The Forest School 2023 Accomplishment Fact Sheet

Dear Forest School Friends and Alums,

Happy New Year. In this edition of The Overstory, I provide a brief annual report (Jan-Dec 2023) of last year’s activities at The Forest School. Below I report out with a fact sheet of our most notable accomplishments by the following subject areas: 1) faculty accomplishments and research; 2) achievements at centers and programs; 3) the Yale Forest Forum’s events; and 4) student activities and experiences. I hope this provides a glimpse of what we are about. When taken all together it is impressive and meets our vison in collaborative research, policy, and practice that addresses vital and compelling issues facing forests and people globally.

Please contact me at forestry@yale.edu should you have any questions or interests and follow us at @yaleforestry on social media.

Cheers,

Mark S. Ashton
Senior Associate Dean, The Forest School at the Yale School of the Environment
Morris K. Jesup Professor of Silviculture and Forest Ecology

^{Joe Orefice instructs Forest Crew at Yale-Myers Forest in July 2022. Photo: Ian Christmann.}

Forestry Faculty and Research

• Liza Comita, professor of tropical forest ecology, was named an American Association for Advancement of Science Fellow.
• Joe Orefice, lecturer in forest management, was named Young Forester of the Year for the New England Society of American Foresters.
• Mark Bradford, professor of soils and ecosystem ecology, was listed as one of the world’s most highly cited scholars.
• Two new faculty were recruited—Paulo Brando, associate professor of ecosystem carbon capture, and Sparkle Malone, assistant professor of ecosystem carbon capture. Both are associated with TFS and are members of the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture.
• Faculty published over 49 peer-reviewed journal articles on forests and forestry.
• Faculty received over $2.5 million in grants and gifts for their forest-related research, processed by the YSE Office of Development and Alumni Services. Faculty and staff received over $4.7 million in forest research project sponsorship, processed by the YSE Office of Research.
• The USDA awarded $1.7 million in grants to Yale Forests faculty and staff for research on silviculture and agroforestry.

^{Liz Felker (center), associate director of The Forests Dialogue, leads international stakeholder discussions on plantation forestry in Riau, Indonesia in June 2023. Photo: Dimas.}

Centers, Programs, and Initiatives

• Yale Forests—February-March: The sugarbush had the first year of its official syrup production and bottling. May: A bipartisan delegation from the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources toured Yale-Myers Forest to learn about forest management.
• Urban Resources Initiative (URI)—URI surpassed over 11,000 trees planted in the City of New Haven and was awarded a $3 million grant alongside the city of New Haven to double their tree planting efforts in environmental justice neighborhoods across the city.
• Environmental Leadership and Training Initiative (ELTI)—ELTI was awarded $3 million by Arcadia to carry on its work on tropical forest restoration and conservation with focus training sites in Brazil, Indonesia, Rwanda, Philippines, and Panama. The online tropical forest restoration certificate is in the 5th cohort and has trained 308 participants from 66 countries from 2019-2023.
• The Yale Applied Science Synthesis Program (YASSP)—The director, faculty, post docs, and doctoral students mapped out a pathway for forests to yield a cumulative removal of 1.5 to 1.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) by 2050 in the “Roads to Removal” report for the U.S. Department of Energy.
• Tropical Resources Institute provided 27 research fellowships to graduate students conducting studies in the tropics.
• The Forests Dialogue held stakeholder dialogues on “Tree Plantations in the Landscape and the Community” in Riau, Indonesia and “The Role of the Private Sector in Ecosystem Restoration” in New Haven, CT.

^{Stakeholders in land management discuss the challenges and successes of tribal co-management of public lands in Washington D.C., on March 27, 2023. Photo: YCEJ.}

The Yale Forest Forum

• Three speaker series took place this year on “Smallholder Planted Forests and Trees for Climate, Restored Landscapes, and Livelihoods,” “How can the Voluntary Carbon Market Make a Meaningful Contribution to Protecting Tropical Forests?” and “Understanding Climate-Smart Forestry in Practice.” 
• The Forest School and the Yale Center for Environmental Justice held a workshop on Tribal co-management of public lands in Washington, D.C.

^{Students learn about longleaf pine ecology and restoration efforts in North Carolina in March 2023. Photo: Brandon Wilson Radcliffe ’24 MF.}

Student Activities, Experiences, and Education

• We achieved the Number 1 ranking of the best natural resource and conservation program in the nation as judged by CollegeFactual.com.
• There are currently 41 Masters of Forestry (MF) and Masters of Forest Science (MFS) students enrolled, with 30 MF and 11 MFS. There are over 100 students enrolled in the Forestry Learning Community.
• We held six field trips: 1) The Southern Forestry Field Trip to North Carolina to study prescribed fire, intensively managed plantation forestry, and longleaf pine restoration. 2) Tropical field botany trip to Costa Rica led by scientists from the New Year Botanical Gardens. 3) The tropical field ecology trip to the Ecuadorian Amazon where students developed independent research projects. 4) Panama field trip in extension and engaging landowners around forest restoration in the Azuero, Panama. 5) A joint field trip with the Technical University of Munich to northern New England and Eastern Canada. 6) A fall silviculture field trip to the Adirondacks.
• Five Urban foresters and nine Apprentice Foresters undertook intensive field learning experiences in New Haven with URI and Yale-Myers Forest, respectively.
• The Yale student chapter of the International Society of Tropical Foresters held their 29th conference on “Envisioning the Future of Tropical Forests: The Roles of Feedback, Interconnectedness, and Adaptation.”
• We are up for Society of American Foresters accreditation in 2024.