Environmental Law Institute - National Wetlands Awards

The depth and breadth of academic contributions to the understanding of the ecology of floodplain forests made by Graeme Lockaby are unsurpassed. Dr. Lockaby, a native of Seneca, South Carolina, is professor and acting associate dean for research in the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences at Auburn University in Alabama. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Lockaby has been studying nutrient cycling in floodplains. He investigates effects of changing uses of rural lands, ownership fragmentation, and urban development on forested landscapes, using new methodologies for quantitative integration of socioeconomic and ecological data. He also devotes research attention to biogeochemical functions of floodplain forests.

In addition to his highly productive personal research program, Dr. Lockaby has been a key catalyst to interdisciplinary and broadly collaborative work on the ecology and functions of forest wetland systems of the southeastern United States. In his efforts to implement sound science within the broad concept of renewable natural resource sustainability, he recently organized a major workshop with broad participation that succeeded in bridging gaps in collaboration among natural resources agencies and institutions. His outstanding success in building research teams of broad expertise and in securing resources to tackle complex challenges in natural systems management make him a unique asset to the academic environment and a great mentor for his graduate students.

Dr. Lockaby was awarded a Ph.D. in Forest Soils from Mississippi State University in 1981. He currently provides leadership for Auburn University’s “Peaks of Excellence” program in Forest Sustainability, an interdisciplinary effort that examines the interplay among ecological, sociological, and economic factors as these affect and are affected by landscape change.

— George Bengtson, Auburn University School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn, Alabama