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School of Forest Resources


Home :: Faculty & Staff :: Directory :: Robert Lilieholm

Robert J. Lilieholm Rob, daughter and dog

E.L. Giddings Associate Professor
of Forest Policy
SAF Certified Professional Forester #3117

243 Nutting Hall
School of Forest Resources
University of Maine
Orono, ME 04469-5755
(207) 581-2896; fax (207) 581-2875

e-mail: rob_lilieholm@umenfa.maine.edu


Biographical Sketch


Dr. Lilieholm’s research interests examine ways in which wildlands can be sustainably managed to promote a wide range of ecological and socio-economic goals. Examples include a host of land use issues, including the modeling of alternative future growth scenarios to determine the long-term impact of development on human and natural systems at the landscape level. Other research has examined wilderness management, as well as the development of strategies to manage commercial timberlands for biological diversity and wildlife habitat. Lilieholm has also been active in research and assistance projects promoting the sustainability of African national parks, and the people that rely on them for their survival.

Before joining UMaine in 2006, Dr. Lilieholm spent 18 years in the College of Natural Resources at Utah State University. He has served as a Faculty Associate and Visiting Fellow with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, as well as a Visiting Professor with the Organization for Tropical Studies in Costa Rica. He was named “Professor of the Year” in the College of Natural Resources at Utah State University in 1994, and was later awarded honors professor status. Other honors include receiving the Baker-Bidwell Research Fellowship and the Bidwell Research Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley; and twice being named a Rockefeller Scholar at Louisiana State University.

Lilieholm has authored numerous publications and reports through funding provided by the National Science Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The Boston Foundation, the U.S. Congress, the United States Agency for International Development, The World Bank GEF, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and other funding sources. He has also served as a consultant or advisor to the U.S. Congress, the Danish Government, the U.S. Department of Justice, the National Coffee Growers’ Federation of Colombia, the Kibale Forest Foundation, state and federal agencies, and a host of industry and environmental organizations.

Rob Lilieholm               zebra

Academic Degrees

  • University of California, Berkeley. Ph.D. Forest Management & Economics (1988)
  • Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. M.S. Silviculture & Forest Soils (1984)
  • Utah State University, Logan. B.S. Forest Management, cum laude (1983)

    Academic Employment History
  • Associate Professor, School of Forest Resources, UMaine (2006 to present)
  • Associate Professor, Department of Forest Resources, Utah State Univ. (1994-2006)
  • Assistant Professor, Dept. of Forest Resources, Utah State University (1988-1994)

Honors, Awards & Academic Affiliations

Scientific Advisory Panel, ECOSUD 2009, Wessex Institute of Technology.
Adjunct Faculty, Dept. of Environment & Society, Utah State U. (2006-present)
Adjunct Faculty, School of Economics, UMaine (2007-present)
Faculty Affiliate, NSF-EPSCoR Forest Bioprod. Res. Init., UMaine (2006-present)
Faculty Affiliate, Ecology & Environ. Science Program, UMaine (2006-present)
Faculty Associate, The Mitchell Center, UMaine, (2006-present)
Board Member, SeedTree International (2006-present)
Board Member, Newforest Institute (2007-present)
Faculty Associate, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge, MA (1993-1997)
Honors Professor, Utah State University (1995-1996)
Visiting Fellow, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge, MA (1994-1995)
Professor of the Year, College of Natural Resources, Utah State Univ. (1994)
Visiting Faculty, Organization for Tropical Studies, Costa Rica (1990)
Baker-Bidwell Research Fellow, University of California, Berkeley (1987-1988)
Bidwell Research Fellow, University of California, Berkeley (1986-1987)
Rockefeller Scholar, Louisiana State University (1983-1984 & 1984-1985)
President, Nu Chapter of Xi Sigma Pi, Louisiana State University (1983-1984)

            Africa     African native

Selected Publications (Student coauthors are underlined, *denotes peer reviewed)

Lilieholm, R.J. 2007. Forging a Common Vision for Maine’s North Woods. Maine Policy Review 16(2):12-25.*

Tessema, M.E., R.J. Lilieholm, N. Leader-Williams, and Z.T. Ashenafi. 2008. Community Views toward Wildlife and Protected Areas in Ethiopia. Society and Natural Resources (accepted for publication).*

Benjamin, J., R.J. Lilieholm, and D. Damery. 2008. Challenges and Opportunities facing the Northeast Bioproducts Industry. Journal of Forestry (in review).*

