The University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources honored two alumni over Homecoming weekend, recognizing them for the impacts they’ve made to their fields and to the college and natural resources.
 
Dennis Carey has been named the 2016 Distinguished Alumnus, and Amanda Hamsley Lang was recognized as the 2016 Distinguished Young Alumnus. These awards are given annually to alumni who have made outstanding contributions to the natural resources fields and have remained strong supporters of the Warnell School. Award winners are nominated by colleagues and other alumni.
 
“Each fall when we must select just two of our alumni to recognize, we are again reminded just how blessed we are to have such a strong group of dedicated alumni that support the Warnell School in so many ways,” said Warnell School Dean Dale Greene.
 
A native of Madison County, Carey earned a Bachelor of Science in Forest Resources in 1974. He started his career with Buckeye Cellulose Corp., but he left to start his own business, founding Pine Timber Wood Production Inc. and Pine Timber Trucking Inc. in Oglethorpe, Georgia, in 1984.
 
He is currently partners with John Morris Sr. and Doug Wilkins, and he is also the sole owner of Southern Wood Suppliers Inc., a chip mill in Macon County, Georgia, that in the 1990s provided more than half a million tons of hardwood chips per year to Japanese customers. The mill currently chips hardwood for G.P. and pine for Weyerhaeuser.
 
Carey was instrumental in moving a service called TimberMart-South to the Warnell School in the 1990s. Produced by its founder, Frank Norris, from a home office, TimberMart-South was already being heavily used by the forest industry to track timber pricing, but had no support staff or succession plan. Carey helped create the Frank W. Norris Foundation, which supplied continuous funding for the service and facilitated its move to the Warnell School. TimberMart-South now publishes quarterly and annual timber pricing and market trend reports and is used worldwide by the forest industry and analysts. Its subscription base has more than doubled, and it has also supported more than 125 UGA graduate students in the 20 years since its move to the Warnell School. Carey continues to serve as chairman of the Frank Norris Foundation.
 
“It is truly a humbling experience to be recognized by one’s peers,” Carey said. “The opportunities afforded me as a result of attending Warnell have proven to be life changing. Not only did the Warnell experience provide both a widening of perspective and increase in knowledge of our natural resources, it also afforded the opportunity to establish contacts that resulted in doors being opened throughout my career.”
 
Lang, partner and the vice president of client services for Athens-based Forisk Consulting, is a “Double Dawg,” earning a Bachelor of Science in Forest Resources in 2005 and a Master of Science in 2008 from the Warnell School. She began her career with Forisk, a consulting firm that focuses on forest supplies, wood demand and timber pricing to develop strategic guidance for clients.
 
First interning with the company, Lang joined full time in 2008 and has worked her way up from project manager and education coordinator to partner and vice president of client services. She is responsible for client-facing activities of the firm, including consulting services, and leads
Forisk’s bioenergy research program.
 
She has been the chair of both the Georgia chapter of the Society of American Foresters and the Warnell School’s Young Alumni Committee. This year, Lang was named one of UGA’s 40 Under 40 Class of 2016, which recognizes exceptional young alumni who are achieving great success in their professional and personal endeavors.
 
“Warnell is a special place,” Lang said. “I felt like I was finally at home at the university when I entered the Warnell School in spring 2004. Not only did I meet some amazing people—including my husband—but I also studied the natural world and learned techniques to manage natural resources so that we can continue to have healthy forests and wildlife populations, and clean air and water. I continue to give to the school and participate in advisory roles to continue this learning opportunity for current and future students and to protect the future of our natural resources.”