Dominick A. DellaSala

Dominick A. DellaSala

Dr. Dominick A. DellaSala is President and Chief Scientist of the Geos Institute in Ashland, Oregon and President of the Society for Conservation Biology, North America Section. Dominick is an internationally renowned author of over 150 technical papers, including the award winning “Temperate and Boreal Rainforests of the World.” Dominick has given plenary and keynote talks ranging from academic conferences to the United Nations (Earth Summit II). He has appeared in National Geographic, Science Digest, Science, Time, Audubon, National Wildlife, High Country News, Terrain Magazine, NY Times, LA Times, USA Today, Jim Lehrer News Hour, CNN, MSNBC, “Living on Earth,” and several PBS wildlife documentaries.
He has testified in congressional hearings in defense of the Endangered Species Act, roadless area conservation, national monument designations, forest protections, and climate change among others. For his efforts to help foster national roadless area conservation and support designation of new national monuments, he received conservation leadership awards from the World Wildlife Fund in 2000 and 2004, the Wilburforce Foundation in 2006, and was twice nominated for conservation awards for his work as a whistleblower while on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service spotted owl recovery team. His rainforest book received an academic excellence award in 2012 from Choicemagazine, one of the nation's premier book review journals. Dominick co-founded the Geos Institute in July 2006. He is motivated by leaving a living planet for his daughter and all those to follow.

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The Wilderness Act at 50: Better With Age

By Dominick A. DellaSala / On September 4th, 2014
Editor’s note: Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Wilderness Act. To commemorate the anniversary, we asked a small group of Island Press authors to reflect on the influence of this law to date and how its role may or should change as we move into an uncertain future. This is the last piece in the series. It is reprinted from 50 Years of American Wilderness with permission.
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Executive Orders for 2014: Dominick DellaSala

By Dominick A. DellaSala / On January 9th, 2014
Back in November of 2013, President Obama issued an executive order on climate preparedness. Because executive orders circumvent Congress within certain limits, they allow the president to implement action to address climate change and other issues. A few weeks ago I asked some of our authors to create their own executive orders to improve our handling of the environment, and I'll be sharing their responses over the next two weeks.
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Why Our Forests Need Fire, Not Salvage Logging

By Dominick A. DellaSala / On December 13th, 2013
For over two decades, I have studied forests from Oregon's amazing coastal rainforests to the fire-adapted forests of the West. In dry forests, there are three issues that reoccur every fire season: (1) forests will burn regardless of what we do; (2) politicians will propose unchecked post-fire "salvage" logging, even in national parks, as a quick fix; and (3) scientists will continue to document the incredible regeneration that takes place after fires and how post-fire logging disrupts forest renewal.
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Why Forests Need to Be Enlisted in Climate Change Actions

By Dominick A. DellaSala / On September 26th, 2013
"Forests have a vital role to play in overcoming this challenge.  Rainforests store vast amounts of carbon. That's true across the planet, and in America, too. Our Tongass National Forest, a temperate Alaskan rainforest comprises only 2% of America's forest land base, but may hold as much as 8% of all the carbon contained in the forests of the United States."—Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack Forests and Carbon Cycles