Leading Professors of Forestry Support Fellow Scholar Tom Bonnicksen; Decry Attack on Distinguished Academic.Professors from Yale, UC Berkeley, Humboldt State and Other Universities Oppose Effort to Stifle Debate About Proper Forest Management AUBURN, Calif. -- Ten distinguished professors from across the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. have issued an open letter to the media supporting Texas A&M University Professor Emeritus Thomas Bonnicksen and criticizing three professors with differing views for trying to stifle the debate over forest management. "Their attack is a violation of professional standards of conduct in science: the free exchange of ideas and collegiality col·le·gi·al·i·ty n. 1. Shared power and authority vested among colleagues. 2. Roman Catholic Church The doctrine that bishops collectively share collegiate power. among scholars," the professors say in an open letter to the media. "We adamantly oppose any effort to stifle his contribution to the debate on proper management of our nation's forests." The professors are from Yale University Yale University, at New Haven, Conn.; coeducational. Chartered as a collegiate school for men in 1701 largely as a result of the efforts of James Pierpont, it opened at Killingworth (now Clinton) in 1702, moved (1707) to Saybrook (now Old Saybrook), and in 1716 was , University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley is a public research university located in Berkeley, California, United States. Commonly referred to as UC Berkeley, Berkeley and Cal , Humboldt State University Not to be confused with Humboldt University of Berlin. Humboldt State University (HSU) is the northernmost campus of the California State University system, located in Arcata, California. , Clemson University Clemson University, at Clemson, S.C.; coeducational; land-grant; state supported; opened in 1893 as a college, gained university status in 1964. The university includes programs in textile and computer research, wildlife biology, and aquaculture and maintains and the universities of Minnesota, Tennessee and the University of Washington. They say they are appalled at an open letter to the media published recently by three professors and an adjunct faculty member that attacked Dr. Bonnicksen. The professors note that Dr. Bonnicksen's research in forest science spans decades and has been published widely in peer-reviewed scientific journals, reports and books. His 2000 book, America's Ancient Forests: From the Ice Age to the Age of Discovery, (John Wiley John Wiley may refer to:
The open letter to the media issued by ideological opponents of Dr. Bonnicksen also claimed that Dr. Bonnicksen misrepresented himself as a visiting professor at the University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). Davis. In fact, Dr. Bonnicksen was offered a visiting professorship at the university and a UC-Davis department chair has apologized to Dr. Bonnicksen for the university's mishandling of that offer. "I have accepted the university's apology," Dr. Bonnicksen said. "However, it is reprehensible rep·re·hen·si·ble adj. Deserving rebuke or censure; blameworthy. See Synonyms at blameworthy. [Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin repreh that academics anywhere would use a university's mistake to try to discredit me or any other academic involved in the important debate over our forests. This is an assault on academic freedom." UC Davis Professor Michael Barbour, with concurrence CONCURRENCE, French law. The equality of rights, or privilege which several persons-have over the same thing; as, for example, the right which two judgment creditors, Whose judgments were rendered at the same time, have to be paid out of the proceeds of real estate bound by them. Dict. de Jur. h.t. of Department Chair Professor Heiner Lieth, offered Dr. Bonnicksen, a professor emeritus of forest science at Texas A&M University, a visiting professorship in March 2004. Dr. Bonnicksen accepted. Subsequently, the university issued at least four official news bulletins touting Dr. Bonnicksen's affiliation with the university. The university issued official press releases on June 17, 2004 and June 17, 2005 offering Dr. Bonnicksen as an expert on wildfires, calling him a visiting professor and urging the media to use him as an expert source. On at least two other occasions, the university highlighted news coverage of Dr. Bonnicksen and his affiliation with UC Davis on the university's official website. Dr. Bonnicksen added the UC Davis visiting professor title in his biography and notations in his writings. Last month, despite its repeated promotion of Dr. Bonnicksen as a visiting professor, the university notified Dr. Bonnicksen that the university had never processed the paperwork necessary for him to have that position. "As chair of the department I have to apologize for the incorrect information Professor Barbour provided you in his email regarding the use of the Visiting Professor title," wrote Chris Van Kessel, Chair of the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis. "Reading Professor Barbour's email, I fully understand why you used the title." Unfortunately, three professors and one adjunct faculty member who are not affiliated with UC-Davis and disagree with Verb 1. disagree with - not be very easily digestible; "Spicy food disagrees with some people" hurt - give trouble or pain to; "This exercise will hurt your back" Dr. Bonnicksen's views on forestry have alleged that Dr. Bonnicksen misrepresented himself - when in fact it was an error by UC Davis representatives that created the confusion. Dr. Bonnicksen called the letter trying to discredit him "not only an assault on my academic freedom but a misrepresentation misrepresentation In law, any false or misleading expression of fact, usually with the intent to deceive or defraud. It most commonly occurs in insurance and real-estate contracts. False advertising may also constitute misrepresentation. of a lifetime of professional work that has focused on restoring health to our overcrowded o·ver·crowd