Home (new)

Message from Dean Daniel J. Robison

Dean Daniel J. Robison

Dean's Message

July 7, 2025

Hello, CALS,

I hope you had a terrific July Fourth holiday weekend. When I was teaching introductory forestry and natural resources classes, I used to focus a class period on the transition in policy that date represented in 1776. Some students complained that it was not supposed to be a “history class” - and it surely was not. But it was a class about how natural resources are understood and managed, about how they got to be like they are, and how they might be in the future, etc. On July 4, 1776, the nation declared that it would henceforth begin to craft rules that would benefit those here, and not those overseeing it from afar. The fundamental shift in that outlook was everything and is reflected in the landscapes we have even now, 249 years later. Just something to contemplate as you drive or fly across this great place.

Have a great week!  - Dan

Scenes from CALS

Purple and yellow native flowers blooming on the edge of a forest.
It's mid-summer native wildflower time in Iowa!
View of tree-covered mountains beneath a partly cloudy blue sky.
A view from a July Fourth holiday visit to North Carolina's mountains. Pictured here is the vast expanse of unbroken mountains looking southwest toward the Great Smoky Mountains from near the highest point (6,053 feet) on the Blue Ridge National Parkway, Richland Balsam, at mile 431.