Brett Butler, adjunct professor in the Department of Environmental Conservation in the College of Natural Sciences and co-director of the Family Forest Research Center, was recently appointed Honorary Doctor of Forest Sciences by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in Uppsala, Sweden.

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Butler, a research forester for the U.S. Forest Service, has served as the director of the Forest Service’s National Woodland Owner Survey for more than 25 years and is a global authority on private forest owners, especially the families and individuals who own wooded land, referred to as family forest owners. His work explores the relationships landowners have with their woods. More than a third of the forest land in the United States belongs to family forest owners, and the decisions they make about their land shape the future of forests.

“If we’re interested in forest conservation, we need to know and understand the people who own and care for the forests—especially America’s family forest owners,” Butler says.

Butler and three others received their honorary degrees during SLU’s doctoral award ceremony on Oct. 3. Earlier in the week, he presented a lecture, titled “Trees, Fairies, and Magic Wands,” in which he described the power of asking landowners about their connection to their land. He shared how creative questions, such as “Which mythical forest creature do you identify with?” and “If you could wave a magic wand, what would you change about your woodlands?” might lead to deeper understandings of forest owners’ goals and help craft programs and policies that better meet the needs of landowners now and in the future.

The National Woodland Owner Survey, implemented by Butler and his team at the Family Forest Research Center, is one tool for seeing forests through landowners’ eyes. The survey asks forest owners why they own their wooded land, how they use it, and what they plan to do with it in the future. The findings can inform forest management and conservation decisions. The most recent results of the survey are available through tools on the U.S. Forest Service website, and a full report will be published in the near future.

Beyond his work in the United States, Butler is an active member of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO). He is currently collaborating with researchers at SLU to investigate the thought processes underlying family forest owners’ forest management decisions.

More information on the honorary doctors can be found on the SLU website.