Lilieholm, R.J., and W.P. Weatherly. 2008. The Wild Coffee Project: A Market-Based Approach to Funding Conservation and Development in East Africa. Conservation Biology (in review).*

Lilieholm, R.J., and M. Eaton. 2008. Culture, Resource Use, and Settlement History Surrounding Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Society and Natural Resources (accepted for publication).*

Trask, K.M., R.W. Rice, S. Anchors, and R.J. Lilieholm. 2008. Management Styles of Lumber Mill Managers in the Northern United States. Forest Products Journal (accepted for publication).*

Benjamin, J., R.J. Lilieholm, C. Coup, and R. Ryder. 2008. Forest Biomass Harvests: A “Special Needs” Operation? Northern Journal of Applied Forestry (accepted for publication).*

Eugenio Telles Mejia, Manuel de Jesús González Guillén, Héctor Manuel De los Santos Posadas, Aurelio Manuel Fierros González, Robert J. Lilieholm, and Armando Gómez Guerrero. 2008. Optimal Timber Rotation Lengths in Eucalyptus Plantations including Revenues from Carbon Capture in Oaxaca, Mexico. Fitotecnia Mexicana Journal 31(2):173-182.*
Rob Lilieholm

Telles-Mejia, E., M. Gonzalez-Guillen, and R.J. Lilieholm. 2008. Environmental Services and Optimal Forest Rotation Ages. Forest Policy and Economics (accepted, in revision).*

Lilieholm, R.J., M.E. Tessema, D.J. Blahna, and L.E. Kruger. 2008. Using Secondary Data to Estimate Community-Resource Linkages in Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. In Proceedings of the 2006 GSENM Science Symposium, Southern Utah University, September 12-14. (in press)*
Lilieholm research

Briggs, N.A., R. Freeman, S. LaRochelle, H. Theriault, R.J. Lilieholm, and C.S. Cronan. 2008. Modeling Riverbank Stability and Potential Risk to Development in the Penobscot River Estuary of Maine, USA. Environmental Problems in Coastal Regions 99:111-118.*

Buteau, E., R.J. Lilieholm, and R.E. Toth. 2007. Integrating Regional Planning at Multiple Scales to Preserve Open Space along Utah’s Wasatch Front. Ecology and the Environment 106:195-204.*

Lilieholm, R.J., D. Hart, K.P. Bell, S. Sader, G. Zydlewski, C. Cronan, and N. Briggs.  2007. Alternative Futures for the Penobscot River Watershed: A Collaborative Approach to Sustainable Resource Use. Pages 126-130 in Proceedings of the Conference on Emerging Issues Along the Urban/Rural Interface 2. University of Georgia. 320 pp.

Tessema, M.E., and R.J. Lilieholm. 2007. Community Perceptions of Wildlife and Protected Areas in Ethiopia. Pages 287-292 in Proceedings of the George Wright Society: Rethinking Protected Areas in a Changing World. St. Paul, MN, April 16-20, 2007.

Busch, G., R.J. Lilieholm, R.E. Toth, and T.C. Edwards, Jr. 2005. Alternative Future Growth Scenarios for Utah’s Wasatch Front: Assessing the Impacts of Development on the Loss of Prime Agricultural Lands. Ecology and the Environment 81:247-256.*
Lilieholm research

Lilieholm, R.J., R.E. Toth, and T.C. Edwards, Jr. 2005. Alternative Future Growth Scenarios for Utah’s Wasatch Front: Identifying Future Conflicts between Development and the Protection of Environmental Quality and Public Health. Ecology and the Environment 84:1079-1088.*

Hunter, L.M., M.J. Gonzalez, M. Stevenson, K.S. Karish, R. Toth, T.C. Edwards, Jr., R.J. Lilieholm, and M. Cablk. 2003. Population and land use change in the California Mojave: Natural habitat implications of alternative futures. Population Research and Policy Review 22:373-397.*

Whitesell, S., R.J. Lilieholm, and T.L. Sharik. 2002. A global survey of tropical biological field stations. BioScience 52(1):55-64.*

Lilieholm, R.J., T.C. Edwards, Jr., and R.E. Toth. 2002. Alternative future growth scenarios for the California Mojave Desert: Assessing the impacts of growth on regional biodiversity. Pages 186-192 in Proceedings of the International Conference on Landscape Planning in the Era of Globalization. Portoroz, Slovenia, November 8-10, 2002.

Edwards, T.C. Jr., R.J. Lilieholm, and R.E. Toth. 2002. Open space planning along Utah’s Wasatch Front. Page 193 in Proceedings of the International Conference on Landscape Planning in the Era of Globalization. Portoroz, Slovenia, November 8-10, 2002.

