David Ostermeier
Professor

Dr. David Ostermeier is Professor specializing in natural resource policy and administration and holding degrees from the New York State College of Environmental Sciences & Forestry (PhD in natural resource economics, 1972), and MS and BS respectively from the Universities of Missouri and Illinois (forest economics & forestry). He has both teaching and research responsibilities and has been at The University of Tennessee since 1971 with the exception of two sabbaticals: 1978/79 academic year as Natural Resource Economist with the USDA in Washington, D.C.; and as Natural Resource Policy Advisor from 1991 until 1993 with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Indonesia.

His teaching and research interests deal with the application of social sciences to natural resource management and use, including: 1 -Participatory natural resource policy processes and their relationship to more traditional policy processes involving executive, legislative and judiciary branches of government; 2-Application of collaborative negotiation and collaborative planning to natural resource policy and decision making; 3-Public and stakeholder involvement in natural resource policy making; and 4-Institutional influences on natural resources--how government agencies, private business and non-profit institutions affect natural resource use and management.

Current research activities are: 1 -Analysis of the Tennessee Forest Management Advisory Panel. This includes analyzing the process and products of diverse stakeholder participation in forest policy in Tennessee, lessons learned from that activity and alternative futures of participatory policy mechanisms in the state. 2-Participatory research of collaborative natural resource decision making: Habitat Conservation Plans. In this study, Dr. Osterineier is principal investigator with the National Center for Environmental Decision Making Research (NCEDR), and detailed information about this project can be seen on their Web site. These projects are part of a longer term effort at understanding and improving stakeholder interactions in natural resource policy processes. If you have questions or interests in these or associated natural resource policy issues, please contact Dr. Ostenneier. Potential graduate students are especially encouraged to inquire about graduate work in forest and natural resource policy at The University of Tennessee.

He has taught a number of courses in his tenure at the University of Tennessee, most dealing with applications of social sciences to natural resource management and use. Currently he teaches (or co-teaches) the following undergraduate courses: Forest and Natural Resource Policy; Managing Natural Resource Organizations; People and Forest Practices (co-teach); International Natural Resource Issues (co-teach); and Food, Forests and Fiber (co-teach). He also teaches one graduate course, Advanced Natural Resource Policy, and is the departmental representative in an intercollegiate graduate minor in Environmental Policy.

His interests and work have included an active international dimension. His international experience and work began in Latin America in the early 1980s, and after a Fulbright in Thailand, continued in Asia where he taught forest policy and administration short courses at RECOFTC in Thailand for three consecutive years, 1988-1991. In the early 1990s he took a two year post as the Natural Resource Policy Advisor with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Indonesia where he did analytical work on forest, marine and pollution abatement policy. He also works extensively with the University of Tennessee's Institute of Agriculture, Office of International Agriculture and Natural Resources, where he is a primary instructor for their annual four week short course on Sustainable Natural Resource Use and Management.

Contact Information

David Ostermeier
308 Ellington Plant Sciences Bldg
865-974-8843
Email: daveo@utk.edu