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Lloyd C. Irland

Born in Chicago. Illinois, 1946.

Undergrad degree in forestry, Michigan State University, Master’s in resource economics, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. Ph. D. Yale, 1973.

I served with the US Forest Service as a research economist before coming back to Yale. I taught Wilderness Economics and Policy, Water Resource Economics, and Industrial Forestry for three years.

In 1976 I went to Maine to administer a major insect control program for the Maine Forest Service. Then for 2 years, I was Director, Bureau of Public Lands, managing 250,000 acres of state forests and also its submerged lands program. My boss was then brought into the Governor’s Office as State Planning Director; I went with him to be State Economist for 5 years. During these years in state government I gained practical management experience as well as inside involvement in the legislative process, working with the press, and dealing with controversial public issues. While State Economist I dealt with issues ranging well beyond natural resources. I often served as a technical speechwriter for the Governor, which was to say the least an interesting experience.

Since 1987 I have been consulting, mostly to industry on timber and market issues, but also to governments and trade groups. Occasionally I have worked for environmental groups. This work has given me a good acquaintance with Canada, with environmental certification, with global trends in the lumber and paper industries, and a number of related topics. My work has been actively engaged with the major land use and allocation issues in what people call “the Northern Forest” of northern New York and northern New England. I have a special interest in ways to achieve a higher level of environmental performance on managed timberlands.

I have done a bit of work in forestry and professional ethics. I have also taught college level courses in economics, environmental economics, land use, and forest policy as a guest faculty member at several Maine institutions. I am a serious “timber beast” who is also a vocal advocate for more reserves and wilderness areas in places, like Maine, where they are under-represented. I have worked and traveled widely across the US and Canada.