UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Oct. 29 groundbreaking for the new, $27.5 million Forest Resources Building is a big step towards ensuring that Penn State's School of Forest Resources can continue to recruit and retain the highest-caliber faculty and students, offer a top-quality, contemporary education and provide dynamic research and specialized technology transfer for forest-based and allied resource interests throughout Pennsylvania and adjoining regions, say Penn State officials. The 2 p.m. ceremony will be presided over by Robert Steele, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences. Penn State President Graham Spanier, Michael Lester, assistant state forester in the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and Charles Strauss, director of the School of Forest Resources, will offer remarks.

"The four-story, 95,000-square-foot building will, for the first time in the school's history, allow all three professional programs -- forest science, wildlife and fisheries science, and wood products -- to be housed under one roof," says Strauss. "The new building will offer 50 percent more space than the school's current Ferguson Building and the Forest Resources Lab locations combined.

"We have an important set of undergraduate and graduate programs involving nearly 500 students that will be attended to by this new structure," he adds. "This building is consistent with Penn State's attention to student education, research and outreach." Penn State's School of Forest Resources represents one of the most highly regarded forestry, wood products, water resources, and wildlife and fisheries programs in the nation. Good management of forest resources is vitally important in Pennsylvania, where 60 percent of the land still is forested. Keystone State forests generate more than $5 billion annually and support approximately 100,000 jobs.

Teaching and outreach facilities will encompass nearly 30 percent of the new building; research facilities, 40 percent; and offices for faculty, staff and graduate students 30 percent. Teaching areas will include four teaching laboratories; two technology classrooms; the Steimer Auditorium, with a 150-seat capacity; two undergraduate computer labs; and a GIS lab for graduate students. Research facilities will include laboratories for forestry, fisheries, water resources, wildlife and wood products. Outreach facilities will include a 60-seat conference room with video teleconferencing capability, five meeting rooms with state-of-the-art communication system, a publication production room and the York Group Wood Products Evaluation Laboratory.

Faculty, staff and student facilities will include the Edwards Student Activities Center; the Pennsylvania Forest Products Atrium, a four-story, glass-enclosed common area serving students, staff and faculty; and the Alumni Plaza, which features a landscaped setting for outdoor events and study.

The new structure will represent a lead element of the College of Agricultural Sciences' continued leadership in forestry and natural resources education. To learn more about the new Forest Resources Building, visit the Web at http://www.giveto.psu.edu/Buildings/ForestResources.aspx.

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EDITORS: Contact Chuck Strauss at 814-865-7541 or by e-mail at chs3@psu.edu.

Writer/Editor: Jeff Mulhollem Office 814-863-2719 FAX 814-863-9877