John Schelhas
Biographic Data
| ID | 628455 |
|---|---|
| NAME | John Schelhas |
| GIVEN NAMES | John |
| FAMILY NAME | Schelhas |
| SIGNATURE | SCHELHAS J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Southern Research Station |
| ORCID | 0009-0004-0233-3391 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 96 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The contributions of community forests to rural prosperity in the United States
Broken links: How rural forest landowners in the southeastern United States contemplate forests, climate change, and bioenergy
What family forest owners talk about when they talk about trees: Bioenergy and forest landscapes in the U.S. South
Family forest owners in the southern United States have complex relationships with trees and forests rooted in a long history of forest-based rural economies and land use change. As the South is the primary wood-producing region in the U.S., economic and utilitarian valuations of forests are stronger here than in other parts of the country. However, forests are also deeply valued for aesthetics, recreation, wildlife (game and non-game), family hi…
Community Forests” in the United States – How Do we Know One When we See One
Community forests (CFs) involve communities in decision-making about, management of and access to forests, and have potential to benefit both communities and forests. However, they lack a single definition, clear distinction from related topics, or method for identification. This perspectives article explores historical and current literature on CFs and proposes a conceptual framework for understanding CFs and related concepts in the U.S. context…
Reforesting the Earth: The Human Drivers of Forest Conservation, Restoration, and Expansion
The Anthropology of Bioenergy: Forests and Communities in The Southeastern United States
Bioenergy companies have proposed and constructed numerous industrial plants for wood-based bioenergy production; while they envision and plan these facilities in distant locales, they build the plants at a commercial scale in specific communities in the southeastern United States. Ethnographic research can improve understanding of how people in these communities, often rural, heavily forested, and economically impoverished Southern towns, view a…
Managing forests for culturally significant plants in traditional Cherokee homelands: Emerging platforms
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), and the USDA Forest Service are engaged in integrated research and action to manage forests for culturally significant plants within portions of traditional Cherokee homelands. The effort seeks to support EBCI arts, food sovereignty, and cultural practices while promoting coordinated forest stewardship guided by Cherokee knowledge. The focus area includes the Qualla Boundary (EBCI tribal lands); the Pi…
Safe havens: The intersection of family, religion, and community in black cultural landscapes of the southeastern United States
Integrating Research and Outreach for Environmental Justice: African American Land Ownership and Forestry
Issues with land ownership and engagement in forestry have been intractable problems that have long impeded wealth development among African Americans in the rural South. Over a 6-year period, an integrated outreach and research program, the Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Program, implemented community-based projects, built networks among relevant organizations, changed policies, and developed new knowledge to address th…
Zen and the Art of the Selfie Stick: Blogging the John Muir Trail Thru-Hiking Experience
For cultures around the world, a journey, particularly one undertaken by foot through landscapes that are simultaneously natural and cultural, is both a metaphor for the discovery of the self and the divine and an embodied practice in the physical realm. Here we analyze twenty-six publicly available blogs of thru-hikers of the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, U.S.A. Cognizant of the critiques of the intrusion of techn…
Exploring Diversity in Forest Management Outlooks of African American Family Forest Landowners for Ensuring Sustainability of Forestry Resources in the Southern United States
Gatekeepers, Shareholders, and Evangelists: Expanding Communication Networks of African American Forest Landowners in North Carolina
The Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Program (SFLR) was launched in 2012 to increase adoption of sustainable forestry practices among African American landowners in the southeastern United States to prevent land loss, increase forest health, and build economic assets. One of its main goals was to build communication networks through which African American landowners could obtain and share information about forestry practic…
Envisioning and implementing wood-based bioenergy systems in the southern United States: Imaginaries in everyday talk
Even our Dairy Queen shut down”: Risk and resilience in bioenergy development in forest-dependent communities in the US South
Wood-based bioenergy in the US South is a key element in a sociotechnical imaginary that brings together rural development, energy independence, and environmental sustainability; it is also a key element in another imaginary in which powerful interest groups from the private sector and government collude in ways that enrich them regardless of success of the endeavor, while simultaneously posing risks to the host community. We contend that bioener…
