Research Forest Ecologist (Emeritus), USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, Colorado.
Until retirement early in 2006, Merrill was the Rocky Mountain Research Station’s team leader for ecosystem management research in the Colorado Front Range. He remains active as a consultant and contract scientist in the research, fire, and land management communities. He is the senior author of “An Ecological Basis for Ecosystem Management,” and “Good Fire/Bad Fire: How to Think about Forest Land Management and Ecological Processes,” two of the most widely distributed Forest Service publications.
For over a decade, he has worked extensively with land managers to blend new basic science on historical ecosystem characteristics into management actions that restore sustainable ecological conditions. He provides lectures, training, field trips and other activities regarding forest ecology and fire history, historical ecology, and ecosystem management. He has served on several large forest restoration project steering committees, and he is an active participant in the Front Range Roundtable and broader efforts for developing a vision and roadmap for forest health and fuels management. Dr. Kaufmann has authored over 115 scientific papers, edited three proceedings of scientific meetings, and produced a video on ecosystem management. He has been interviewed about fire behavior, forest ecology, and management practices on NPR’s All Things Considered, ABC World News Tonight, PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer, and The Weather Channel, as well as by Time Magazine and regional and local television, radio, and newspapers.