Hello from IUFRO Division 4!
Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Division 4 newsletter! We will publish four issues annually to keep everyone updated on Research Group and Working Party activities – as well as IUFRO-wide news. The newsletter also will provide information on upcoming meetings, pertinent special issues, and job opportunities for professionals and graduate students. We hope that this will keep everyone connected throughout the year and encourage more communication and collaboration between Division 4 units. Another feature you will notice is an introduction to Division 4 officers. Because we have more than 100 officers, we are introducing only 15 officers in each newsletter, alphabetically. We also will include an Excel spreadsheet with contact information for all officers in each newsletter.

Of course, we will need you and your units to provide information for the newsletter to be successful! Ms. Kristy Keel-Blackmon (kristyak@utk.edu), communications specialist in my department, has agreed to create our newsletters. Please send any information, photos, and links to Kristy so that she can include them in future newsletters.

There are two topics other than the newsletter I want to bring to your attention. First, the Division and Research Group officers have begun discussing a Division-wide meeting in 2022. We are in the preliminary stages and will keep you updated as we move forward.

Related to the Division-wide meeting, as well as all future meetings, we also are exploring the feasibility of including options for online participation at future Division 4 meetings. While currently necessitated by the pandemic, continuing to provide an online option will allow for more participation by those who may be limited by travel budgets, family obligations, or other constraints. There still is a lot of work to do to determine the logistics of conducting effective hybrid conferences and the optimal technology needed to do this, but including online participants should be a good opportunity to increase participation.

Please feel free to email me (dhodges2@utk.edu) or your unit officers if you have any suggestions regarding the newsletter, future meetings, or any other topics related to IUFRO or Division 4. I look forward to working with all members of Division 4 in the future!

Thank you,
Don Hodges
Meet Your Division 4 Officers
Over the next few newsletters, we will introduce all of the Division 4 officers to you. A full list of your Division 4 officers can be downloaded for your convenience, or view the full list of units for Division 4.
  • krzysztof.adamowicz(at)up.poznan.pl
  • Deputy Coordinator, 4.05.04
  • Current Position: Professor, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Poland
  • Research Interests: Economics of forestry, wood markets, forestry management, forest value, prediction, climate change
  • francisco.aguilar(at)slu.se
  • Deputy Coordinator, 4.05.03
  • Current Position: Professor, Department of Forest Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
  • Research Interests: forest economics, ecosystem services, forest certification, wood energy
  • smb(at)isa.ulisboa.pt
  • Coordinator, 4.02.07
  • Current Position: Professor in forest inventory and forest models, School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, Portugal
  • Research interests: forest inventory, forest models and simulators, forest management and planning
  • pbettinger(at)warnell.uga.edu
  • Coordinator, 4.04.00
  • Current Position: Hargreaves Distinguished Professor in Forest Management, School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
  • Research interests: Forest management, forest planning, forest operations, GIS, GPS
  • jboehmer(at)wzw.tum.de
  • Deputy Coordinator, 4.02.01
  • Current Position: Professor of Biogeography, School of Geography, Earth Science and Environment; University of the South Pacific (USP), Fiji
  • Research Interests: long-term forest dynamics, tropical island forest dieback, biological invasions
  • joseborges(at)isa.ulisboa.pt
  • Coordinator, 4.04.04
  • Current position: Associate Professor at the School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, Portugal and Coordinator of its Forest Research Centre
  • Research interests: forest management planning, ecosystem services, multicriteria methods, wildfire risk management, decision support systems
  • fbravo(at)pvs.uva.es
  • Coordinator, 4.01.02 and 4.02.03
  • Current Position: Professor in Forest Management, School of Agricultural, Food Technology and Forestry, University of Valladolid, Palencia, Spain
  • Research interests: quantitative silviculture, modelling, forest stand dynamic, growth and yield, forest resilience, resistance and recovery, forest managements
  • marielle.brunette(at)inrae.fr
  • Deputy Coordinator, 04.04.07
  • Current position: researcher at INRAE (National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment), Nancy, France
  • Research interests: forest economics, risk and uncertainty, forest insurance, forest adaptation
  • gherardo.chirici(at)unifi.it
  • Coordinator, 4.02.00
  • Current Position: Full Professor of Forest Inventory and remote sensing, Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy
  • Research interests: Combination of forest inventory and multisource remote sensing, data scientist, modelling, biodiversity
  • lduncans(at)umd.edu
  • Deputy Coordinator, 4.02.06
  • Current position: Assistant Professor, University of Maryland, College Park
  • Research interests:satellite remove sensing of forest structure and biomass, forest conservation and biodiversity, lidar
  • bianca.eskelson(at)ubc.ca
  • Division 4 Deputy Coordinator and Coordinator, 4.01.00
  • Current Position: Associate Professor in Forest Biometrics, Department of Forest Resources Management, University of British Columbia, Canada
  • Research Interests: Forest biometrics & modelling, disturbance & management effects, stand dynamics
  • caf(at)nibio.no
  • Deputy Coordinator, 4.02.07
  • Current Position: Researcher at NIBIO, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Norway
  • Research Interests: Forest growth and yield modelling, large-scale scenario simulations
  • mathieu.fortin(at)canada.ca
  • Deputy Coordinator, 4.01.02
  • Current Position: Research Scientist, Canadian Wood Fibre Centre, Ottawa Canada
  • Research interests: Growth modelling, Monte Carlo simulation, uncertainty assessment
  • dhodges2(at)utk.edu
  • Division 4 Coordinator
  • Current Position: James R. Cox Professor and Head, Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries, University of Tennessee, USA
  • Research Interests: forest economics and finance, ecosystem services, forest management
  • kalle.karttunen(at)mtk.fi
  • Deputy Coordinator, 4.05.00
  • Current Position: Research Manager, The Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK)
  • Research Interests: forest economics, forest management, forest-based bioenergy, wood harvesting and supply chain
Upcoming Division 4 Meetings
6-9 October 2020
Bolzano, Italy and Online
4.05.00, 3.08.00, T44

16-17 October 2020
Brasov, Romania
4.03.00, 4.03.02

5-7 May 2021
Future Sustainable Development of the Forest-Based and Wood Sectors
Brno, Czech Republic
4.05.00

5-8 May 2021
Sofia, Bulgaria

1-3 July 2021
Nancy, France
4.04.07

8-11 August 2021
Estes Park, Colorado
4.04.04, 3.04.00

14-18 September 2022
Krakow, Poland
4.02.05
Scholarship & Job Opportunities
We need information from you! Please send in job and scholarship opportunities so that we can share the information with others.
Recent Work
Pete Bettinger
Vitor Afonso Hoeflich
Other Forestry News
Finland’s Natural Resource Center has conducted a forest owner study every 10 years, and the most recent report, Finnish Forest Owner 2020, was just published. The most interesting finding is that the goals of forest owners have changed in a surprising direction in the 21st century: intangible goals do not seem to have strengthened. The number of forest owners reporting both multi-purpose and recreational uses has decreased, and the number of those emphasizing security and income has clearly increased. Thus, forestry is increasingly seen as a livelihood and a source of income. In times of economic uncertainty, this view is likely to gain traction.
Visit and learn about the Forest Relationship Project which studies what kind of relations people have with forests.
The 4.04.04 Unit will sponsor a journal special issue in Frontiers: Wildfire Management and Decision Support.
Do you have news for us? Hit reply and let us know! We'd love to hear from you.