Forest ecosystem-service transitions: The Ecological Dimensions of the Forest Transition
Wilson, S. J., J. Schelhas, R. Grau, A. S. Nanni, and S. Sloan. 2017. Forest ecosystem-service transitions: the ecological dimensions of the forest transition. Ecology and Society 22(4):38. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09615-220438
Snake Oil, Silver Buckshot, and People Who Hate Us: Metaphors and Conventional Discourses of Wood-based Bioenergy in the Rural Southeastern United States
Multiple experiences and sources of information influence ideas about wood-based bioenergy, and people often use similar language to reference various discourses (e.g., energy independence, rural development, environmental sustainability). We collected data during ethnographic research in three primary and three secondary field sites in the southeastern United States in which wood-based bioenergy facilities are located and at regional bioenergy c…
Where the Sidewalk Ends: Sustainable Mobility in Atlanta's Cascade Community
Roughly one third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are travel-related, and much of these are from routine, short trips that can be controlled by individual consumers. Because of this, sustainability advocates encourage greater use of alternative transportation modes such as mass transit and non-motorized transport to help limit carbon dioxide emissions. However, the efficacy of such prescriptions is contingent upon the social and physical context…
Environmental Globalization, Organizational Form, and Expected Benefits from Protected Areas in Central America
Environmental globalization has led to the implementation of conservation efforts like the creation of protected areas that often promote the interests of core countries in poorer regions. The creation of protected areas in poor areas frequently creates tensions between human needs like food and shelter and environmental conservation. Support for such conservation efforts partially depends on expectations of benefits by those impacted. This artic…
Post-Frontier Forest Change Adjacent to Braulio Carrillo National Park, Costa Rica
Forest Values of National Park Neighbors in Costa Rica
Global environmental concern and action have increased markedly over the past few decades. Rather than resulting in uniform environmental values across the globe, we argue that distinct environmentalisms are socially constructed in different places through the complex interactions between the global environmental values and locally unique historical, political, and environmental factors. We analyze forest-related mental and cultural models-includ…
Does Race Matter in Landowners' Participation in Conservation Incentive Programs
This study investigated and compared the participation behavior of white and minority small landowners in Alabama in eight conservation incentive programs. Using nonparametric tests and logit modeling, we found both similarities and differences in participation behavior between these two landowner groups. Both white and minority landowners tended not to participate in conservation incentive programs, and were equally likely to participate in the …
Community Participation in Ecotourism Benefits: The Link to Conservation Practices and Perspectives
Conservationists have increasingly turned to ecotourism to provide local economic benefits while maintaining ecosystem integrity. Research conducted in Costa Rica to examine models linking conservation and development indicates ecotourism's effectiveness as a conservation strategy has been mixed. Where ecotourism offers a viable economic alternative, tourism opportunities have induced people to abandon cultivated land, allowing forests to regener…
Peasants against Globalization: Rural Social Movements in Costa Rica
Peasants against Globalization: Rural Social Movements in Costa Rica. Marc Edelman. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999. 308 pp
Forest Conservation, Value Conflict, and Interest Formation in a Honduran National Park
We argue that attempts to superimpose park regulatory regimes on existing land uses in the tropics represent conflicts between alternative cultural models of natural resource management. The results of such conflicts are unique regulatory regimes emerging from distinctive processes that redefine the terms and limits of natural resource use. In creating a scarcity of available resources, parks encourage social differentiation and greater awareness…
Environmental values and forest patch conservation in a rural Costa Rican community
Community Participation in Ecotourism Benefits: The Link to Conservation Practices and Perspectives
Conservationists have increasingly turned to ecotourism to provide local economic benefits while maintaining ecosystem integrity. Research conducted in Costa Rica to examine models linking conservation and development indicates ecotourism's effectiveness as a conservation strategy has been mixed. Where ecotourism offers a viable economic alternative, tourism opportunities have induced people to abandon cultivated land, allowing forests to regener…
Envisioning and implementing wood-based bioenergy systems in the southern United States: Imaginaries in everyday talk
Forest Conservation, Value Conflict, and Interest Formation in a Honduran National Park
