Linda S. Heath
Research Forester

603.868.7612
603.868.7604 (fax)
lheath@fs.fed.us (e-mail)
Durham, New Hampshire

RESEARCH FOCUS
Carbon storage and fluxes between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere for all forested ecosystems of the United States under an array of scenarios of changing atmospheric and socioeconomic conditions. This includes current projects of leading a team of scientists to update the US forest carbon budget, estimating carbon in coarse woody debris in forests of the northeastern US, and working with James E. Smith to explore uncertainty in the US forest carbon budget.

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
Ph.D., University of Washington, 1989, Forestry, Quantitative Resources Management concentration
MS, University of Illinois, 1983, Forestry
BS, University of Illinois, 1981, Forest Management

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
September, 1999 - present, Research Forester, Northeastern Research Station, RWU Measurement, Analysis, and Modeling of Forest Ecosystems in a Changing Environment, Durham, NH. My funding continues to come from the Northern Global Change Program.

April, 1994 – September, 1999, Team Leader, Northeastern Research Station, Northern Global Change Program, located at PNW Research Station, Portland Forestry Sciences Lab, Portland, OR.

April, 1992 – March, 1994, Research Forester, Northeastern Research Station, Northern Global Change Program, Radnor, PA.

October, 1989 - March, 1992, Assistant District Ranger, GS-11, USDA Forest Service, Monongahela National Forest, Greenbrier Ranger District, Bartow, WV.

January, 1989 - October, 1989, Research Forester (post-doc), GS-11, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Economics Project, Portland, OR.

October, 1983 - October, 1988, Graduate Research Assistant, Regional Forest Nutrition Research Project, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.

SELECT PUBLICATIONS
Heath, L.S., and J.E. Smith. In press. Soil carbon accounting and assumptions for forestry and forest-related land use change. In: Joyce, L.A. and R.A. Birdsey, (eds), The Impact of Climate Change on America’s Forests, USDA Forest Service, General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-59.

Smith, James E. and Linda S. Heath. In press. Identifying influences on model uncertainty: an application using a forest carbon budget model. Environmental Management.

Smith, J.E., and L.S. Heath. In press. Considerations for interpreting probabilistic uncertainties to projections of forest carbon budgets. P. 102-111. In: Joyce, L.A. and R.A. Birdsey, (eds), The Impact of Climate Change on America’s Forests, USDA Forest Service, General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-59.

Heath, LS, and J.E. Smith. 2000. An assessment of uncertainty in forest carbon budget projections. Environmental Science & Policy 3: 73-82.

McWilliams, W.H., Linda S. Heath, G.C. Reese, and T.L. Schmidt. 2000. Forest Resources and Conditions. Pages 3-26 in Responses of Northern U.S. Forests to Environmental Change. Eds: Mickler, Richard A., Birdsey, and John Hom. Ecological Studies Series v. 139, Springer-Verlag. 578 p.

Smith, J. and LS Heath. 1998. Multidisciplinary views in modeling response to climate change: A workshop summary. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station, General Technical Report NE-251. 18 p.

Heath, LS, and LA Joyce. 1997. Carbon sequestration in forests as a national policy issue, p. 29-36. In: Communicating the roles of silviculture in managing the national forests: Proceedings of the National Silviculture Workshop, May 19-21, 1997, Warren, PA. USDA Forest Service Northeastern Forest Experiment Station, General Technical Report NE-238. 205 p.

Skog, K.E., T. Marcin, and L.S. Heath. 1996. Opportunities to reduce carbon emissions and increase storage by wood substitution, recycling, and improved utilization. In: Forests and Global Change, Volume 2: Forest management opportunities for mitigating carbon emissions,. 209-215.

Ince, P. J., K. E. Skog, and L. S. Heath. 1995. Recycling in the big picture--the really big picture. Resource Recycling 14: 41-45.

