MANAGING TO CREATE THE ANCIENT
FOREST CONFERENCE
SWEET BRIAR COLLEGE, 18-20 MAY 2000
Dean Apostol has over 21 years experience as a landscape architect, consultant, and natural resource planner and specializes in synthesizing human environmental needs with ecology. He is recognized nationally as a leader in the field of forest resource planning and design, and in watershed scale aspects of restoration ecology. From 1986 to 1997 he was a landscape architect for the Mt. Hood National Forest. His recent clients have included The Wetlands Conservancy, the City of Gresham, Oregon, and the Rogue River National Forest. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Society for Ecological Restoration, Northwest Chapter. He is presently in independent consulting practice in landscape architecture and natural resource planning.
Tom Blount, the Supervisory Ecologist for Shenandoah National Park, received his B.S. and M.S. in Forestry from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. He is responsible for addressing natural resource issues throughout the nearly 200,000 acres of Shenandoah National Park. He established and oversees its Long-term Ecological Monitoring stations, designed to identify and track vegetative changes through time. With other Park biologists and natural resource managers, he works to preserve for the future the unique characteristics of the Park's ecosystem.
Will Blozan is the president and co-founder of the Eastern Native Tree Society. For a number of years, he was a biological science technician with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and studied old growth hemlock and oak forests. Will is a recognized champion tree expert with many champion trees to his credit, as reflected in the National Register of Big Trees. He is the co-author of "Stalking the Forest Monarchs - A Guide to Measuring Champion Trees". Will’s tree climbing accomplishments are legendary. His most notable climbs include the world’s two tallest eastern hemlocks (the Yonaguska and Tsali trees), the tallest white pine in the state of Georgia (the Jess Riddle Pine) and the tallest white pine in New England (Chief Jake Swamp Pine). Will has been featured in articles and in radio and television broadcasts on old growth forests and champion trees. Will currently works as an arborist in the town of Black Mountain, North Carolina. He and Robert Leverett work as a team in measuring and documenting the biggest and tallest trees for all eastern species.
Chris Bolgiano. Freelance writer Chris Bolgiano has authored two critically acclaimed books, The Appalachian Forest: A Search for Roots and Renewal (1998, Stackpole Books), and Mountain Lion: An Unnatural History of Pumas and People (1995, Stackpole Books). Bolgiano is the Wildlife Issues Chair of the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, and the Vice President of the Virginia Wildlife Committee. She also was elected and served a three-year term on her local Soil and Water Conservation Board. Thanks to the graciousness of James Madison University, she bravely fights starvation by working as a Special Collections Librarian.
Philip Coulling is a Vegetation Ecologist for the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation in the Division of Natural Heritage. His current and recent research sites include the Pamunkey and Mattaponi Rivers, Prince William Forest Park, and Mount Pleasant in the Washington and Jefferson National Forests. Mr. Coulling received his B.A. in biology from Williams College, studying under Dr. Hank Art, and he is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studying high elevation red oak forests in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
James Hill Craddock is Vice President of the American Chestnut Foundation and Davenport Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. His research is focused on the restoration of the American chestnut to Appalachian hardwood forests and the establishment of a commercial chestnut industry in Tennessee. His current projects include: breeding chestnuts for blight resistance and gall wasp resistance, genome analysis using molecular markers, investigations on hypovirulence, germplasm collection and evaluation, and the role of mycorrhizal fungi in the rooting of cuttings. Dr. Craddock completed doctoral and postdoctoral research on hazelnut and chestnut biology at the University of Torino in Turin, Italy before conducting research on anthracnose-resistant dogwood cultivars and on evaluating chestnut cultivars at Tennessee State University.
Karl Davies is the proprietor and supervisor for Davies & Company in Northampton, MA. The company is responsible for the management of over 15,000 acres of private and municipal forestland. It specializes in forest investment management and agroforestry systems planning. Davies is a member of the Society of American Foresters, the Massachusetts Association of Professional Foresters, the Northern Nut Growers Association, and the Association for Temperate Agroforestry. Davies is the author of several publications.
Daniel L. Druckenbrod is a doctoral candidate at the University of Virginia in the Department of Environmental Sciences, and is involved in many activities to better the environment in and about Virginia. He is a committee member for the Montpelier Nature Trail, a mentor in the Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Mentor Program, and a nature guide for the Ivy Creek Foundation. For his dissertation he is developing a simulation model of forest succession in response to disturbance and climatic variation in the Virginia piedmont.
