Jim Karels

Jim Karels is the current Florida Forestry Association Executive Director working with all forestry related businesses and agencies in Florida. He also has recently retired as the National Fire Director for the National Association of State Foresters (NASF). He worked out of the National Fire Center in Boise Idaho and was a representative of the NWCG Executive Board and the National Multi Agency Coordinating group. In 2020 Jim retired as the Director for the Florida Forest Service after 12 years with a career in the Florida Forest Service of 35 years. He oversaw the largest and most progressive prescribed fire program in the United States. Jim is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Science degree in Forest Management and is a native of rural Minnesota.

Jim has 45 years of experience in wildland fire and forest management with the US Forest Service, the Florida Forest Service, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, NASF and the Florida Forestry Association.

Jim served as the Wildland Fire Committee Chair for the NASF and represented NASF on the Wildland Fire Leadership Council for 8 years. He also served as President of NASF in 2015 and currently serves on the Executive Board of both the Tall Timbers Conservancy and the Florida Forestry Association.

Jim currently is the President for his consulting business, Karels Forestry and Fire LLC, and has clients in the wildfire, prescribed fire and land management fields.

Jim resides in Tallahassee, Florida and Murphy, North Carolina with his wife Deborah of 38 years.