Lilieholm, R.J., K.B. Paul, and R. Nankya. 2001. Developing sustainable ecotourism in Uganda’s Kibale National Park. Pages 225-231 in the Proceedings of the 2nd International Tourism Conference, Girne American University, Girne, Cyprus.

Lilieholm researchCablk, M., J. Heaton, and R.J. Lilieholm. 2000. Military ecology: The role of the Defense Department in protecting and preserving our biotic resources. International Symposium on Landscape Futures, Armidale, Australia.

Gonzalez, M., R.J. Lilieholm, T.C. Edwards, R. Toth, and L. Hunter. 2000. A spatially-explicit econometric approach to predicting land use in future landscapes. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Landscape Futures, Armidale, Australia.

Hunter, L.M., K.S. Karish, J.R. DeNormanie, T.C. Edwards, Jr., M. Gonzalez, R.J. Lilieholm, N. Robbins-DeNormandie, M. Stevenson, and R.E. Toth. 2000. Alternative Land Use Futures in the California Mojave Desert: Integrating social, economic, and biophysical factors. In K.M. Clarke and M.P. Crane, eds., Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Integrating Geographic Information Systems and Environmental Modeling: Problems, Prospects, and Needs for Research. University of Colorado, Boulder.

Lilieholm, R.J., and L.R. Romney. 2000. Tourism, National Parks, and Wildlife. Pages 137-151 in R.W. Butler and S.W. Boyd, eds., Tourism and National Parks: Issues and Implications. John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY. 342 pages.*

Kelson, A.R., and R.J. Lilieholm. 1999. Transboundary issues in wilderness management. Rob LilieholmEnvironmental Management 23(3):297-305.*

Kelson, A.R., R.J. Lilieholm, and M.R. Kuhns. 1999. Economics of living snowfences in the Intermountain Region. Western Journal of Applied Forestry 14(3):132-136.*

Fausold, C.F., and R.J. Lilieholm. 1999. The economic value of open space: A review and synthesis. Environmental Management 23(3):307-320.*

Lilieholm, R.J., K.B. Paul, T.L. Sharik, and R. Loether. 1998. Education’s role in sustainable development: Uganda’s Kibale National Park. Natural Resources and Environmental Issues 7(1): 123-129.

Lilieholm, R.J., J. Kasenene, G. Isabirye-Basuta, T.L. Sharik, and K.B. Paul. 1997. Research and training opportunities at Makerere University Biological Field Station, Kibale National Park, Uganda. Australasian Primatology 11(3):8-13.

Whitesell, S., O. Kyampaire, and R.J. Lilieholm. 1997. Human Dimension’s Research Needs in Uganda’s Kibale National Park. Forum 14(4):65-71.*

Kelson, A.R., and R.J. Lilieholm. 1997. The influence of adjacent land activities on wilderness resources. International Journal of Wilderness 3(1):25-28.*

Lilieholm, R.J., J. Kasenene, G. Isabirye-Basuta, T.L. Sharik, and K.B. Paul. 1997. Research opportunities at Makerere University Biological Field Station, Kibale National Park, Uganda. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 78(1):80-84.*

Lilieholm, R.J. 1996. Research and training opportunities at Makerere University Biological Field Station, Kibale National Park, Uganda. Bulletin of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography 5(3):8-9.

Endter-Wada, J., and R.J. Lilieholm, eds. 1995. Conflicts in Natural Resources Management: Integrating Social and Ecological Concerns. Proceedings from the 1993 Natural Resources Week Symposium, Utah State University, Logan. 98 pages.

Lilieholm researchLevy, F., and R. J. Lilieholm. 1995. Incorporating tree species diversity measures in linear programming models: A case study from northern Utah. Paper published in Proceedings of the Society of American Foresters 1995 National Meeting, Portland, ME.

Lilieholm, R.J. 1995. Agroforestry and sustainable systems in the Intermountain Region. Pages 177-185 in Proceedings of the 1994 Symposium on Agroforestry and Sustainable Systems, USDA Forest Service. General Technical Report RM-GTR-261. 276 pages.

