Roy A. Siefert

Roy A. Siefert attended the Penn State Mont Alto campus for the first two years of his baccalaureate degree program and earned the B.S. in Forest Science in 1976. He is a member of Tau Phi Delta Fraternity and served as vice president during his senior year. After graduation he spent a summer working with the USDA Forest Service in Montana. He then worked on seasonal regional inventory assessment projects in Ohio and New York before returning home to Pennsylvania.

Roy began his career with the Pennsylvania DCNR Bureau of Forestry in 1980 as forest maintenance supervisor on the Susquehannock State Forest where he supervised a maintenance crew and many youth groups. In 1985 he moved into a forester position and worked on timber management while also assuming the duties of recreation forester.

From 1997 to 1999 he worked in the Harrisburg office as forest program specialist in the Division of Forest Fire Protection. There he was responsible for the oversight of the Federal Excess Property Program, which included overseeing a loan program for local fire departments and maintaining inventory and disposal records of excess property statewide. In 1999 he received the Outstanding Management of Federal Excess Property Program Award.

In 1999 Roy took on his current role as district forester of the Tioga State Forest. He is responsible for all activities on this 162,000-acre property, including supervision of 27 permanent and 30 seasonal positions. His routine activities include management of the district's timber, natural gas, coal, wildlife, and recreational assets. He is also responsible for wildfire protection on all lands in Tioga County.

Throughout his career with the Bureau of Forestry, Roy has done his share of forest protection duty on western wildland fires as both a crew member and crew boss. In 2008 Roy was honored with the DCNR Employee Excellence Award.

Roy has been a member of the Society of American Foresters (SAF) since 1985 and has served that organization as chairman of the Pennsylvania Division. During his tenure as Pennsylvania Chairman (1995-6), he initiated the membership vote to recommend - or not - forester licensing in Pennsylvania. The "forestry community" had been struggling with the question of seeking forester licensing in the state for many years, with no clear sense of support or direction. As the Division Chair, Roy took the leadership initiative and put it to the membership for a ballot vote. The majority voted for pursuit of licensing, though subsequent efforts to pass the required legislation have yet to happen.

Roy has also chaired the SAF Northern Hardwood Chapter, and served for multiple terms on the Executive Committee of the Allegheny Society SAF.

Throughout his career, Roy has been an active member of the Pennsylvania Forestry Association, including a term as president. He is a charter member of the Pennsylvania Council of Professional Foresters and also serves on the Roach/Bauer Forestry Forum steering committee and the Sandy Cochran Fund committee. He is a charter member of the Pennsylvania Forest Fire Museum Association, formed in 1994, and serves on its board of directors. He is a member of the Penn State Alpha Chapter of Tau Phi Delta, pledging in the fall of 1974, and later as an alumnus, and has served as president of the Grand National Chapter for more than a decade.

Roy is also a member of the Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy and the Tioga Woodland Owners Association.

Originally from Hartsville in Bucks County, today Roy resides in Middlebury Center, Pennsylvania. He has his eye on spending a considerable amount of time fishing in North Carolina's Outer Banks with other PSU alums and his newly acquired Ocean Kayak.