Paul K. Barten, Ph.D.
Paul K. Barten is Associate Professor of Forest Resources at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (1997-present) and Co-Director (with Martina Barnes) of the Forest-to-Faucet Partnership.
Dr. Barten earned a Ph.D. (1988) and M.S. (1985) in forest hydrology and watershed management at the University of Minnesota with a minor in water resources engineering. A native of the Catskill Mountain region, he holds undergraduate degrees in forestry from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (B.S. 1983) and the New York State Ranger School at Wanakena (A.A.S. 1977) and in biology from Ulster County Community College, Stone Ridge, NY (A.A. 1981). Dr. Barten was a Bullard Fellow in Forest Research at the Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts (2003-04). He was a faculty member at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies from 1988 to 1997. He also worked as a land surveyor in New York and Minnesota and served on active and reserve duty in the U.S. Army (1978-85).
Dr. Barten teaches a second-year undergraduate course and Honors Colloquium (Forests & People), two graduate courses (Land Use & Watershed Management and Forest & Wetland Hydrology [and Honors Colloquium]), and the capstone course for forest conservation majors (Forest Resources Management) at UMassAmherst. His research, technology transfer, and service work focuses on forest hydrology and all aspects of watershed forest management in the northeastern United States and in the boreal forest region of Canada.
Dr. Barten recently served as chairman of the National Research Council (NRC) Committee on the Hydrologic Impacts of Forest Management. Earlier, he was a member of the NRC Committee to review New York City's Watershed Management Strategy (1997-2000) and NRC Committee on Conservation of Atlantic Salmon in Maine (2001-04). He is a scientist-at-large on the Research Planning Committee (2003 to present) of the Sustainable Forest Management Network in Canada and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Great Mountain Forest in Norfolk, Connecticut (1991 to present). In Massachusetts, Dr. Barten has served as Co-Chair (with Thom Kyker-Snowman) of the Quabbin Science and Technical Advisory Committee and as a member of the Massachusetts Woodlands Cooperative Resource Group (1999 to present) and the Massachusetts Forester Licensing Board (2001-2004). He was appointed to the Massachusetts Forestry Committee and elected chairman by its members (2005-present)
