Charles H. (Hobie) Perry

Dr. Perry is the Program Manager for Northern Research Station’s Forest Inventory and Analysis Program and has several responsibilities, including:

• Developing and managing the unit’s scientific research program and products as part of a nationally consistent inventory effort;
• Selecting and promulgating research priorities based upon the unit’s chartered mission as well as input from representatives of research institutions and agencies, Regional and National Forest staffs, concerned citizens, and industrial and public interest groups;
• Implementing the unit’s science quality assurance standards and procedures;
• Assessing the impact of substantive programs and policies – including legislation, new USDA and Forest Service policy, and State and private sector policies related to forestry research and resource management – on national forest inventory; and
• Participating as a member of the Station’s Leadership Team in developing coordinated science policies, programs, and activities.

• Managing, implementing, and analyzing a unique national, strategic inventory of soil quality critical to national-scale forest carbon and health assessments;
• Data fusion which integrates the FIA program’s rich plot network, hydrologic modeling, landscape analysis, and remote sensing science in management- and policy-relevant data, knowledge, and applications (see FIA's Geospatial Showcase);
• Representing Forest Service R&D as the Deputy Area’s liaison to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative a multi-year, multi-agency partnership coordinated by the US Environmental Protection Agency.

The mission of NRS-FIA is:

To ensure the health and sustainability of forest ecosystems, and the well-being of the people and communities that rely on them, by conducting multi-scale inventory, monitoring, and assessment activities that develop the information and tools necessary to inform forest policies and practices, and increase the understanding of forest processes and associated threats to ecosystem health.