Heath, L.S., R.A. Birdsey, C. Row, and A.J. Plantinga. 1996. Carbon pools and flux in U.S. forest products. In: Forest Ecosystems, Forest Management, and the Global Carbon Cycle, (M.J. Apps and D.T. Price, eds). NATO ASI Series I: Global Environmental Changes, Volume 40, Springer-Verlag, p. 271-278.

Joyce, L.A., J.R. Mills, L.S. Heath, A.D. McGuire, R.W. Haynes, and R.A. Birdsey. 1995. Forest sector impacts from changes in forest productivity under climate change. Journal of Biogeography, 22: 703-713.

Birdsey, R.A. and L.S. Heath. 1995. Carbon changes in US forests. In: Climate change and the productivity of America's forests, (L.A. Joyce, ed.). U. S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station General Technical Report, Ft. Collins, CO, p. 56-70.

Birdsey, R.A. and L.S. Heath. 1995. Carbon storage in US forests. In: Encyclopedia of Energy, Technology, and the Environment. John-Wiley and Sons, New York.

Heath, L.S. and R.A. Birdsey. 1993. Impacts of alternative forest management policies on carbon sequestration on US timberlands. World Resource Review 5: 171-179.

R.N. Sampson, M. Apps, S. Brown, C.V. Cole, J. Downing, L.S. Heath, D.S. Ojima, T.M. Smith, A.M. Solomon, and J. Wisniewski. 1993. Workshop summary statement: Terrestrial Biospheric Carbon fluxes--quantification of sinks and sources of C02. Water, Air and Soil Pollution 70: 3-15.

Heath, L.S., P.E. Kauppi, P. Burschel, H-D Gregor, R. Guderian, G. H. Kohlmaier, S. Lorenz, D. Overdieck, F. Scholz, H. Thomasius, and M. Weber. 1993. Contribution of temperate forests to the world's carbon budget. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution 70: 55-69.

Heath, L.S., and R.A. Birdsey. 1993. Carbon trends of productive temperate forests of the coterminous United States. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution 70: 279-293.

Birdsey, R.A., A.J. Plantinga, and L.S. Heath. 1993. Past and prospective carbon storage in U.S. forests. Forest Ecology and Management 58: 33-40.

RECENT SIGNIFICANT INVITATIONS/CONSULTATIONS
2000. Member of U.S. State Department delegation to the 13th meeting of the subsidiary bodies of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Lyon, France. Invited as expert to give presentation on accounting for carbon in U.S. forests, and provide technical advice.

1999. Elected chair of Forest Service Research Advisory Committee. Nationwide Forest Service committee providing advice to the USDA Forest Service Deputy Chief of Research & Development on research classification panels (similar to tenure panels). I was chair the last year of my three-year term on the committee.

1998. Invited to participate in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Expert Workshop on Land Use Change and Forestry: Carbon in Harvested Wood Products, May 5-7, Dakar, Senegal. Gave presentation, participated in working groups and contributed to proceedings.

1995, 1997, 2000. Sustainability criteria. Primary author for criteria 5: Maintenance of forest contribution to global carbon cycle for United States forests. This criterion has three parts: a. carbon pools in forest ecosystems, b. forest ecosystems and the total carbon budget, and c. forest products. Reports were produced in 1995, and updated in 1997 for Chapter 6 of the First Approximation Report for Sustainable Forest Management. In 2000, I was invited as a technical expert on this criterion at the Roundtable on Sustainable Forests Criteria & Indicators Technical Workshop, March 12-15, Denver, CO.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS:
American Association for the Advancement of Science; Society of American Foresters; Ecological Society of America

HONORS/AWARDS:
1999, USDA Certificate of Merit for making a project-based organization highly effective in the face of constant change.

1998, USDA Certificate of Merit for outstanding contributions to the Forest Service Research Advisory Committee.

1996,USDA Certificate of Merit for Global Change Program Support and external coordination in planning assessment activities

1995,USDA Certificate of Appreciation for contributions to the 1993 RPA Assessment Update (Climate Change Issue)