Jay Smith, Coconino County’s Forest Restoration Director

Jay Smith has worked in the forest industry for the past 22 years.  For 12 of those years, he was a member of the Tennessee Forestry Association Board of Directors and served as President of that Association in 2008.

While in Tennessee, he primarily managed private land for timber production and oversaw procurement for a family-owned sawmill. Jay returned to Arizona in 2013 to manage forest operations for Southwest Forest Products, Inc. and in 2015 became Senior Forester for Good Earth Power, contractor on the largest U.S. Forest Service Stewardship contract in the country.

In his current role with Coconino County, Jay is developing and implementing the county’s Forest Restoration Initiative to assist in accelerating forest restoration activities on National Forest land within Arizona. His experience running logging operations and sawmills gives him a unique view of the issues that are currently slowing the process and to find new ways to tackle the issues. Jay works closely with forest industry and other partners to reduce these threats, especially on steep slope acres within the county through forest restoration projects. Jay has a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry from Northern Arizona University.