Linda S. Fink is Associate Professor of Biology at Sweet Briar College. While her graduate research at the University of Florida focused on insect behavior and ecology, since coming to Sweet Briar in 1990 her interests have expanded into conservation biology, wildlife management, land use politics, and geographic information systems (GIS). Current research includes long-term population studies of monarch butterflies and moths; the effect of an introduced groundcover (Vinca) on forest ecology; and long-term dynamics of college forests. To increase understanding of the biodiversity, land use issues, and field research conducted at Sweet Briar, she maintains a GIS of the college’s 3300-acre landholdings, and a natural history website (http://nature.sbc.edu).
Lee E. Frelich is a Research Associate in the Department
of Forest Resources at the University of Minnesota, St.Paul; and full member
of the Graduate Faculty in the Forestry, Ecology and Conservation Biology programs;
and founder and director of the University of Minnesota’s new Center for
Hardwood Ecology. His Ph.D. dissertation on natural disturbances in hemlock-hardwood
forests of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula was completed in 1986 at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison with Craig Lorimer. This was followed by three years of
post-doctoral work in paleoecology at the University of Minnesota, with Margaret
Davis. During this time he studied the long-term stability of forest stands
in Upper Michigan after the retreat of glaciers 10,000 years ago. He is the
author of 40 scientific publications on natural disturbance, forest succession,
landscape ecology, tree population dynamics and old growth forests. Current
research in cooperation with Peter Reich and other faculty includes restoration
of upland white cedar and white pine forests along the Minnesota North Shore
of Lake Superior; effects of forest management on plant diversity in northeastern
Minnesota; and the effects of invasion by exotic species (buckthorn, earthworms)
in Minnesota’s Bigwoods.
Carola Haas is an associate professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences, College of Natural Resources, Virginia Tech. She received her Ph.D. in 1990 in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, and a B.A. in 1983 in Biological Sciences from Wellesley College in Wellesley, MA. She worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Yamanashi University in Japan. Her research interests are in dispersal behavior, including how landscape and social structure can constrain and facilitate dispersal, and in population processes in managed habitats, such as production agriculture and forest lands.
J. Christopher Haney. Since 1995, Dr. Haney has been a forest ecologist working for The Wilderness Society. He received his doctorate from the University of Georgia’s Institute of Ecology in 1986. He has since worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the School of Forest Resources at Pennsylvania State University. His professional interests include marine science, wildlife biology, forest ecology and management, and environmental policy.
Ted Harris is the President and Director of the 500-Year Forest Foundation. He is also the owner of a 52-acre family forest in Bedford County. Harris formerly owned and operated Town Tree Nursery, which raised street trees for communities. Harris has served as chairman of the Keep Lynchburg Beautiful Commission, is a founder of the Lynchburg Tree Stewards, and is the former director of the Virginia Urban Forest Council. Harris has served on the Lynchburg City Council and as a delegate to the Virginia General Assembly.
David O. Ledbetter is a partner with the firm of Hunton & Williams, Richmond, Virginia. He obtained his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1977 and is admitted to practice in Virginia, the District of Columbia and California. From 1979 to 1985, he served at the Department of Justice in three sections of the Land & Natural Resources Division, where he was lead attorney on several major RCRA and Superfund cases, worked on several CERCLA and toxic tort interdepartmental teams and working groups, and was DOJ’s primary staff attorney for environmental legislative matters from 1984 to 1985. He is Co-Leader of Hunton & Williams’ Superfund Practice Group. His practice includes Superfund response and RCRA regulatory matters, solid waste regulation, property damage and personal injury actions, insurance coverage disputes related to environmental pollution, and commercial real estate and investment transactions. He is principal author and editor of Chemical Waste Litigation Reporter’s Outline of RCRA/CERCLA Issues and Holdings, now in its 23rd edition; and he on CWLR’s Board of Advisors.
