Dr. Tom Bonnicksen
Professor Emeritus at Texas A&M University
Thomas M. Bonnicksen, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Department of Forest Science, Texas A&M University
Research Scholar in Residence, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Visiting Scholar and Board Member, The Forest Foundation
Dr. Bonnicksen earned a B.S. in forestry (with minors in wildlife and range management), an M.S. in forest ecology, and Ph.D. in forest policy from the University of California-Berkeley. He is Professor Emeritus of forest science and a former Department Head at Texas A&M University and Research Scholar in Residence at California Polytechnic State University. He joined the faculty at Texas A&M University after working as a professor of forestry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His work over more than 35 years emphasizes the history and restoration of North America's forests.
Dr. Bonnicksen also is Visiting Scholar and board member of the Forest Foundation in California and Scientific Advisor to the Temperate Forest Foundation in Oregon. He is cofounder of the International Society for Ecological Restoration and a former member of its board of directors. He also held posts as president, chair, and vice-chair of several other organizations, including the Bay Area Chapter of the Sierra Club and the Southwest Wisconsin Chapter of the Society of American Foresters. Dr. Bonnicksen also is a U.S. Navy veteran and former U. S. National Park Service ranger.
Dr. Bonnicksen received many awards. The Bush Presidential Library Foundation honored him in 2002 with the Bush Excellence in Public Service Award. He is the first recipient. President George H. W. Bush personally presented him the award. Most recently, the California Forestry Association honored him as Citizen Conservationist of the Year in 2004.
Dr. Bonnicksen developed science-based strategies in 1994 and 1995 to deal with the wildfire threat in San Bernardino Mountain forests and San Diego County brushlands of California. These strategies, developed with the help of state and federal agencies, and community leaders, would have dramatically reduced the death and destruction caused by the fires of 2003 and 2007 in Southern California.
Most recently, Dr. Bonnicksen created the Forest Carbon and Emissions Model (FCEM), which is a Rapid Assessment Model (REM) that quickly estimates forest carbon and emissions using a minimum of input data for wildfires, insect infestations, and inventories of existing and sequestered carbon on forestlands and brushlands. FCEM is especially important for dealing with issues associated with global climate change.
Governor Reagan appointed Dr. Bonnicksen to serve four years as a member of the California State Park and Recreation Commission. While serving on the commission, he wrote the legislation for State Senator Anthony C. Beilenson (SB 271 & 272) that guides the classification and management of California's state park system. Most recently, he developed the concept and drafted legislation to create a system of national historic forests. Congressman Mike Simpson (2nd District of Idaho) introduced the Act (H.R. 2119) and held Congressional hearings in June 2001.
Dr. Bonnicksen testified before U. S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate committees 13 times, as well as seven Congressional and Secretarial briefings. He also served on several Congressional fact-finding missions, including the Yellowstone fires of 1988 and the Southern California wildfires of 2003. In addition, he served on many Congressional and state advisory committees, most recently as a member of the U.S. Senate's California Forest EIS Review Committee and the U. S. House of Representatives' Forest Health Science Panel.
Dr. Bonnicksen published over 120 scientific and technical papers, articles, book chapters, and other publications, 8 computer programs, and 4 multimedia CDs. He also published a book with John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (Copyright 2000, 594 pages), titled America's Ancient Forests: from the Ice Age to the Age of Discovery. The book documents the 18,000-year history of North America's native forests. It includes the role of Native Americans in the development of these forests and descriptions by explorers who saw them first.
Dr. Bonnicksen delivered over 100 presentations and keynote addresses worldwide, including the Cosmos Club in Washington DC, the Commonwealth Club and the Bohemian Club in California, the Western Governors Conference, the National Arbor Day Foundation, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Board, and others. He also helped produce and appeared in a one-hour PBS television special titled Forest Wars as well as educational videos.
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Related Links
- Educational Briefs
General Publication on Forests in California
Forests: A History of Resiliency and Recovery. 1993 (rev.). Order from Forest History Society, 701 Vickers Avenue, Durham, NC, 27701. How Can We Live with Wildland Fire? 1997. UC Cooperative Extension Service.
- Links for Abstracts and Articles
Please visit here to read papers from leading academic experts and educators as well as link into more resources.
- Free Oakey!
You haven't heard about them, but there are thousands of political prisoners in the Sierra Nevada. Hard to believe, but yes, it's true. They languish behind wooden stockades and all face a life sentence. They suffer from lack of food, water, and adequate sunlight. Disease is rampant among them, and many die each day. Their political masters could release them if they chose. But this is unlikely-to do so would be to admit a humiliating mistake.
- The Giant Sequoia Forest: A Window Into the Past and a Vision for the Future
We need a new vision for North Americas forests. A vision that restores a productive and harmonious relationship between forests and people. Such a promising view of the future only can be achieved by better understanding our past.
- Foresters Need Complete Set of Tools to Trim Trees
Further limiting tools like clear-cutting endanger forests
- Fuel Breaks Provide a False Sense of Security
Just building fuel breaks near communities won't solve our wildfire crisis.
