Athens, Ga. – Faculty, staff and students of UGA’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources are collecting donated supplies urgently needed by the roughly 1,300 Georgia Forestry Commission and USDA Forest Service firefighters and foresters battling the wildfires in southern Georgia and northern Florida. Collection continues until 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 31. The donated supplies will be delivered to the Georgia Forestry Association headquarters in Forsyth on June 1, and will be combined with additional donations for delivery to fire coordination centers in southern Georgia and northern Florida.
A list of items being requested by coordinators on the frontlines of the fire can be found below, or at: http://www.gfagrow.org/firesupplies.asp.
The 1,300 firefighters and foresters are protecting public and private lands from the largest wildfires ever recorded in the state of Georgia. The private lands being protected are predominately timberlands that make the foundation of the state’s $26 billion forestry and forest products industry. These threatened private timberlands include thousands of acres of large industrial forests, as well a many family-owned timberlands that range from 50 to a few hundred acres in size. Many of the threatened or burned family-owned and industrial timberlands are the possession of UGA Warnell School alumni.
“We here at the Warnell School would greatly appreciate any and all contributions from the UGA community to help these brave firefighters protecting the lands of Georgia citizens,” Interim Dean Bob Warren said. “If you have ever ‘eaten smoke,’ mopped up or lost land or possessions to a fire, you probably know how much just a candy bar or bottle of water or a band-aid can mean to someone who’s been on the line for 12 hours.”
Donation boxes can be found in the reception area of the Warnell School located off the D.W. Brooks mall on South Campus across from the College of Pharmacy. Donations will be accepted during normal business hours. If any unit at UGA would like to collect a large quantity of items to be donated, a member of the Warnell School can be contacted to collect the donations by calling Eugene MacIntyre at 706/542-2079.