YFF Review
The YFF Review is a publicly available output of the YFF Speaker Series, where we summarize key learnings and applicable examples on the series’ topic. These documents are created by the Yale Forest Forum team and include speaker summaries written by Yale School of the Environment masters and doctoral students.
A History of Scientific Forestry: From Extraction to Ecosystem Management
May 7, 2026YFF welcomed over 2,000 registered attendees to the speaker series “A History of Scientific Forestry: From Extraction to Ecosystem Management” in fall 2025. The series explored the history and evolution of scientific forestry, tracing its roots in Europe and examining how forestry developed in the United States from extraction-focused management to ecosystem and ecological approaches. The series also considered the profession’s legacies related to Indigenous land dispossession, settler colonialism, and the environmental legislation that reshaped forest management in the 20th century. The series was co-developed and co-hosted by The Forest School at the Yale School of the Environment, Forest History Society, Society of American Foresters, and the University of Minnesota.
Frontiers in Forest Carbon Crediting
March 19, 2026YFF welcomed over 2,200 registered attendees to the speaker series “Frontiers in Forest Carbon Crediting” in fall 2025. The series focused on forest carbon accounting and crediting, exploring key scientific, economic, and policy challenges such as additionality, baselines, permanence, and measurement, while highlighting emerging solutions and perspectives from researchers, carbon credit developers, and finance and policy stakeholders. The series was co-developed and co-hosted by The Forest School at the Yale School of the Environment, the Yale Applied Science Synthesis Program, The Nature Conservancy, SE Advisory Services, and The Climate Trust.
How Can the Voluntary Carbon Market Make a Meaningful Contribution to Protecting Tropical Forests?
August 18, 2025YFF welcomed over 800 registered attendees to the speaker series “How Can the Voluntary Carbon Market Make a Meaningful Contribution to Protecting Tropical Forests?” in spring 2023. The series focused on the issues facing tropical forest carbon crediting and featured a wide range of experts from perspectives including tropical country governments, Indigenous peoples, buyers, standard setters, and project developers. This series was hosted by the Yale Applied Science Synthesis Program, Yale Center for Business and the Environment, and The Forest School at the Yale School of the Environment.
Conserving Mature and Old-Growth Forests in a Changing Climate
July 1, 2025YFF welcomed over 3,300 registered attendees to the speaker series “Conserving Mature and Old-Growth Forests in a Changing Climate” in fall 2024. The series focused on responses to and discussions about mature and old-growth forests, including as mandated by Executive Order 140752 and the National Old-Growth Amendment, and featured perspectives from the United States Forest Service, Tribal nations, private forest owners, forest industry, academia, and forest advocacy organizations. The series was co-developed and co-hosted by The Forest School at the Yale School of the Environment, the Yale Applied Science Synthesis Program, the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture, and the Society of American Foresters.
Tribal Forestry: Understanding Current Issues and Challenges
May 27, 2025YFF welcomed over 3,500 registered attendees to the speaker series “Tribal Forestry: Understanding Current Issues and Challenges” in spring 2024. The series focused on the history of forest stewardship on tribal lands in North America, federal laws and tribal forestry, contemporary uses of plants and wildlife stewardship, fire, conclusions from the Indian Forest Management Assessment (IFMAT), tribal co-management, and the future of tribal forestry in the face of climate change. The series was co-developed and co-hosted by The Forest School and the Yale Center for Environmental Justice at Yale School of the Environment, and Salish Kootenai College.