We argue that attempts to superimpose park regulatory regimes on existing land uses in the tropics represent conflicts between alternative cultural models of natural resource management. The results of such conflicts are unique regulatory regimes emerging from distinctive processes that redefine the terms and limits of natural resource use. In creating a scarcity of available resources, parks encourage social differentiation and greater awareness…
Does Race Matter in Landowners' Participation in Conservation Incentive Programs
This study investigated and compared the participation behavior of white and minority small landowners in Alabama in eight conservation incentive programs. Using nonparametric tests and logit modeling, we found both similarities and differences in participation behavior between these two landowner groups. Both white and minority landowners tended not to participate in conservation incentive programs, and were equally likely to participate in the …
Gatekeepers, Shareholders, and Evangelists: Expanding Communication Networks of African American Forest Landowners in North Carolina
The Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Program (SFLR) was launched in 2012 to increase adoption of sustainable forestry practices among African American landowners in the southeastern United States to prevent land loss, increase forest health, and build economic assets. One of its main goals was to build communication networks through which African American landowners could obtain and share information about forestry practic…
Forest ecosystem-service transitions: The Ecological Dimensions of the Forest Transition
Wilson, S. J., J. Schelhas, R. Grau, A. S. Nanni, and S. Sloan. 2017. Forest ecosystem-service transitions: the ecological dimensions of the forest transition. Ecology and Society 22(4):38. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09615-220438
Where the Sidewalk Ends: Sustainable Mobility in Atlanta's Cascade Community
Roughly one third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are travel-related, and much of these are from routine, short trips that can be controlled by individual consumers. Because of this, sustainability advocates encourage greater use of alternative transportation modes such as mass transit and non-motorized transport to help limit carbon dioxide emissions. However, the efficacy of such prescriptions is contingent upon the social and physical context…
Building sustainable land uses on existing practices: Smallholder land use mosaics in tropical lowland Costa Rica
The rapid rate of tropical forest loss in recent years has prompted efforts to develop sustainable land uses. The success of these efforts has been hindered by the lack of an operational definition of sustainable land use and the overuse of a traditional‐modern dichotomy to evaluate sustainability. To address the former problem, six dimensions of sustainable land use are identified, permitting a more objective evaluation of sustainability. In res…
Post-Frontier Forest Change Adjacent to Braulio Carrillo National Park, Costa Rica
Environmental values and forest patch conservation in a rural Costa Rican community
Even our Dairy Queen shut down”: Risk and resilience in bioenergy development in forest-dependent communities in the US South
Wood-based bioenergy in the US South is a key element in a sociotechnical imaginary that brings together rural development, energy independence, and environmental sustainability; it is also a key element in another imaginary in which powerful interest groups from the private sector and government collude in ways that enrich them regardless of success of the endeavor, while simultaneously posing risks to the host community. We contend that bioener…
Snake Oil, Silver Buckshot, and People Who Hate Us: Metaphors and Conventional Discourses of Wood-based Bioenergy in the Rural Southeastern United States
Multiple experiences and sources of information influence ideas about wood-based bioenergy, and people often use similar language to reference various discourses (e.g., energy independence, rural development, environmental sustainability). We collected data during ethnographic research in three primary and three secondary field sites in the southeastern United States in which wood-based bioenergy facilities are located and at regional bioenergy c…
Environmental Globalization, Organizational Form, and Expected Benefits from Protected Areas in Central America
Environmental globalization has led to the implementation of conservation efforts like the creation of protected areas that often promote the interests of core countries in poorer regions. The creation of protected areas in poor areas frequently creates tensions between human needs like food and shelter and environmental conservation. Support for such conservation efforts partially depends on expectations of benefits by those impacted. This artic…
Integrating Research and Outreach for Environmental Justice: African American Land Ownership and Forestry
Issues with land ownership and engagement in forestry have been intractable problems that have long impeded wealth development among African Americans in the rural South. Over a 6-year period, an integrated outreach and research program, the Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Program, implemented community-based projects, built networks among relevant organizations, changed policies, and developed new knowledge to address th…
