Southern Researcher Receives Distinguished Science Award

By Stevin Westcott, Press Officer, Southern Research Station

David Wear, SRS Research Forester and winner of the Deputy Chief’s Distinguished Science Award for 2008

U.S. Forest Service Deputy Chief for Research & Development Ann Bartuska recently announced that Southern Research Station (SRS) Research Forester David Wear is the winner of the Deputy Chief’s Distinguished Science Award for 2008. Wear will receive the award this March during the Forest Service Research Executive Team meeting in Washington, DC.

In a letter announcing the award, Deputy Chief Bartuska said Wear has “conducted exceptional research work in the advancement of areas of integrated resource assessment, land use change modeling, and the analysis of forest policies, while contributing directly to the public discourse regarding conservation and sustainability of the South’s forests.”

Wear has served as project leader for the SRS Forest Economics and Policy Work Unit, headquartered in Research Triangle Park, NC, since 1995. He and his research team of 15 professionals address questions relating to the economics of disturbances, forest policy and program evaluation, and resource assessment and forecasting.

Over the course of his career, the veteran researcher has focused his research on how people shape forested landscapes through forest management, land use decisions, and forest policy. His most recent work has been on forecasting the future conditions of forests, especially in the U.S. South. He has led teams of researchers in assessments of the long-term sustainability of the region’s forests, including the Southern Forest Resource Assessment, completed in 2002. He currently co-leads, with John Greis, the Southern Forest Futures Project, an interagency effort to evaluate alternative scenarios for forest conditions and values in the region.

Wear has briefed Senate and House members and staffs on southern forest conditions, and his research findings have been used in Forest Service testimony before the House of Representatives. His research results have been used by the International Trade Commission and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and he has consulted with other Federal and State agencies on forest issues. He has also served as a lead researcher on numerous special task forces and committees.

During his 21 years with the Forest Service, the researcher has published more than 110 scientific articles, and has served as editor for several prestigious journals. His research is widely cited, and he is frequently invited to deliver presentations on research findings. He is also an adjunct professor at Duke University and North Carolina State University.

Wear received a bachelor’s degree in botany from the University of Montana in 1981, a master’s degree in forestry from Duke University in 1983, and the Ph.D. in forest management, specializing in forest economics, from the University of Montana in 1987.