Mississippi State University recently welcomed a new forestry specialist.

Curtis VanderSchaaf joined the MSU Extension Service in the southwest region as a forestry specialist with regional and statewide duties. He also is a faculty member in the MSU Department of Forestry. VanderSchaaf is based in the Central Mississippi Research and Extension Center in Raymond.

As an Extension area forester, VanderSchaaf conducts programs on all general forestry issues that influence landowner decision-making processes specific to southwest Mississippi. His focus for statewide programs includes growth and yield, inventory, pine silviculture and timber stand management and finance.

VanderSchaaf comes to MSU from Louisiana Tech University, where he was an assistant professor of quantitative silviculture. He earned a bachelor’s degree in forest management from Stephen F. Austin State University, a master’s degree in silviculture from the University of Idaho and a doctorate in forest biometrics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech.

He also was an assistant professor in forest biometrics at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, a resource analyst for the Texas Forest Service and a biometrician for the Minnesota Division of Forestry.

Before receiving his doctorate, he worked as a research specialist at the University of Arkansas at Monticello and as a research associate for the Southern Forest Nursery Management Cooperative housed at Auburn University.

He is a member of the Society of American Foresters and the forestry honor society Xi Sigma Pi.