Building sustainable land uses on existing practices: Smallholder land use mosaics in tropical lowland Costa Rica
The rapid rate of tropical forest loss in recent years has prompted efforts to develop sustainable land uses. The success of these efforts has been hindered by the lack of an operational definition of sustainable land use and the overuse of a traditional‐modern dichotomy to evaluate sustainability. To address the former problem, six dimensions of sustainable land use are identified, permitting a more objective evaluation of sustainability. In res…
Land Use Choice and Change: Intensification and Diversification in the Lowland Tropics of Costa Rica
Processes of intensification and diversification of land use in a humid, lowland tropical area of Costa Rica are discussed through the application of Boserup's model of agricultural intensification. Environmental conditions and cultural factors are integrated into Boserup's model to provide a framework for understanding choices between beef and dual-purpose cattle systems, permanent cash crops (black pepper and coffee), forest, and off-farm emplo…
Environmental values and forest patch conservation in a rural Costa Rican community
Peasants against Globalization: Rural Social Movements in Costa Rica
Peasants against Globalization: Rural Social Movements in Costa Rica. Marc Edelman. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999. 308 pp
Forest Conservation, Value Conflict, and Interest Formation in a Honduran National Park
We argue that attempts to superimpose park regulatory regimes on existing land uses in the tropics represent conflicts between alternative cultural models of natural resource management. The results of such conflicts are unique regulatory regimes emerging from distinctive processes that redefine the terms and limits of natural resource use. In creating a scarcity of available resources, parks encourage social differentiation and greater awareness…
Community Participation in Ecotourism Benefits: The Link to Conservation Practices and Perspectives
Conservationists have increasingly turned to ecotourism to provide local economic benefits while maintaining ecosystem integrity. Research conducted in Costa Rica to examine models linking conservation and development indicates ecotourism's effectiveness as a conservation strategy has been mixed. Where ecotourism offers a viable economic alternative, tourism opportunities have induced people to abandon cultivated land, allowing forests to regener…
Forest Values of National Park Neighbors in Costa Rica
Global environmental concern and action have increased markedly over the past few decades. Rather than resulting in uniform environmental values across the globe, we argue that distinct environmentalisms are socially constructed in different places through the complex interactions between the global environmental values and locally unique historical, political, and environmental factors. We analyze forest-related mental and cultural models-includ…
Does Race Matter in Landowners' Participation in Conservation Incentive Programs
This study investigated and compared the participation behavior of white and minority small landowners in Alabama in eight conservation incentive programs. Using nonparametric tests and logit modeling, we found both similarities and differences in participation behavior between these two landowner groups. Both white and minority landowners tended not to participate in conservation incentive programs, and were equally likely to participate in the …
Environmental Globalization, Organizational Form, and Expected Benefits from Protected Areas in Central America
Environmental globalization has led to the implementation of conservation efforts like the creation of protected areas that often promote the interests of core countries in poorer regions. The creation of protected areas in poor areas frequently creates tensions between human needs like food and shelter and environmental conservation. Support for such conservation efforts partially depends on expectations of benefits by those impacted. This artic…
Post-Frontier Forest Change Adjacent to Braulio Carrillo National Park, Costa Rica
Snake Oil, Silver Buckshot, and People Who Hate Us: Metaphors and Conventional Discourses of Wood-based Bioenergy in the Rural Southeastern United States
Multiple experiences and sources of information influence ideas about wood-based bioenergy, and people often use similar language to reference various discourses (e.g., energy independence, rural development, environmental sustainability). We collected data during ethnographic research in three primary and three secondary field sites in the southeastern United States in which wood-based bioenergy facilities are located and at regional bioenergy c…
Where the Sidewalk Ends: Sustainable Mobility in Atlanta's Cascade Community
Roughly one third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are travel-related, and much of these are from routine, short trips that can be controlled by individual consumers. Because of this, sustainability advocates encourage greater use of alternative transportation modes such as mass transit and non-motorized transport to help limit carbon dioxide emissions. However, the efficacy of such prescriptions is contingent upon the social and physical context…
Envisioning and implementing wood-based bioenergy systems in the southern United States: Imaginaries in everyday talk
