About Dan

Daniel Botkin is a scientist who studies life from a planetary perspective, a biologist who has helped solve major environmental issues, and a writer about nature. A frequent public speaker, Botkin brings an unusual perspective to his subject. Well-known for his scientific contributions in ecology and environment, he has also worked as a professional journalist and has degrees in physics, biology, and literature. His books and lectures show how our cultural legacy often dominates what we believe to be scientific solutions. He discusses the roles of scientists, businessmen, stakeholders, and government agencies in new approaches to environmental issues. He uses historical accounts by Lewis and Clark and Henry David Thoreau to discuss the character of nature and the relationship between people and nature.

Dan Botkin is known widely for his books about the idea of nature and the implications of modern science for our ideas about environment. His books are:

• Botkin, D. B. 2004. Beyond the Stony Mountains: Nature in the American West from Lewis and Clark to Today, Oxford University Press, N. Y.
• Botkin, D. B., 2003 Strange Encounters: Adventures with a Renegade Naturalist, Penguin (Tarcher) Books, NY.
• Botkin, D. B. , 2001, No Man’s Garden: Thoreau and a New Vision for Civilization and Nature, Island Press, Washington, D. C.
• Botkin, D. B., 1999. Passage of Discovery: The American Rivers Guide to The Missouri River of Lewis and Clark, Perigee Books (a Division of Penquin-Putnam), N.Y.
• Skinner, B., S. Porter, and D.B. Botkin, 1999, The Blue Planet, John Wiley & Sons, N.Y.
• Botkin, D. B., 2003, Our Natural History: The Lessons of Lewis and Clark, Oxford University Press, N.Y. (paper)
• Botkin, D. B. and E. A.. Keller, 2007 (6th edition), Environmental Sciences: The Earth as a Living Planet, John Wiley, New York.
• Botkin, D. B., 1993, JABOWA-II: A Computer Model of Forest Growth, Oxford University Press, N.Y. (Software and manual)
• Botkin, D.B., 1993. Forest Dynamics: An Ecological Model, Oxford University Press, N.Y.
• Botkin, D.B., 1990, Discordant Harmonies: A New Ecology for the 21st Century, Oxford University Press.
• Botkin, D.B., Caswell, M., Estes, J.E., and A. Orio, (Eds.) 1989, Changing the Global Environment: Perspectives on Human Involvement, Academic Press, N.Y.
• West, D.C., H.H. Shugart and D.B. Botkin (eds.), 1981, Forest Succession: Concepts and Applications, Springer- Verlag, NY., 517 pp.

Within environmental sciences, Daniel Botkin is best known for the development of the first successful computer simulation in ecology, a computer model of forest growth that has developed into a subdiscipline in this field, with more than 50 versions in use worldwide. Botkin has also been a pioneer in the study of ecosystems and wilderness. He has directed research on wilderness and natural parks in many parts of the world, from the Serengeti Plains of Africa to the forests of Siberia and the wildernesses of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area of Minnesota and Isle Royale National Park. His wide-ranging research includes studies of sandhill and whooping cranes, salmon and bowhead whales, and moose and African elephants.

He is a frequent public speaker, lecturing at many major universities and to many professional and public organizations, including the National Zoo in Washington, D. C.; The National Park Service’s St. Louis Arch, and Grand Canyon National Park;; Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson; the Missouri Botanic Garden, St. Louis, MO; Ft. Clatsop National Monument, Astoria, OR; the Smithsonian Institution; NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Ames Research Center, and Johnson Space Center. Among the universities and colleges where he has spoken are: Duke; Harvard; Amherst; Michigan State; Oregon State; University of California Berkeley, and Davis; University of Iowa; Iowa State University; University of Maine; University of Wichita; University of Washington; Pennsylvania State Universtiy; College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, ME; Georgetown University; University of British Columbia; University of Notre Dame. He has been a keynote speaker to the American Society of Landscape Architects, The Ecological Society of America; American Fisheries Society; Society of American Foresters. He has addressed local citizen groups in many locations around the country. He will be speaking November 17, 2004 at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia.

