Joe Fox, formerly of Pine Bluff, is one of six individuals scheduled to be inducted into the Arkansas Agricultural Hall of Fame in March 2026. Mr. Fox’s 50-year career in wood products began with the Pine Bluff-based family business operated by his father and grandfather. He spent his teen years and summers while in college painting property lines and girdling hardwoods before earning his degree in Forestry and Agriculture Economics from North Carolina State University in 1973.
In his early career, Fox focused on sustainability and creating good jobs for rural communities. He continued to build on his career and became vice president for W.S. Fox and Sons/Arkansas Oak Flooring followed by working for Cloud Oak Flooring and Hixson Lumber Sales in Rison.
At the start of the 2000’s, Joe Fox became the Director of Conservation Forestry for the Arkansas Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. He later led the Forestry Division of the Arkansas Department of Agriculture as the State Forester and served as Chair of the Arkansas Forestry Commission. From 2020-2021, he served as President of the national Association of Foresters.
Mr. Fox was twice awarded the Arkansas Forestry Association’s President’s Award and was inducted into the Arkansas Foresters Hall of Fame in 2024.
Undeniably, Fox’s most notable achievement was creating the largest conservation easement in Arkansas by uniting forestry businesses, non-profits, and state agencies. This easement is better known as the Moro Big Pine Natural Area-Wildlife Management Area in Calhoun County, an active conservation and recreation area co-managed by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, and PotlatchDeltic.
