Forestry Commission highlights storms, new Wolf River State Forest and asks legislature for $1M recurring

John Charles Wilson, chair of the Tennessee Forestry Commission, presented the commission's 2025 annual review to the Senate Energy, Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee and underscored the agency's dual role in forest management and emergency response. Wilson said Tennessee's forest cover has approximately doubled—from about 7,000,000 to roughly 14,000,000 acres—and outlined programs including wildfire suppression, forest health monitoring and reforestation through the East Tennessee Nursery. "We acquired the 16th state forest, the Wolf River State Forest, conserving 5,488 acres in Southwest Tennessee," Wilson said.

Wilson told senators the Forestry Commission is seeking a recurring $1,000,000 increase for fiscal-year operations and maintenance after that request was removed from the governor's proposed budget. "Your Forestry Commission unanimously supports its request for these additional funds in the 2027 budget," he said. The presentation also listed statewide forestry metrics—Tennessee State Forest System contributed 10,000,000 board feet of wood in 2025 and the sector was reported as about 3.2% of the state's economy (the transcript reports job counts unclearly as "95 94,000 plus jobs"). The commission asked legislators to consider the rising maintenance costs of roads, gates, signs and other infrastructure as public use of state forests increases.