Ed Faison, PhD

As Senior Ecologist at Highstead, Ed’s work focuses on deer and moose interactions with forests, long-term forest change, wildlands, and natural climate solutions. Ed also advises conservation groups, educators, and land trusts about stewardship and forest monitoring.

Ed has been at Highstead since 2006 after working for several years at Harvard Forest as a research assistant. He holds masters degrees from the University of Vermont and Harvard, and a PhD from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  While at Harvard, Ed was awarded the 2005-2006 Bowdoin Prize for Graduate Essays in the Natural Sciences, and in 2015 was runner-up for the Forest History Society’s John M. Collier Award for Forest History Journalism. His work has been published in scientific and popular journals including Ecology, Arnoldia, Conservation Letters, CT Woodlands, and Forest Ecology and Management.

Ed enjoys trail running, big tree hunting, and visiting natural and wilderness areas.

Ed continues to be passionate about providing data-driven understanding of ecological topics to the general public, as well as promoting wildlands as a natural climate solution and critical component of New England land conservation.