Even our Dairy Queen shut down”: Risk and resilience in bioenergy development in forest-dependent communities in the US South
Wood-based bioenergy in the US South is a key element in a sociotechnical imaginary that brings together rural development, energy independence, and environmental sustainability; it is also a key element in another imaginary in which powerful interest groups from the private sector and government collude in ways that enrich them regardless of success of the endeavor, while simultaneously posing risks to the host community. We contend that bioener…
Forest ecosystem-service transitions: The Ecological Dimensions of the Forest Transition
Wilson, S. J., J. Schelhas, R. Grau, A. S. Nanni, and S. Sloan. 2017. Forest ecosystem-service transitions: the ecological dimensions of the forest transition. Ecology and Society 22(4):38. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09615-220438
Zen and the Art of the Selfie Stick: Blogging the John Muir Trail Thru-Hiking Experience
For cultures around the world, a journey, particularly one undertaken by foot through landscapes that are simultaneously natural and cultural, is both a metaphor for the discovery of the self and the divine and an embodied practice in the physical realm. Here we analyze twenty-six publicly available blogs of thru-hikers of the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, U.S.A. Cognizant of the critiques of the intrusion of techn…
Exploring Diversity in Forest Management Outlooks of African American Family Forest Landowners for Ensuring Sustainability of Forestry Resources in the Southern United States
Gatekeepers, Shareholders, and Evangelists: Expanding Communication Networks of African American Forest Landowners in North Carolina
The Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Program (SFLR) was launched in 2012 to increase adoption of sustainable forestry practices among African American landowners in the southeastern United States to prevent land loss, increase forest health, and build economic assets. One of its main goals was to build communication networks through which African American landowners could obtain and share information about forestry practic…
Integrating Research and Outreach for Environmental Justice: African American Land Ownership and Forestry
Issues with land ownership and engagement in forestry have been intractable problems that have long impeded wealth development among African Americans in the rural South. Over a 6-year period, an integrated outreach and research program, the Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Program, implemented community-based projects, built networks among relevant organizations, changed policies, and developed new knowledge to address th…
Safe havens: The intersection of family, religion, and community in black cultural landscapes of the southeastern United States
Managing forests for culturally significant plants in traditional Cherokee homelands: Emerging platforms
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), and the USDA Forest Service are engaged in integrated research and action to manage forests for culturally significant plants within portions of traditional Cherokee homelands. The effort seeks to support EBCI arts, food sovereignty, and cultural practices while promoting coordinated forest stewardship guided by Cherokee knowledge. The focus area includes the Qualla Boundary (EBCI tribal lands); the Pi…
The Anthropology of Bioenergy: Forests and Communities in The Southeastern United States
Bioenergy companies have proposed and constructed numerous industrial plants for wood-based bioenergy production; while they envision and plan these facilities in distant locales, they build the plants at a commercial scale in specific communities in the southeastern United States. Ethnographic research can improve understanding of how people in these communities, often rural, heavily forested, and economically impoverished Southern towns, view a…
What family forest owners talk about when they talk about trees: Bioenergy and forest landscapes in the U.S. South
Family forest owners in the southern United States have complex relationships with trees and forests rooted in a long history of forest-based rural economies and land use change. As the South is the primary wood-producing region in the U.S., economic and utilitarian valuations of forests are stronger here than in other parts of the country. However, forests are also deeply valued for aesthetics, recreation, wildlife (game and non-game), family hi…
Community Forests” in the United States – How Do we Know One When we See One
Community forests (CFs) involve communities in decision-making about, management of and access to forests, and have potential to benefit both communities and forests. However, they lack a single definition, clear distinction from related topics, or method for identification. This perspectives article explores historical and current literature on CFs and proposes a conceptual framework for understanding CFs and related concepts in the U.S. context…
Reforesting the Earth: The Human Drivers of Forest Conservation, Restoration, and Expansion
Geography (22 works) · Ecology (16 works) · Economics (16 works) · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management (15 works) · Business (13 works) · Environmental resource management (12 works) · Agroforestry (10 works) · Forest Management and Policy (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Forestry (7 works)