordan Herrin, Texas A&M Forest Service Regional Forester for East Texas. “Jason is looked upon, by both the landowners he serves and his peers in the field, as not only a technical expert but also an excellent practitioner of the principles in which he recommends.”

Ellis and his team have done extensive work to restore areas of Fairchild State Forest to native shortleaf pine habitat. Ellis has implemented projects to advance forestry practices that promote multiple uses, including timber harvesting, habitat management for endangered species like the red-cockaded woodpecker, and recreation. He uses different areas of the forest to demonstrate to landowners the benefits of reforestation, prescribed burning, mulching, and herbicide applications. Ellis and his staff hold numerous workshops, tours, youth hunts, and Eagle Scout projects at Fairchild State Forest, using the land to showcase best practices and build relationships.

Ellis credits his staff for making the Jacksonville District a model of good forestry.

“We’re managing intensively, which means more time and more effort, not just from me but from my staff,” he said. “I’m very fortunate to have a solid team, and I don’t think I’d be receiving this award unless I had really good people around me.”

Al Davis, Texas A&M Forest Service Interim Director, said Ellis is known as a mentor to those around him and exhibits the tenets of Aldo Leopold’s land ethic philosophy, which connects care for people with care for the land.

Copyright 2023 KBTX. All rights reserved.