John Thomas “Jack” Vogel has served the Florida forestry industry for half a century.
A member of the Florida Forestry Association (FFA) for nearly 40 years, Vogel has established himself as an industry icon. He has consistently modeled service and leadership as a volunteer advocating for Florida silviculture, and he is the only individual to lead the FFA twice as president of its board.
More than 50 years ago, Vogel and a partner founded Natural Resource Planning Services in their homes and have since grown it into a company with 30 employees. He is a pioneer in the conservation of working lands through easements and other tools.
Vogel has contributed to Florida’s land-grant university for several decades. A 1969 alum of the UF/IFAS School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences (SFFGS), Vogel has served on the SFFGS Alumni Advisory Board and chaired the school’s Austin Cary Forest Campus Development Committee, which raised funds for rebuilding the Learning Center at the Austin Cary Forest following a devastating fire. He also served on the Accreditation Committee and on the Stakeholder Panel for the Administrative Review of School Programs.
Vogel’s involvement with UF/IFAS also includes service to 4-H youth. In honor of his contributions as a member of the Florida 4-H Foundation board of directors, he received the group’s alumni recognition award.
UF/IFAS has honored him with its SFFGS Distinguished Alumni Award and the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Alumni and Friends Award of Distinction and the UF Distinguished Alumni Award.
Vogel’s record of leadership also includes serving on the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Acquisition and Restoration Council based on his major contributions to land conservation. He’s a past member of the Southwest Florida Water Management District Management District’s Withlacoochee River Basin Board.
Induction into the Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame is a crowning honor for a career decorated with numerous awards, including:
- FFA Distinguished Service Award/”Living Legend” Award
- Society of American Foresters (SAF) Presidential Field Forester Award
- SAF Fellow, recognizing significant service at the local, state, and national levels
- SAF Huxley Coulter Award for outstanding contributions to forestry
- Election into the Florida-SAF Florida Foresters Hall of Fame
- The Distinguished Service to Food, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Life Sciences Award of Merit, Gamma Sigma Delta (Honor Society of Agriculture) UF chapter
He was also recently recognized by the Kenneth Kirchman Foundation for his lifelong efforts in the conservation arena when the Foundation named the 1,400-acre John T. Vogel Conservation Area at Lake X after him, which is part of the larger 10,000-acre preserve that Vogel helps manage for environmental impact in advancing the Foundation’s mission of conservation, education, and community outreach.
His service continues to this day, serving on FFA’s newly created Economic Task Force, the Pasco County Farm Bureau board, the National Wild Turkey Federation’s Florida chapter host committee, and the finance committee of his church.
Vogel was appointed to the Florida State Fair Board in 2014 by then-Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam and was reappointed by commissioners Nikki Fried and Wilton Simpson. Vogel has been chairman of the San Antonio Citizens Federal Credit Union board of directors for more than 30 years.
He has been married to Jeanie Vogel for 52 years. She was instrumental in the founding and early days of the company. Their son, Jay, currently works for the company as operations manager and serves on the board of the Florida Forestry Association.
