Pictured above: the 1967 Summer Session of Camp Filibert Roth. Bill Banzhaf is standing in the top row, second from left.

Since the 1960s, professional forestry has shifted focus from wood and fiber production to encompass a much broader set of benefits reflecting an increased understanding of ecosystem function and sustainability. “Healthy professions evolve through advances in science or they cease to be relevant,” said Bill Banzhaf, whose lifelong forestry career has evolved right along with the profession.

Upon graduation in 1967, Banzhaf joined his father’s forestry consulting firm in Milwaukee, where he spent two decades focused on wood supply studies for the location of new paper mills and sawmills, timberland valuations for mergers and acquisitions, and economic development. He was instrumental in the establishment of the company’s Tucson office resulting from forest management work in cooperation with tribal nations in New Mexico and Arizona.

After his father’s passing in 1987, Banzhaf became executive vice president and CEO of the Society of American Foresters (SAF) in Washington DC, which is responsible for the accreditation of U.S. forestry schools, publishes peer-reviewed journals, and provides continuing education for its members.

“The 1990s were a time of great change in forestry and saw the evolution of a profession based on the principle of multiple use to one which focused on management of the entire forest ecosystem,” Banzhaf said. “It required the thinking, scientific investigation, and intense debate of many strong leaders to move from one paradigm to the next.”

From 2002 until his retirement in 2007, Banzhaf was president of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc., a nonprofit organization that oversees and implements the most widely used forest certification standard in North America, with nearly 300 million acres certified. “Forest certification has as its foundation the work of the United Nations and other international organizations in the development of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management,” Banzhaf said. “Certification uses criteria and indicators to determine the health of the forest in terms of environmental quality, economic viability, and social equity.” Banzhaf continues to work in the natural resources arena through the Michigan Nature Conservancy, Dovetail Partners, and as a member of the SEAS External Advisory Board.