William Keeton

Temperate old-growth forests are found globally in both the northern and southern hemispheres, sharing many unique characteristics but also exhibiting fascinating differences.  In this talk, Professor William Keeton will take the audience on a virtual tour of old-growth systems around the world.  The talk will explore contemporary notions of “old-growthedness” on multiple continents, highlighting current efforts to map, conserve, and restore complex old forests.  A foci will be the distinctly different approaches in Europe and N. America and the importance of recent scientific exchanges intended to bridge this divide.

Speaker Biography

William (Bill) Keeton is a Professor of Forest Ecology and Forestry at the University of Vermont.  There he directs the Carbon Dynamics Laboratory and is a Fellow in the Gund Institute for Environment. He is on the boards for the Vermont Land Trust, Science for the Carpathians, and Vibrant Planet – Data Commons.  Bill served as a Fulbright Specialist in Ukraine (2008) and as a Fulbright Scholar in Austria (2021).  His co-edited the book “Ecology and Recovery of Eastern Old-Growth Forests,” was published by Island Press in 2018. Dr. Keeton specializes in the study of old-growth forests, carbon forestry, ecological silviculture, and disturbance dynamics, researching these in the U.S. Northeast, the Pacific Northwest, the Carpathian Mountain region of Europe, the Andes of Chilean Patagonia, and the central Himalayan Mountains of Bhutan.  Dr. Keeton holds a B.S. in Natural Resources from Cornell University (’90), a Masters in Conservation Biology and Policy from Yale University (’94), and a Ph.D. in Forest Ecology from the University of Washington (2000).