Joe Fox

A legacy of forestry wasn’t lost on Joe Fox. His 50-year career in wood products, forestry and conservation built on what his dad and grandfather started in 1947 with their family business in Pine Bluff. 

Industry leaders often heard Fox say: “Trees are the answer, what’s your question?” Uniting forestry businesses, non-profits and state agencies to establish Arkansas’s largest conservation easement highlighted Fox’s career. Moro Big Pine Natural Area-Wildlife Management Area in Calhoun County, a 15,923-acre working forest easement with Potlatch, offers a diverse habitat for wildlife and excellent hunting.

Fox grew up in the woods, spending summers painting property lines and girdling hardwoods before graduating in 1973 with forestry and agriculture economic degrees from North Carolina State. His early career focused on sustainability of Arkansas’s vast timberland, providing good paying jobs and manufacturing necessary products. Forest health and rural communities were priorities.

He worked 20 years as a vice president for W.S. Fox and Sons/Arkansas Oak Flooring before working for Cloud Oak Flooring and then Hixson Lumber Sales in Rison from 1993-99. In 2000, he joined the Arkansas Chapter of The Nature Conservancy as its Director of Conservation Forestry.

In 2012, Fox was appointed State Forester and assumed leadership in the state’s Forestry Commission. He served as President of the National Association of State Foresters in 2020-21. He earned the Arkansas Forestry Association President’s Award in 1986 and 2022 before entering the Arkansas Foresters Hall of Fame in 2024.