In the century since its founding, the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies at Yale has evolved from a professional school of forestry to perhaps the world’s finest training ground for tomorrow’s environmental leaders. Research and teaching have expanded to include not only forestry but also the fundamental concerns that today constitute the challenge of environmental management.

The central goal of our School is to build a new interdisciplinary academic field focused on the environment and to train a new generation of leaders capable of tackling some of the most urgent and difficult issues of our time. These issues touch almost every aspect of people’s lives. They transcend political boundaries. And they often bring into sharp focus fundamental questions about equality and justice both nationally and internationally.

The need for a new focus on environmental management has never been more obvious and never more important. At the same time that we seek to meet increased demand for food, energy, water, and the many other goods and services that are crucial for healthy and productive lives, we also face new global-scale environmental challenges. These problems, such as the continuing loss of biological diversity, the degradation of ecosystem services, and the growing importance of new kinds of pollution, as well as climate change, are an impediment to eradicating poverty, and they are also fundamentally international in nature. They can only be solved by cooperation among developing and industrial countries, and by leaders with a truly global perspective.

The core of our program at F&ES is thoughtful analysis and rigorous scientific study of the interactions between human societies and the natural world as a basis for sound environmental management. And because many of the solutions to today’s environmental challenges lie outside the established environmental sector, our programs also reach into many other areas, from economics, business, and law to engineering and medicine.

By continuing to evaluate and enhance the programs that we offer, and by continuing to collaborate with others within and beyond Yale, we provide a broadly based educational experience that equips our graduates to assume influential roles in government, business, nongovernmental organizations, public and international affairs, journalism, research, and education.

Solutions to today’s urgent environmental concerns will require a revolution in personal choice, a fusion of environmental and economic thinking, and increased willingness on the part of business, government, and environmental leaders to develop shared goals that are truly sustainable over the long term. Our aim is to develop professionals trained in environmental management who can also wield influence in these broader arenas. Environmental thinking needs to be incorporated into corporate planning, energy strategy, technology policy, R&D funding, tax policy, international trade and finance, development assistance, and many other areas that once seemed far removed from traditional environmental concerns.

I hope and expect that those of you entering the School as students at this critical moment will have the energy and vision to help shape our collective environmental future both locally and globally. I encourage you to use our Bulletin [PDF version (includes full course descriptions) | online version] to explore how F&ES can help facilitate your goals and build a foundation of knowledge and experience that will equip you to help change the world by meeting the environmental challenges that affect all of our lives.

Please use this Web site to get an inside view of the dynamics and energy that will make F&ES an ideal place to continue your education.

Sir Peter Crane
Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. Dean
School of Forestry & Environmental Studies