Jani Leverett is President of the Friends of Mohawk Trail State Forest and the Director of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Indian Movement. A Trail of Tears Cherokee-Choctaw, Jani’s connection to the land was established at a very early age. As a young adult Jani came to know Indian activists on the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Indian Reservations in South Dakota and learned first hand about the personal trials of Native people living on reservations. After marrying Air Force officer Bob Leverett and moving to Massachusetts, Jani began an earnest search for a way back to her culture. She was taken under the instruction of the Algonquin Sage, William Commanda-great canoe maker of the Algonquin Nation of Canada- and worked with Frank DeContie, nephew of Commanda and heir to the Seven Fires Wampum Prophecy Belts. Today, Jani is a recognized elder who is the duly appointed Director of the American Indian Movement in Massachusetts. Jani is a member of the Sunbow Five Coalition- a Coalition of Native elders formed to warn all human society about the coming Earth changed and the need for humans to change the way they live. Were this not enough, Jani and her husband co-founded a non-profit organization dedicated to environmental, social, cultural, and historical issues, entitled Friends of Mohawk Trail State Forest. Today Jani works on behalf of the Earth and Native peoples, and is a Native American poet and author.
Robert Leverett is Executive Director of Friends of Mohawk Trail State Forest in Massachusetts, co-founder of the Eastern Native Tree Society, Chairperson of the Special Advisory Board of the 500-Year Forest Foundation, and a member of the Forest Steward's Guild. He is recognized for his work in preserving old growth forests and is currently mapping stands in Massachusetts for the Department of Environmental Management. Bob writes for the Old Growth Information Clearinghouse and is currently under contract, writing a guide book to the Ancient Forests of the Northeastern United States for Sierra Club Books. Bob is co-author on several other books relating to forests and trees.
William H. Martin is Director of the Division of Natural Areas and Professor of Biology at Eastern Kentucky University. Since receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 1971, his professional career has emphasized research in, and evaluation of, old-growth deciduous forests. As Commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Natural Resources, he was in charge of the Divisions of Forestry, Energy, and Conservation. He also served as co-chair of a Biodiversity Task Force and was a lead member of the team that developed the 1998 Kentucky Forest Conservation Act. He has served as a consultant to the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Nature Conservancy on forest and resource management issues.
John F. O’Keefe is the coordinator of the Fisher Museum of Harvard Forest, which is devoted to the history, management, and ecology of central New England forests. Dr. O’Keefe develops exhibits and programs to explain current forest research to academic and general audiences. Dr. O’Keefe received his doctorate in Forestry from the University of Massachusetts. He is also a board member of the Massachusetts Forestry Association, the Mount Grace Land Trust, and the Millers River Watershed Council. His publications include "An ecological history of Massachusetts forests" in Stepping Back to Look Forward-a History of the Massachusetts Forest, and "New England Forests Through Time-Insights from the Harvard Forest Dioramas."
David R. Perault received his Ph. D. in Zoology from the University of Oklahoma in 1998. He is currently Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Environmental Science Program at Lynchburg College. His interests include Landscape Ecology and GIS, Conservation Biology, and Natural Resource Management.
L. Running Medicine Wolfe Pagans is a Cherokee Elder and a tribal member of the Southeastern Cherokee Council. His doctorate work is in Indigenous Peoples’ Spiritual and Healing Methodology. He is president and co-founder of The Sacred Tree...A Wellness Center. A poet and author, he has published the book, A Journey to the Me That I Can Be- A Guide to Wholeness and a Spiritual Awakening, as well as numerous poems. Pagans has taught at the University of Edinburgh in the Parapsychology department and at the Rhine Research Center for Parapsychology. He has been accepted in the Millennium Who’s Who and he will have a poem published in The International Library of Poetry’s America at the Millennium: The Best Poems and Poets of the 20th Century.
David Robertson is currently a doctoral student in the College of Natural Resources at Virginia Tech. He holds a master’s degree in landscape architecture. His research interests include public understandings of nature, the history of ecology, and environmental policy analysis. Recently, he and Bruce Hull co-authored two papers on ecological restoration that will appear in Restoring Nature: Perspectives from the Social Sciences and Humanities (Island Press, 2000).
Hank Shugart is William W. Corcoran Professor of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia. Before coming to UVA in 1984, he was a scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the Environmental Sciences Division with a joint appointment at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Shugart has also been a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University (1978-1979, 1993-1994), in Australia’s Commonwealth Industrial and Scientific Research Organization, Division of Land Use Research (1982) and Division of Wildlife and Ecology (1993-1994), at the International Meteorological Institute of the University of Stockholm, Sweden (1984), and at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis, Austria (1987,1989). He has served as Chairman of the International Geosphere/Biosphere Project (IGBP) Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems (GCTE), and on the Special Advisory Committee to the Defense Intelligence Agencies on Declassification of Intelligence Assets for Environmental Applications. He is the author of 260 publications including 11 books, 61 book chapters and 92 papers in peer-reviewed journals.
