[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 65 (Monday, May 23, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 23, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
            A PROVEN LEADER FOR THE FOREST PRODUCTS INDUSTRY

                                 ______


                           HON. BILL EMERSON

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 23, 1994

  Mr. EMERSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize and salute an 
outstanding individual from my southern Missouri district who is making 
tremendous contributions to his community and to his industry. Mark 
Garnett of West Plains, MO, is taking another step to serve his 
colleagues in the forest products industry and workers across the 
Nation.
  Mark was recently elected president of the National Wooden Pallet and 
Container Association. In this capacity, Mark will shoulder the 
challenges of increasing his industry's role in trade promotion, 
education, research and standards implementation. I believe Mark has a 
solid foundation from which to draw upon for this new endeavor.
  As the vice president of Garnett Wood Products Co., Inc., in 
Brandsville, MO, he started in his teenage years at the family-owned 
and operated business. During his summer breaks from college at 
Southwest Missouri State University, he learned every facet of the 
operation, which is a regional manufacturer and wholesale distributor 
of industrial packaging, as well as new and reconditioned wooden, 
corrugated and plastic pallets. After graduating cum laude from SMSU in 
1978 with a bachelor of science degree in Business Administration, 
concentrating on Management and Marketing, he went to work full time in 
the family company. Since then, he has worked his way up to his current 
position of responsibility in his family's enterprise.
  Mark Gannett also is a leader in Missouri and in his Howell County 
community. The list of his accomplishments include Missouri Farm Bureau 
State Forestry Committee, past president and current board member of 
the Missouri Forest Products Association, board member of the 
Associated Industries of Missouri, trustee of the Missouri Workers 
Insurance Trust, board member of Boatmen's First National Bank of West 
Plains, past board member of the West Plains Chamber of Commerce, and 
member of the First United Methodist Church in West Plains.
  His vast experience on and off the job should serve him well as he 
serves his industry and its workers. I want to add that the forest 
products industry makes a tremendous contribution to my State's and our 
country's economy. For instance, Commerce Department figures from 1990 
show that in Missouri the forest products industry employees 23,600 
workers with an annual payroll of $490 million. Nationally, 1.3 million 
people are put to work with an annual payroll of more than $32 billion.
  Moreover, this is an industry that works hard at being a good steward 
of the land. America's forest products companies have donated more than 
1 million acres of land--valued at over $400 million--for conservation, 
recreation, and social causes. In addition, it is an industry that can 
renew itself in perpetuity because timber is a renewable resource. In 
1992, some 1.6 billion seedlings were planted in the United States--
more than five new trees a year for every American. Furthermore, the 
forest industry planted more than 43 percent of those seedlings; 40 
percent were planted by non-industrial private landowners; and 16 
percent by government. And these numbers do not include the $100 
million plus spent in recent years by forest products companies on 
wildlife and environmental research. Yes, the forest products industry, 
which Mark Garnett will continue to help lead, works hard at being a 
good neighbor.
  As I close, I once again want to wish Mark well on this important 
mission which translates into jobs and the viability of the forest 
products industry in the future. I also would like to note the strong 
support he has had and will continue to have from his wife, Diann, two 
daughters, Kimberly and Stephanie, and his parents, Jess and Betty 
Garnett, who have operated Garnett Wood Products for the past 28 years. 
I look forward to the future success of the National Wooden Pallet and 
Container Association because of Mark's leadership as president, and 
the prosperity of the forest products industry due to that Missouri 
conservative, commonsense leadership being put into practice on a 
national scale.

                          ____________________