For the third year in a row, Green River Community College’s student chapter of the Society of American Foresters (SAF) was named best in the nation. The Student Chapter of the Year Award will be presented to the college’s Natural Resources program at the SAF national conference in Reno, NV later this fall.

Green River’s program was honored for a variety of instructional and community service activities including the study of biofuels, which resulted in the Washington State SAF designing a new biofuels display for the Western Washington State Fair at Puyallup in September. That project was spearheaded by GRCC student Adrian Patterson, who chairs Green River’s winning student chapter. Other student projects included donating firewood to residents of the Chehalis flood and co-hosting student activities at last year’s SAF national convention in Portland.

Recently, Green River’s SAF student chapter has been involved in community events through-out the northwest including the Great Oregon Steam-up in Brooks, OR; Morton Logger’s Jubilee; and Auburn Good Ol’ Days.

Green River’s Natural Resources program is one of only a few community colleges in the state to offer an Associate in Applied Science degree with different tracks in forestry, water quality, park management, Wildland fire, and Geographic Information Systems. Additional information on the Natural Resources program is available at: www.naturalresourceseducation.com.