The Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (FES) was founded as the Yale School of Forestry in 1900 by Gifford Pinchot, head of the United States Division of Forestry, and Henry Solon Graves, both Yale graduates who had attended forestry school in Europe, there being no professional forestry schools in the United States at the time. Graves became the first dean of the school. The school changed its name to the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in 1972.

School buildings

The School offers classes at Sage Hall, Greeley Labs, Marsh Hall, the Environmental Science Center, the houses at 230 Prospect St., 301 Prospect St., and 380 Edwards St., and teaches the Yale College undergraduate courses needed for the Environmental Studies major. Construction began on May 3, 2007 for a new state-of-the-art green building that will consolidate most of the School's offices and classrooms. Named for the Philanthropist Richard Kroon (Yale Class of 1964), the building will have of space and will be "a showcase of the latest developments in green building technology, a healthy and supportive environment for work and study, and a beautiful building that actively connects students, faculty, staff, and visitors with the natural world." The building is expected to obtain Platinum Rating under the LEED certification system.^[1]

Degree programs

The School currently grants the following degrees: Master of Environmental Management (MEM); Master of Environmental Science (MESc); Master of Forestry (MF); and Master of Forest Science (MFS); Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.); and the Doctor of Forestry and Environmental Studies (DFES), which is being phased out in favor of the Ph.D. A program is also available for Yale College undergraduates in which a bachelor's degree in the College and a master's degree from the School can be earned in five years. In addition, the School also offers joint-degree programs with the Yale School of Architecture, Yale Divinity School, Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Yale Law School, Yale School of Management, Yale School of Public Health, Vermont Law School, Pace University School of Law.

Summer sessions of the School were held on the Pinchot estate, Grey Towers, in Milford from 1901 to 1926. (The site is now Grey Towers National Historic Landmark).

Centers and programs

• Center for Biodiversity and Conservation Science;
• Center for Business and the Environment at Yale;
• Center for Coastal and Watershed Systems;
• Center for Environmental Law and Policy;
• Center for Green Chemistry & Engineering at Yale;
• Center for Industrial Ecology;
• Environment and Health Initiative;
• Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry;
• Hixon Center for Urban Ecology;
• Tropical Resources Institute.

School forest

The School owns and manages of forestland in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The Yale-Myers Forest, in Union, Connecticut, donated to Yale in 1930 by alumnus George Hewitt Myers, is managed by the school as a multiple-use working forest. Yale-Toumey Forest, near Keene, New Hampshire, was set up by James W. Toumey (a former dean of the School) in 1913. Other Yale forestlands include Goss Woods, Crowell Forest, Cross Woods, Bowen Forest, and Crowell Ravine.http://www.yale.edu/schoolforest/

Student groups

The School has an active tradition of student involvement in academic and extracurricular life. Many students take part in Student Interest Groups (SIGs), which organize events around environmental issues of interest to them. There are also purely social and recreational groups, such as the Forestry Club, which organizes Friday "TGIF" ("Thank-God-I'm-a-Forester") happy hours and School parties; the Polar Bear club, which swims monthly in Long Island Sound under the full moon (year-round); Veggie Dinner, which is a weekly vegetarian dinner club; and the Loggerrhythyms, which is an a capella singing group.

Notable graduates

• Frances Beinecke, President, Natural Resources Defense Council
• Richard M. Brett, conservationist
• William B. Greeley, Chief, U.S. Forest Service, 1920?1928
• Aldo Leopold, conservationist and author of A Sand County Almanac
• John R. McGuire, Chief, U.S. Forest Service, 1972?1979
• Peter Seligmann, co-founder and CEO, Conservation International
• Ferdinand A. Silcox, Chief, U.S. Forest Service, 1933?1939
• ppRobert Y. Stuart]], Chief, U.S. Forest Service, 1928?1933

External links

• Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
• Grey Towers
• Yale Environment 360