Dr John Dargavel: Yearning for Sylvan Futures

The talk will trace how generations of botanists and foresters have yearned for a better future for their countries’ forests, and have directed their science to that end. Their dreams have varied but their dedication to science has not. Some of the themes that run through forest science from the eighteenth century to the present will be illustrated in the lives of some notable botanists and foresters, including David Douglas, Dietrich Brandis, Mark Anderson, Bill Stoate, Carl Syrach-Larsen, Josef Ressel and Hans Leibundgut.

Dr John Dargavel is an Emeritus Fellow in the Fenner School for Environment and Society at ANU. He has degrees from the Universities of Edinburgh, Melbourne and the Australian National University, and has worked as a forester in government and industry. At ANU he researched and taught forest economics, politics and history. His book on Australian forest history, Fashioning Australia's Forests (Oxford University Press) was published in 1995 and his biography, The Zealous Conservator: a Life of Charles Lane Poole (University of Western Australia Press) was published in 2008. His most recent book, written with Elisabeth Johann, Science and Hope: a Forest History (Cambridge: White Horse Press) was published in 2013.