The West is facing another grave fire season because of overgrown forests, beetle infestations, aging brushlands, drought, and record high temperatures. This year could be much worse than 2003, when wildfires in Southern California burned over 750,000 acres and killed 24 people.
Some people think we can solve the fire crisis by cutting dead trees near communities, building fuel breaks, and making firefighting organizations more effective. While this seems like a reasonable approach, it will not solve the problem.
- With Fire Memory Fading, It's Time for Action
It's easy to forget and move on to the next disaster, but our forests in Southern California are still dangerously overgrown.
Nearly two months ago, monster fires swept across Southern California, killing 26 people, destroying 3640 homes, burning 739,597 acres, causing .2 billion in losses, and costing taxpayers more than 0 million to contain.
For those directly affected, the fires will never be forgotten. But, the monster fires -- just images on TV to many -- are becoming a memory that is already fading. It's easy to forget and move on to the next disaster, the next issue.
- Restoring Healthy Forests: Myth and Realities
A forest science experts lists some common misperceptions about forest health.
The debate over how to protect against wildfires and restore health to the forests of the San Bernardino Mountains and Western United States is probably the most important ecological debate of our time. Yet, like so many important issues, the debate is fraught with misinformation.
Thirty years of forestry experience have taught me that such misinformation can do as much damage to forests as any fire. Since I love our forests with a passion, I have come up with a list of current myths, and their corresponding realities, which should prove helpful for the average citizen.
- Prepare Today to Prevent Tomorrow's Monster Fires
Will we pay now to prevent fires or pay far more later with disaster and its aftermath?
In 2000, Americans were glued to their TVs as monster fires roared across the West. It happened again in 2001 and 2002. These horrific fires killed people, destroyed homes and wildlife habitat, stripped soil from watersheds, clogged streams and reservoirs with debris, and turned millions of acres into charcoal.
Again, this fall unmanaged forests and brushlands in Southern California fueled more monster fires that killed 26 people, destroyed 3,640 homes, and burned 740,000 acres.
- Preventing another Fire Season Like 2003
to be done to prevent Southern California and other areas from suffering monster fires.
On October 21, 2003, a fire started at the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base in San Diego County. No one could know this was the beginning of the worst and deadliest fire season in California's history.
The Grand Prix Fire started in San Bernardino County two hours later and, in just two more hours, the Pass Fire started in Riverside County. Within days, twelve fires were burning in Southern California at the same time.
- What Hurricanes Teach Us About Wildfires
While the hurricanes Floridians suffered through cannot be prevented, the wildfire threat can be mitigated.
As Floridians recover from Hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Ivan, millions of other people around the country, particularly the West, hope that another kind of disaster doesn't hit their community: catastrophic wildfires.
Charley slammed into Florida on Friday the 13th, leaving a six-mile wide path of death and destruction. At least 25 people died and over 12,000 homes were destroyed. Many times that number of homes were severely damaged. Frances made it worse and Ivan was even more devastating.
- Saving a Noble Forest
How we can save the trees John Muir called the noblest of a noble race.
John Muir called the giant sequoia "the noblest of a noble race." These massive trees, the largest in the world, only grow in the Sierra Nevada. Huge sugar pine and other large trees surround them. "They are giants among giants," wrote Berkeley Professor Joseph Le Conte when he saw the giant sequoia forest for the first time in 1870.
- Preventing the Next Firestorm
We can't prevent hurricanes but we can prevent catastrophic wildfires like the one that caused widespread devastation to Southern California in 2003.
- California Needs Healthy, Managed Forests
As we approach this fire season, it's time for Californians to take a lesson from history and allow professional foresters to retain a complete set of tools to manage forests.
For years, activists have used political and legal means to prevent the harvesting of trees throughout California, creating a tinderbox in our forests.
- Preparing for Wildfire Disaster
This essay appeared in the Riverside Press Enterprise on July 13.
- Forest Restoration and the Yellowstone Myth
By Dr. Thomas M. Bonnicksen
- Southern California Forest Crisis
RESTORING HEALTHY FORESTS: MYTHS AND REALITIES
The debate over how to protect against wildfires and restore health to the forests of the San Bernardino Mountains and Western United States is probably the most important ecological debate of our time. Yet, like so many important issues, the debate is fraught with misinformation.
- Solving the Wildfire Crisis: Learning from History
A narrated CD presentation on forest health and wildfire risk.
- The Forest Foundation: Restoration Forestry
- The Forest Foundation: Board of Directors
- The Forest Foundation: Research and Publications
- The Forest Foundation: Greater Reforestation Efforts Needed
Say Forest Foundation, Forest Service Retirees
Forests on federally owned lands in California wiped out by wildfires are not being replanted quickly -- or at all, in some cases -- putting ecosystems at risk from severe erosion and mudslides and depriving future generations of forests, two groups said today.
- The Forest Foundation: The Forest Foundation
- The Forest Foundation: Allstate Foundation Donates to Wildfire Education
$25,000 Grant Supports Forest Foundation's Wildfire Booklet