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Michael Paul Nelson

Professor of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy, Oregon State University

Michael Paul Nelson is a Professor of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy and the Director of the Center for the Future of Forests and Society at Oregon Sate University. From 2012-2022 he held the Ruth H. Spaniol Chair of Renewable Resources and served as the Lead Principal Investigator for the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest Long-Term Ecological Research program at Oregon State. He is the philosopher in residence of the Isle Royale Wolf-Moose Project, the longest continuous study of a predator-prey system in the world, and a senior fellow for the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word.

He is the author of many articles, and the author or editor of a number of books, in and around the area of environmental ethics - most notably Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril with Kathleen Dean Moore. Michael is called upon regularly by various government agencies and conservation organizations to assist with understanding the ethical dimensions and implications of natural resource management decisions. He lives in Corvallis, Oregon.

Experience

  • –present
    Ruth H Spaniol Chair of Renewable Resources and Lead Principal Investigator for the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest, Oregon State University