John S. Gunn, Ph.D.
Director, U.S. and Canada Carbon Science
Norway, ME
John Gunn As the Director of U.S. and Canada Carbon Science, John Gunn leads the science and research that underpins our carbon markets work in the North America region. © TNC
Areas of Expertise
Sustainable forestry, landscape ecology, forest carbon accounting
Links
Biography
As the Director of U.S. and Canada Carbon Science, John Gunn leads the science and research that underpins our carbon markets work in the North America region.
Prior to The Nature Conservancy, John Gunn most recently held an appointment for six years as a research assistant professor of forest management at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, New Hampshire. In addition, John served from 2012 to 2022 as the co-founder and executive director of the Spatial Informatics Group—Natural Assets Laboratory (SIG-NAL), a non-profit research organization affiliated with the Spatial Informatics Group (SIG). Previously, he was a senior program leader within the Natural Capital Initiative at the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences.
John has a B.S. in wildlife management from the University of Maine, an M.F.S. from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a Ph.D. in biology from the University of New Brunswick studying the landscape ecology of forest songbirds. He has a broad background in sustainable forestry, including a position developing Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) certified forest management systems for a large private landowner in Maine, FSC® auditing, and extensive work on family forest and group certification issues throughout North America.
Much of John’s applied research work has focused on developing the tools and science necessary to implement payments for ecosystem services programs (such as carbon sequestration and drinking water quality) involving forest landowners. John has co-authored more than 25 peer-reviewed publications on varied topics such as the greenhouse gas accounting of woody biomass energy; forest bird ecology; and carbon dynamics of managed, late-successional and old-growth forests.
John lives with his family in western Maine.