This year's annual SJ Hall Lecture in Industrial Forestry will address how urbanization and urban forests across the nation affect the health and well-being of the American population. These forests are changing at a rapid rate and face numerous threats. In addition, urbanization and urban forests are and will increasingly influence forest industry. This presentation will discuss the latest findings regarding U.S. urban forest benefits, values and threats, how these forests have and will continue to change in the coming years, and the influence of urbanization and urban forests on forest industry. The presentation will also discuss the development of freely available software (i-Tree: www.itreetools.org) that is designed to aid in assessing forests and their associated ecosystem services and values.
Bio: David J. Nowak Ph.D. ’91 is a Senior Scientist and Team Leader with the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station in Syracuse, NY. His research investigates urban forest structure, health, and change, and its effect on human health and environmental quality. He has authored over 300 publications and leads teams developing the i-Tree software suite that quantifies the benefits and values from vegetation.