v. o·ver·crowd·ed, o·ver·crowd·ing, o·ver·crowds v.tr. To cause to be excessively crowded: a system of consolidation that only overcrowded the classrooms. forests." "My work has focused on the history of our forests and restoring them to their historic beauty and grandeur," Dr. Bonnicksen said. "At the same time I understand as should everyone that when you have 10 times more trees than is natural in a forest many of those trees have to be removed to make it healthy and diverse, and to prevent the catastrophic wildfires that are destroying lives, property, wildlife, and our forests. Harvesting selected trees is the only way we can restore our overcrowded forests to a more natural state. Prescribed fire is also a useful tool in some cases if the forest is thinned first. We can't do this important work without the expertise of professional foresters." Dr. Bonnicksen currently works as a visiting scholar A visiting scholar, in the world of academia, is a scholar from an institution who visits a receiving university that hosts him where he or she is projected to teach (visiting professor), lecture (visiting lecturer), or perform research (visiting researcher with The Forest Foundation, a non-profit organization A non-profit organization (abbreviated "NPO", also "non-profit" or "not-for-profit") is a legally constituted organization whose primary objective is to support or to actively engage in activities of public or private interest without any commercial or monetary profit purposes. that strives to foster public understanding of the role forests play in the environmental and economic health of the state, including the necessity of managing a portion of California's private and public forests to provide wood products for a growing population. As a lifelong scientist and educator, he has met with community leaders around the state and worked closely with officials in San Bernardino San Bernardino, city, United States San Bernardino (săn bûr'nədē`nō), city (1990 pop. 164,164), seat of San Bernardino co., S Calif., at the foot of the San Bernardino Mts.; inc. 1854. County and San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. County both before and after the devastating dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. 2003 wildfires. Dr. Bonnicksen earned B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in forestry from the University of California at Berkeley (body, education) University of California at Berkeley - (UCB) See also Berzerkley, BSD. http://berkeley.edu/. Note to British and Commonwealth readers: that's /berk'lee/, not /bark'lee/ as in British Received Pronunciation. and served as Department Head at Texas A&M University before being granted emeritus status in forest science in 2004. His research in forest science spans several decades and has been published widely in peer-reviewed scientific journals, technical reports, books, and other publications. He has assisted community leaders throughout California in using science to understand forestry issues and resolve those issues. Editor's Note Editor's Note (foaled in 1993 in Kentucky) is an American thoroughbred Stallion racehorse. He was sired by 1992 U.S. Champion 2 YO Colt Forty Niner, who in turn was a son of Champion sire Mr. Prospector and out of the mare, Beware Of The Cat. Trained by D. : All documents related to this are available from The Forest Foundation. October 2006 Open Letter to the Media: We are appalled at the attack on Dr. Thomas Bonnicksen by four individuals who are attempting to silence debate. Their attack is a violation of professional standards of conduct in science: the free exchange of ideas and collegiality among scholars. Dr. Bonnicksen earned a Ph.D. in forest policy from the University of California at Berkeley and served as Department Head at Texas A&M University before being granted emeritus status in forest science in 2004. His research in forest science spans decades and has been published widely in peer-reviewed scientific journals, reports and books. His 2000 book, America's Ancient Forests: From the Ice Age to the Age of Discovery, documents 18,000 years of forest history and has received many excellent book reviews. He has assisted community leaders throughout California using science in understanding forestry issues and addressing those issues. While we may agree or disagree with Dr. Bonnicksen's views on any particular issue, we adamantly oppose any effort to stifle his contribution to the debate on proper management of our nation's forests. Sincerely, Robert Becker, Ph.D. Professor & Director Strom Thurmond Institute of Government & Public Affairs Clemson University James Bowyer, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus Dept. of Bio Products & Bio Systems Engineering University of Minnesota Director Responsible Materials Program Dovetail Partners, Inc. John Helms, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy & Management-Ecosystem Science UC Berkeley Robert G. Lee, Ph.D. Professor College of Forest Resources, AR-10 University of Washington Bill Libby, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Forest Genetics Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy & Management College of Natural Resources UC Berkeley William McKillop, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Forest Economics Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy & Management College of Natural Resources UC Berkeley Chadwick Dearing Oliver, Ph.D. Pinchot Professor of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and Director, Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Yale University Scott E. Schlarbaum, Ph.D. James R. Cox Professor of Forest Genetics Department of Forestry, Wildlife & Fisheries Institute of Agriculture The University of Tennessee, Knoxville John Stuart, Ph.D. Professor of Dendrology and Fire Ecology Department of Forestry & Watershed Management California State University, Humboldt Gene Wood, Ph.D. Professor of Wildlife Ecology/Conservation Dept. of Forestry & Natural Resources Clemson University |
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