A leader in the application of advanced technologies to ecological science, he was one of the first to apply satellite remote sensing to the study of forests, and the use of computer-based geographic information systems to environmental issues. He has helped develop major national programs in ecology, including the National Science Foundation’s Long-term Ecological Research Program and NASA’s Mission to Earth.

Daniel Botkin is also a leader in the application of environmental sciences and in attempts to solve complex environmental problems. Under contract with the Department of Defense, he recently completed a project to develop ecosystem management on the nation’s military bases. Under a bill passed by the Oregon Legislature, he directed a three-year study concerning effects of forest practices on salmon and their habitats in 26 rivers of western Oregon and Northern California. The project showed new ways to promote a recreational economy while conserving salmon, and to forecast salmon returns three years in advance. He directed a study of effects of water diversion on Mono Lake, California, under a special bill passed by the California legislature, a study that led to major changes in government policy for that lake.

Daniel Botkin has been a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara since 1979. Currently Dan is Professor Emeritus, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara. Called one of the one of the preeminent ecologists of the 20th century.” (see http://egj.lib.uidaho.edu/egj19/short1.html ). he has been on the faculty of UCSB since 1979; for six years he was chairman of the University’s Environmental Studies Program. He is also President and Founder of The Center for the Study of the Environment, A Non-Profit Research and Educational Corporation.

Botkin serves on the board of the Environmental Literacy Council, Washington, D. C., and the Board of Trustees of the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.

Among Dan Botiin’s awards are: Astor Lectureship, Oxford University (2007); The 2004 Tex and Academic Authors Association Texty Award for best textbook of 2003; The Fernow Award for Outstanding Contributions in International Forestry, given by American Forests and the German Forestry Association, and the Mitchell International Prize for Sustainable Development. He has been a fellow at the Rockefeller Bellagio Institute in Italy and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D. C. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the Cosmos Club of Washington, D. C.

Among his many projects, he directed a three-year study concerning effects of forest practices on salmon and their habitats in 26 rivers of western Oregon and Northern California (for the Oregon Legislature). He directed a study for the state of California concerning the effects of water diversion on Mono Lake, California; a study of the use of vegetation in cities for the Metropolitan Water District of Los Angeles. He has advised the World Bank about tropical forests, biological diversity, and sustainability; the Rockefeller Foundation about global environmental issues; the government of Taiwan about approaches to solving environmental problems, development of nature preserves, and devising data systems for environmental monitoring. He served as the primary advisor to the National Geographic Society for their centennial edition map on “The Endangered Earth.” He has served on a state of California scientific advisory panel concerning the recovery of the California condor, and the scientific advisory panel for the U. S. Marine Mammal Commission.

Dr. Botkin is newly elected to the board of the Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. In addition to his career as an ecologist, he has maintained a lifelong interest in folklore and folkmusic. “There is a connection. For starters, a lot of what is said about nature is folklore, not science,” he says.

His contributions to the science of ecology include invention and development of the JABOWA computer model of forest growth (a P C version of this simulation can be downloaded from www.naturestudy.org). He has directed research on wilderness and natural parks in many parts of the world, from the Serengeti Plains of Africa to the forests of Siberia and the wildernesses of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area of Minnesota and Isle Royale National Park. His research includes: forests, sandhill and whooping cranes, salmon and bowhead whales, moose, and African elephants.

His books include: Our Natural History: The Lessons of Lewis and Clark, (2004, Oxford University Press, N.Y.);Strange Encounters: Adventures of a Renegade Naturalist (2003, Tarcher Books, a division of Penguin Pub., N.Y.); No Man’s Garden: Thoreau and a New Vision for Civilization and Nature, (2001, Island Press, Washington, D. C.. Discordant Harmonies: A New Ecology for the 21st Century (1990 and 1992, Oxford University Press); Environmental Science: Earth as a Living Planet (with E. A. Keller; John Wiley, N.Y., now in its 5th edition, and Beyond the Stony Mountains: Nature in the American West from Lewis and Clark to Today (2004, Oxford University Press, N.Y.)

You can reach Dr. Botkin at dan@danielbbotkin.com.