Biographical Information about Fred Swanson

Fred Swanson is a geologist and ecosystem scientist with the US Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station stationed at the Forestry Sciences Laboratory in Corvallis, OR. For many years he has studied the interactions of physical processes, such as fire, flood, landslides, volcanic eruptions, and forestry operations, including roads, with forest and stream ecosystems. Much of this work has taken place at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest in the Oregon Cascades, Mount St. Helens, and elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest.

For a dozen years he was Principal Investigator on the Andrews Forest Long-Term Ecological Research Program funded by the National Science Foundation and the Forest Service. He has also worked closely with staff of the Willamette National Forest on many projects, including development of landscape management plans based in part on the historic wildfire regime. This work occurs in the context of an active research-management partnership involving Oregon State University and Forest Service scientists and staff of the Willamette National Forest.

Engagements with policy-making processes include participating in the Forest Ecosystem Management Assessment Team and co-leadership of the conference and book “Bioregional Assessments: Science at the Crossroads of Management and Policy” (Johnson et al. 1999, Island Press).