Michael Blazier
The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture and the University of Arkansas at Monticello have announced Michael Blazier dean for the UAM College of Forestry, Agriculture and Natural Resources and director of the Arkansas Forest Resources Center, effective July 1.
Blazier previously served for 18 years as a forestry project leader at Louisiana State University’s AgCenter Hill Farm Research Station and as a professor. He has experience as a statewide forestry extension specialist and his work has been featured in peer-reviewed publications.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in forestry from Louisiana Tech University and a master’s and Ph.D. in forestry fields from Oklahoma State University.
He will be the college’s second dean and succeeds Philip Tappe, who retired in December.
Blazier will oversee the UAM forestry program’s reaccreditation by the Society for American Foresters (SAF). UAM offers the only SAF-accredited forestry studies in Arkansas.
The center he will be director of is the research arm for the UA System Division of Agriculture with respect to forestry and facilitates grant writing for forestry research in the state. It is primarily located on the UAM campus, but has faculty in Little Rock, Fayetteville, Hope, Pine Tree and Batesville.
Blazier will also arrive as UAM and the Division of Agriculture begin a waterfowl laboratory partnership with Five Oaks Ag Research and Education Center that will provide an opportunity for conservation and wildlife habitat professionals and private landowners to observe and understand the evolving strategies for preserving and improving the wetland ecosystem within the Mississippi Alluvial Valley.
Students will engage with that research as well. In addition, the first UAM students will enroll in coursework toward a graduate certificate in waterfowl habitat and recreation management, a program that emerged in part through industry demand for specialized training.
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