A New Foundation for U.S. Forest Policy Rich Guldin, recipient of the Society of American Foresters’ prestigious Sir William Schlich Award, is eager to talk about how forest research can inform smart forest policy. By Kevin Dennehy By the time Richard Guldin ’76 MFS, ’79 PhD took over the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program in the mid-1990s, it had become stagnant and ineffective. That was a problem because, as the nation’s forest census for nearly 70 years, the program helped guide state and national policies and priorities. Over the next several years, Guldin helped reinvent the program, integrating new sampling designs, field procedures, and innovative software to create an annual inventory that has become a global model. This integration of forest science, research, and policy typifies Guldin’s career and, in October, earned him the Society of American Foresters’ prestigious Sir William Schlich Award. We caught up with Guldin to discuss advances in forest management worldwide and the ways that forest research can inform smart forest policy.