Jack Ward Thomas

Jack Ward Thomas was the thirteenth head of the U.S. Forest Service, serving during the Clinton administration years of 1993-1996.

He was born on Sept 7, 1934, in Fort Worth, Texas. His undergraduate education and degree (a B.S. in wildlife management in 1957) was from Texas A&M University. He worked for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for ten years. Then while working as a USFS research biologist at Morgantown, WV, he received an M.S. in wildlife ecology from West Virginia University. He followed this up with an assignment with the USFS in Amherst, Massachusetts where got his PhD in 1972 from the University of Massachusetts. In 1974 he moved to La Grande, Oregon working as a research biologist at the Blue Mountains Research Lab.

On Dec 1, 1993 he was appointed as Chief Forester of the United States. During his time as head of the USFS, the Northwest Forest Plan was adopted. After leaving the Forest Service, he became Boone & Crockett Professor of Wildlife Conservation at the School of Forestry of the University of Montana

Publications

He has more than 300 publications to his credit, including:
* "Jack Ward Thomas: The Journals of a Forest Service Chief", edited by Harold K. Steen. UofWA Press, 2004, 417 pp.
* "North American Elk: Ecology and Management", Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002, Thomas was co-editor.
* "Wildlife habitats in managed forests: the Blue Mountains of Oregon and Washington", Agriculture Handbook No. 553, USDA, 1979. Thomas was editor.
* "Viability assessments and management considerations for species associated with late-successional and old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest", USFS, 1993. The Spotted Owl report
* "A Conservation Strategy for the Northern Spotted Owl", 1990
* "A Rope Truss for Restraining Deer", Journal of Wildlife Management, 1967
* "Wildlife habitats in managed rangelands: The Great Basin of southeastern Oregon : riparian zones (General technical report PNW), 1979

ee also

*United States Chief Foresters
*U.S. Forest Service

External links

* [http://www.foresthistory.org/research/usfscoll/people/Thomas/Thomas.html Forest History bio]