Biographical Information about George H. Stankey

George H. Stankey is a Research Social Scientist with the Human and Natural Resources Interactions Program of the USDA Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station, Corvallis, Oregon. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in geography from Oregon State University and his Ph.D. in geography from Michigan State University. For 20 years, he was on the staff of the Wilderness Management Research Unit, USDA Forest Service's Intermountain Research Station in Missoula, Montana, conducting studies of visitor attitudes and behavior, public involvement, and recreation planning and management.

From 1980-82, he took a leave-of-absence to teach at the university level in Canberra, Australia. He served as a consultant to the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service and with several other resource management agencies in Australia and New Zealand. In 1987, he resigned the Forest Service to return to Sydney, Australia and a joint appointment with the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service and Ku-ring-gai College of Advanced Education.

Dr. Stankey returned from Australia as Senior Research Professor in the Department of Forest Resources, Oregon State University. He taught courses in recreation planning, wilderness management, and the social aspects of natural resource management. In 1993, he served as a member of the Forest Ecosystem Management Assessment Team (FEMAT) and helped author the social assessment chapter. In 1995, he returned to the Forest Service.

Dr. Stankey's current research interests focus on integrative approaches to resource planning and management. He also studies the factors that shape, sustain, and alter public social acceptability judgments of resource management practices and policies, and leads an evaluation of adaptive management in the Northwest Forest Plan.

Dr. Stankey has served on the Executive Board of the International Union of Forestry Research Organisations and is a member of IUCN's Commission on National Parks and Protected Areas.