The department of natural resources and the environment has welcomed John Gunn as a research and extension assistant professor of forest management. Gunn will also dedicate one-quarter of his time to UNH Cooperative Extension.
For the past four years, Gunn has served as executive director of the nonprofit Spatial Informatics Group, Natural Assets Laboratory, an organization he cofounded, and he will maintain this role to facilitate collaborative forest conservation work among academic, nonprofit and agency partners throughout the U.S.
Over the next couple of years, Gunn will be developing a research program focused on forest management and climate change issues throughout New Hampshire.
Previously, Gunn was a senior program leader at the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences and director of forest stewardship at the Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands. He has a broad background in sustainable forestry, including a position developing Forest Stewardship Council-certified forest management systems for a large private landowner in Maine, and extensive nonprofit research and consulting work on family forest and group certification issues throughout North America.
Gunn’s recent work has focused on developing the tools and knowledge necessary to implement payments for ecosystem services programs, such as carbon sequestration and water quality. Recent work also includes research and peer-reviewed publications on the greenhouse gas accounting of biomass energy and carbon storage dynamics in late-successional and old-growth forests.
Gunn has a Bachelor of Science degree in wildlife management from the University of Maine, a Master’s degree from the Yale School of Forestry and a doctorate in biology from the University of New Brunswick studying forest songbird ecology.
He serves as vice-chair of the Membership and Policy Council of the Forest Stewards Guild professional organization.
Gunn, who lives with his wife and five-year-old daughter in Cumberland, Maine, also performs throughout Maine and New Hampshire with the band Bold Riley, playing clawhammer banjo and the bodhran.
