ABOUT
TEXAS A&M FOREST SERVICE
- TFS coordinates the Texas Big Tree Registry where 78 trees in Texas are recognized by American Forests as the largest of their kind in the nation.
- During the record-breaking 2005-2006 fire season of 515 consecutive days, 277 of the agency’s 375 employees worked nearly 149,000 hours of emergency response overtime—the equivalent of 71 additional full-time employees!
- Money really does grow on trees! According to TFS’ report—Houston’s Regional Forest: Structure, Functions, Values—it would cost $205 billion to replace the 663 million trees within the eight-county region around Houston. The report represents the latest effort to quantify the green infrastructure of the region and is the first report of its kind in Texas.
- TFS is the incident management agency for state emergencies. The agency has led the management of such incidents as the Space Shuttle Columbia recovery in East Texas, the exotic Newcastle disease outbreak in West Texas, and provided logistical support in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike.
- A famous TFS book has received a makeover … a virtual makeover. The latest edition of TFS’ original 1970 hardcover book, Famous Trees of Texas, is now available online and links each of the 81 famous trees to a specific period in Texas history, like the Borden Oak which survived the Great Galveston Storm of 1900.
- Since its inception in 2003, TFS’ Rural Volunteer Fire Department Assistance Program has awarded 716 fire engines, 5,168 pieces of fire equipment, and 21,673 sets of protective gear to fire departments across the state. Nearly 14,000 firefighters have received full grant funding for much needed training.
- The Western Gulf Tree Improvement Cooperative, founded by TFS in 1951, harvests 30,000 pounds of genetically-improved seeds and produces an estimated 300 million trees each year. A conservative estimate suggests that the tree improvement cooperative has produced approximately 95 million tons of wood in the Western Gulf region to date.