Rural Forestry Profiles

ROBERT ATCHISON Rural Forestry Program Coordinator 2610 Claflin Road Manhattan, KS  66502 Email: atchison@ksu.edu Phone: 785-532-3310 Fax: 785-532-3305

Bob Atchison is responsible for state-wide coordination and promotion of a variety of programs that provide professional forestry assistance to rural landowners such as the Forest Stewardship Program. Bob coordinates the Forest Land Enhancement Program that offers cost-share funding to landowners to implement forestry practices and works closely with state and federal natural resource agencies to promote forestry practices through several USDA programs. He is responsible for the Forest Inventory and Analysis Program that annually inventories the size and condition of Kansas forestland.

Bob worked as a forester for the Arkansas Forestry Commission for three years and began employment with the Kansas Forest Service in 1990 as a district forester in Hutchinson and later out of Manhattan. He has also served as the Community Forestry Coordinator for the agency and has been the Rural Forestry Coordinator since 1997.

Bob graduated from the University of Missouri, Columbia, in 1981 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Forestry. He grew up in Hays, Kansas where his father served as a State and Extension Forester for most of his career.