School Profile

Historical Timeline

Mission:

The School of Forest Resources is dedicated to generating and disseminating knowledge for the stewardship of natural and managed environments and the sustainable use of their products and services through teaching, research and outreach.

Vision:

The School of Forest Resources will provide world class, internationally recognized knowledge and leadership for environmental and natural resource issues.

Core Values:

Open communication, respect, accountability, excellence

  • Established in 1907 as one of the oldest units on the University of Washington campus and one of the original natural resource programs in the country, our vision is to provide world class, internationally recognized knowledge and leadership for environmental and natural resource issues.
  • School teaching, research, and outreach programs focus on the integrating theme of sustainability in natural and managed environments that include wilderness and park-like ecosystems, intensively managed planted forests, and urban ecosystems.
  • Our academic niche at the University of Washington is to study the key principles and processes that explain the behavior and interaction of biotic and social systems along gradients from urban to wildland settings.
  • We study human-influenced natural resource and environmental systems through an interdisciplinary approach in collaboration with our campus and external partners.
  • The College of Forest Resources became the School of Forest Resources, a founding unit within the College of the Environment on July 1, 2009.

Our graduates

 are leaders in natural resources and public and private land management throughout the state, the region, and the nation. The management of natural resources for products and environmental services is vital to political, social, and economic decisions made every day by leaders and citizens and is a key element in our state and regional economy. As faculty members in universities throughout the country, our graduates are educating the next generation of leaders in natural resources and environmental issues.

Our faculty

 research topics of regional and global importance, including fire ecology, ecological restoration, invasive and endangered species, urban sustainability, global warming, forest productivity, and pulp and paper processing, and natural resources policy. Committed to the integration of teaching and research, they provide students with real-world experience and hands-on learning in our region's urban-to-wildland laboratory.

Our academic programs

 use the array of biological-social interactions in the Pacific Northwest as a learning environment for problem-based, interdisciplinary inquiry. We offer undergraduate programs in environmental science and resource management (ESRM) and paper science and engineering (PSE). Graduate study areas include environmental horticulture and urban forestry, forest ecology, forest soils, forest systems and bioenergy, paper science and engineering, restoration ecology, social sciences, sustainable resource management, and wildlife science.

Our outreach

 and technical transfer programs provide knowledge and training focusing on international trade in forest products, precision forestry, regional natural resources, urban ecosystems, and environmental horticulture.

Our partnerships

 include formal interdisciplinary links across campus as well as collaborations with academic institutions, federal, state, and local governments, industry, and Native American natural resources managers.


The School of Forest Resources at a Glance

Ranking:
The most recent edition of the Gourman Report rates the School as having the number one graduate and number seven undergraduate forestry programs in the nation. The School is number five in a 2006 combined publications and citations ranking by the Journal of Forestry, and the School is number eight in the 2007 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index.:
Strategic Plan:

School faculty, students, and staff meet each autumn to update future goals and objectives. The School's most recent strategic plan is for 2008-2011.

Degrees:
BS, MS, MEH (Master of Environmental Horticulture), MFR (Master of Forest Resources), and PhD
Facilities:
Anderson, Bloedel, and Winkenwerder Halls are located on the Seattle campus. Major field sites for teaching, research, and outreach include the 4,250-acre C. L. Pack Experimental Forest 70 miles south of Seattle, the Olympic Natural Resources Center near Forks, Washington, the Wind River Canopy Crane in southwest Washington, the University of Washington Botanic Gardens, comprising the Center for Urban Horticulture on Union Bay, the 60-acre Union Bay Natural Area, the Elisabeth C. Miller Librar y, and the 230-acre Washington Park Arboretum managed in conjunction with the City of Seattle.

Faculty and Staff:
48 teaching faculty, 3 research faculty, 135 staff (includes research and scientific).

Students (academic year 2007-2008):
total
women
men
  Undergraduate
216
81
135
  Graduate
146
73
73
  Underrepresented minorities
67
29
38
  Degrees awarded (2007-2008)
88


Finances:
 Local/state funding (FY08) $ 8,835,981 Private gifts (FY08) $2,553,419
  Grants/contracts (FY08) $ 8,034,964 Endowment distributions (FY08) $1,114,287
  Expenditures (FY08) $16,870,945 Number of endowed funds (FY08) 81



The School's Centers of Excellence

  • The Center for International Trade in Forest Products, leading research on the changing character of global trade, secondary manufacturing options for the forest products sector, and environmental tradeoffs.
  • The Center for Sustainable Forestry at Pack Forest, discovering, teaching, and demonstrating the concepts of sustainable forestry and providing services such as forest certification consulting and technology transfer.
  • The Olympic Natural Resources Center, engaged in teaching and research about forest and marine management that balances sustainable commodity production with the maintenance of ecological systems.
  • The University of Washington Botanic Gardens, comprising the Center for Urban Horticulture providing research and extensive public service programs about environmental horticulture and urban forestry, the Washington Park Arboretum , a 230-acre urban green space that is a dynamic, living museum with internationally known collections of oaks, conifers, camellias, Japanese maples and hollies, and the 60-acre Union Bay Natural Area.
  • The Water Center, leading research to help shape future forest practices affecting water quality, salmonid species, and management of streamside forests to protect biodiversity.
  • Research cooperatives in stand management and in precision forestry develop new ways to make forests more productive and forestry processes more efficient. Technology transfer to rural timber-dependent communities is led by a rural technology initiative. The School participates in a global network on forest health, studying the toll of acid rain, ozone depletion, and climate change on the world's forests, is a pioneer in tree nutrition, and is developing strong programs in phytoremediation, the use of plants in the cleanup and restoration of contaminated sites, and bioresource sciences, researching sustainable bio-based products and sources of energy that better serve society. An urban ecology initiative studies interactions between humans and ecological processes in urbanizing environments. The Northwest Environmental Forum brings together decision makers and stakeholders to apply science and policy to critical environmental and natural resources management challenges.

Leadership 

is provided by Interim Director Thomas Hinckley and Interim Associate Director Steve West. The School is committed to diversity, promoting respect for the rights and privileges of others, and the understanding and appreciation of human differences.


Tom Hinckley
Interim Director Tom Hinckley
School of Forest Resources
University of Washington
Box 352100
Seattle, WA 98195-2100
206-543-2730
www.cfr.washington.edu

2009