Staff and Associates

Lester DeCoster
Steve Prisley
R. Neil Sampson, President

Lester DeCoster

Contact Info:
The DeCoster Group, Inc.
11322 French Horn Lane
Reston, VA 20191
Phone: 703-860-2513
Fax:703-860-3521
E-mail: lesdecoster@worldnet.att.net

Stephen P. Prisley is Associate Professor of GIS and Forest Inventory in the Virginia Tech Department of Forestry. He has expertise in the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for forest management planning, with over 13 years of experience managing forest resources information systems for two forest products companies. He holds B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in forestry from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. During his career, he has worked for private consultants, the forest industry, and federal and state governments in the areas of forest inventory projection models, remote sensing, and geographic information systems, in locations in Virginia, Georgia, Alaska, Kentucky, and South Carolina.

Contact Info:
Virginia Tech
Department of Forestry (0324)
Blacksburg, VA 24060
Phone: 540-231-7674
Fax: 540-231-3330
E-mail: prisley@vt.edu

R. Neil Sampson, President
Click here to view Mr. Sampson's Short Bio Or  Resume' in

Neil Sampson is President of The Sampson Group, Inc. and President of Vision Forestry, LLC, a consulting firm that specializes in sustainable forest planning and forest land management.  He holds the rank of Affiliate Professor in the Department of Forest Resources at the University of Idaho, and Research Associate with the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where he is involved in research projects relating to private forest management and sustainable forestry.

 As executive vice president of American Forests from 1984 to 1995, he launched the internationally-renowned Global ReLeaf program and the Forest Policy Center.  He chaired the National Commission on Wildfire Disasters (1992-94), and served on the Technical Advisory Committee to the Edison Electric Institute=s Utility Forest Carbon Management Program, the American Forest & Paper Association=s External Review Panel to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), and the Advisory Panel to The Nature Conservancy=s International Carbon Mitigation Program.  He is currently the Technical Consultant to the National Carbon Offset Coalition and Executive Secretary of the External Review Panel.

 Sampson is a 1960 graduate of the University of Idaho, where he received his B.S. degree in Agriculture (Crops and Soils).  He earned a Master=s in Public Administration from Harvard University in 1974.  He has authored two books on soil conservation, edited several books on natural resource topics, and published over 100 scientific and popular articles on natural resources.  Recent books include Public Programs for Private Forests (1997), Forest Health in the United States (1998), and Mapping Wildfire Hazards and Risks (2000).