Thomas Holmes

Phone: (919) 549-4031

Address:
PO Box 12254
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709

Tom is a Research Forester with the Southern Research Station, USDA Forest Service. His love of the outdoors, combined with an enthusiasm for developing economic tools that can be used to promote the protection of natural systems, led to a Ph.D. in Natural Resource Economics at the University of Connecticut. For more than three decades, his research has focused on understanding how human well-being can be enhanced by protecting ecosystem services provided by a healthy natural environment. He has conducted studies on a variety of topics including the benefits of protecting forest health across the urban-to-wildland gradient, the value of watershed protection and restoration, the benefits of wilderness protection, and contemporary strategies for tropical forest conservation. Tom is Co-Chair of the International Union of Forest Research Organization Working Group on the Social Dimensions of Forest Health and is Adjunct Professor at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. Most recently, Tom helped establish the Wilderness Economics Working Group at the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute and serves as its current Leader. He enjoys skiing, paddling, hiking, biking and backpacking.