Durland Shumway is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Frostburg State University. He received his Ph.D. in Forest Biology from Penn State University in 1991, completing a dissertation on tree architecture. His research interests include the fire history and dendroecology of old-growth oak forests in Maryland, mycorrhizae, and hemlock forest composition.
Karl D. Smith is the lead restoration ecologist of Nurturing Restoration, Inc. of Ohio. He has designed and now manages the restoration of tallgrass prairie and forest ecosystems in Cleveland’s Brecksville Reservation. He has worked on the restoration of other forest sites in Michigan and Ohio. Smith is active in the Society for Ecological Restoration.
Walter Smith is the President of the Potomac Appalachian
Trail Club following four years as President of the Northern Shenandoah Valley
Chapter of the PATC. He is a retired former military officer. Even as a military
officer Smith had an interest in the environment. As part of the US/UK Exchange
Officer Program, he developed a plan to plant forests over a forty-square mile
area. In recognition for this work, upon his return to the United States in
1975, the British Army designated a two hundred acre plantation on the Salisbury
Plain as the Major Walter Smith Wood.
Eleanor Tillinghast. For the past fourteen years, Eleanor Tillinghast has lived in Mount Washington, MA, served on various town boards, and been involved in land conservation efforts. Presently, she serves as chairperson of the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals, chairperson of the Master Plan Steering Committee, member of the Telecommunications Committee, and Water Commissioner. She is also spearheading the town’s effort to protect Mount Everett from telecommunications installations and has established the Southern Taconics Research & Conservation Center to promote greater understanding and protection of the regional forested landscape.
Michael Townsend has been Chief Executive of the Woodland Trust since June 1997, having previously held the appointment of the Trust's Director of Woodland Operations. The Woodland Trust is the UK's foremost charity dedicated to woodland conservation. Before joining the Woodland Trust in early 1995, Mike was an independent forestry consultant in the South East of England. A graduate of the University of North Wales in Bangor (BSc MICFor), he has been the Regional Manager for a forestry company and has worked in Kenya as Project Manager for the Children's Fund. There, he was responsible for developing agro-forestry techniques, the use of wood fuel plantations and the creation of community woodlands.
Rick Van de Poll is the Principal of Ecosystem Management Consultants, which serves the New England region by completing natural resource inventories and land use plans. Recent projects include the Ossipee Mountain Preserve Bio-Inventory, town of Amherst Wetlands Assessment, and Hersey Mountain Forest Inventory and Plan. He is also a core faculty member of the Environmental Studies Department at Antioch New England Graduate School. He received his doctorate in 1996 at The Union Institute with a specialization in natural resource management. His other interests include mycology, vernal pools, nature photography, hawk watching, mountain biking, hiking and canoeing.
Stanley F. Warner, the Virginia State Silviculturist, considers himself to be a "forest architect," developing, caring for, or otherwise cultivating forests to maintain their health and sustain production of a wide range of forests benefits. As a silviculturist he combines his knowledge of the biology of tree growth with the design skills of an artist to meet many objectives. Warner uses up-to-date research and sound scientific principles, state of the art technology, and practical applications to ensure solutions in apparently conflict-ridden situations. Stan develops and conducts professional seminars, field demonstrations, and educational outreach on forests and forestry.
Daniel White is Communications Coordinator for the Virginia Chapter of the Nature Conservancy. He has an M.A. in English from Clemson University, and has done postgraduate work in natural history at the University of New Mexico. He has taught at both Clemson and UNM. His volunteer work has included production of a newsletter for South Carolina Forest Watch.
Managing to Create the Ancient Forest, a conference at Sweet
Briar College 18-20 May 2000
Speaker biographies URL: //nature.sbc.edu/forestconference/forestbios.html
Sponsored by:
The 500-Year
Forest Foundation
Sweet Briar College
Lynchburg College
Randolph-Macon Woman's College
http://nature.sbc.edu is maintained by Associate
Professor Linda S. Fink (804) 381-6436 email:
naturalist@sbc.edu
Last updated: 4 July 2000
Natural History at Sweet Briar College
Department of Biology