Holland, D.N., R.J. Lilieholm, D.W. Roberts, and J.K. Gilless. 1994. Economic tradeoffs of managing forests for timber production and biological diversity. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 24:1260-1265.*

Kelson, A.R., R.J. Lilieholm, and K.S. Lyon. 1994. Impact of Pacific Northwest environmental regulation on international timber trade. Western Journal of Applied Forestry 9(3):77-80.*

Lilieholm, R.J., J.N. Long, and S. Patla. 1994. Assessing goshawk nest stand habitat using stand density index. Cooper Ornithological Society. Studies in Avian Biology 16:18-24.*

Lilieholm, R.J. 1993. Short-term Prospects for Extractive Industries in Utah. Utah Science 54(3):75-78.

Holland, D.N., R.J. Lilieholm, D.W. Roberts, and J.K. Gilless. 1993. Managing spruce-fir forests for commercial timber production and biological diversity: A case study in the U.S. Intermountain West. Paper published in the Proceedings of the 1993 International Symposium on Systems Analysis and Management Decisions in Forestry, Valdivia, Chile.

Lilieholm, R.J., W. Kessler, and K. Merrill. 1993. Stand density index for timber and goshawk habitat objectives in Douglas-fir. Environmental Management 17(6):773-779.*

Reeves, L.H., and R.J. Lilieholm. 1993. Reducing financial risk in agroforestry planning: A case study in Costa Rica. Agroforestry Systems 21:169-175.*
chimpanzee

Lilieholm, R.J., and J.M. Romm. 1992. The Pinelands National Reserve: An intergovernmental approach to nature preservation. Environmental Management 16(3):335-343.*

Lilieholm, R.J. 1991. Financial risk anddesired species composition in mixedspecies stands. Southern Journal of Applied Forestry 15(4):185-187.*

Lilieholm, R.J., L.S. Davis, and J.K. Gilless. 1991. Incorporating price uncertainty and risk aversion in short-term timber harvest scheduling decisions. Pages 104-108 in Proceedings of the 1991 Symposium on Systems Analysis in Forest Resources. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report SE-74. 423 pages.

Lilieholm, R.J., and L.H. Reeves. 1991. Incorporating economic risk aversion in agroforestry planning. Agroforestry Systems 13:63-71.*

Lilieholm, R.J. 1990. Alternatives in regional land use planning. Journal of Forestry 88(4):10-11.

Lilieholm, R.J., L.S. Davis, R.C. Heald, and S.P. Holmen. 1990. Effects of single tree selection harvests on structure, species composition, and understory tree growth in a Sierra mixed conifer forest. Western Journal of Applied Forestry 5(2):43-47.*

Lilieholm, R.J., and S.C. Hu. 1987. Effect of crown scorch on mortality and diameter growth of 19-year-old loblolly pine. Southern Journal of Applied Forestry 11(4):209-211.*

Lilieholm, R.J., and S.C. Hu. 1985. Effects of thinning on soil moisture and growth of young loblolly pine in southeastern Louisiana. Pages 550-554 in Proceedings of the Third Biennial Southern Silvicultural Research Conference, USDA Forest Service, General Technical Report SO-54. 589 pages.

Lilieholm research

Professional Memberships & Associations

  • Society of American Foresters
  • Int’ Assoc. for Society & Nat. Res.
  • American Planning Association
  • Society for Human Ecology
  • Small Woodlot Owners Assoc. of Maine
  • American Tree Farm Association
  • Maine Farm Bureau

Courses Taught

  • FTY 611: Research Problems in Forest Economics
  • FTY 617: Forest Policy Problems
  • FTY 446: Forest Resources Policy & Ethics (3 credits)
  • FTY 444: Forest Economics (3 credits)
  • Honors 341: Sprawl, Private Property Rights & Env. Protection (3 credits)

Africa picture      African lion

Current Graduate Students

• Jessica Jansujwicz (Ph.D.) – Jessica’s research explores the promise and peril of collaborative natural resource planning as applied to the protection of vernal pools in Maine.

• James Marciano (Ph.D.) – Jim is examining public perceptions of forest-based biorefineries in Maine.

• Peter McBride (M.F.) – Pete is studying how Maine’s forest products industry has changed over the last decade in response to globalization and technological innovation.

• Mekbeb Tessema (Ph.D.) – Mekbeb’s research explores how local communities in and around the Tongass and Chugach National Forests in Alaska use and depend on forest resources.

• Charles Ravis (Ph.D.) – Chuck’s research examines the relationship between Maine’s protected lands and the long-term viability of the forest products industry.


School of Forest Resources
5755 Nutting Hall
The University of Maine
Orono, ME 04469-5755
Phone (207) 581-2841 | Fax: (207) 581-2875


The University of Maine
, Orono, Maine 04469
207-581-1110
A Member of the University of Maine System