Dr. Thom Erdle – 2021 New Brunswick Forestry Hall of Fame Recipient

The NB Forestry Hall of Fame, located at the Woodmen’s Museum in Boiestown, NB recognizes people for their “prominence and distinction in any field of forestry,” and for being a major contributor to the field in the province. In their release, the Association of Registered Professional Foresters of New Brunswick (ARPFNB) cited reasons for the selection of Dr. Erdle:
• his active participation in the organization since 1983
• his multiple awards as a teacher in Canada and New Zealand, and
• his accomplishments as a forestry professional.

As a double alumnus of UNB – obtaining both his BScF and PhD degrees (MScF from UBC) – Dr. Erdle is respected by his students and colleagues. After serving as head of Forest Management Planning in the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources, he joined the ForEM Faculty in 1996. Among Dr. Erdle’s career accomplishments at UNB, he designed and delivered inspirational and integrated undergraduate courses in forest management and landscape planning and was recognized with the Dr. Allan P. Stuart Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching (UNB’s highest teaching award), he was program director for the BSc in forestry degree program (2000-2020) and served as Assistant Dean (2011-2020). Dr. Erdle also supervised and advised many Masters and PhD candidates over his tenure at UNB.

Students describe Dr. Erdle as a professor who is highly organized, thoughtful, and engaging in his delivery of course materials. He requires students to think for themselves and challenges them to reason through problems as they develop their critical thinking skills. Dr. Erdle’s preparedness helped his lessons flow logically and clearly. His passion for quantitative precision and forest science rigour is matched by a desire to help students who struggle understanding the material.

Dr. Erdle was one of the architects of modern forest management. In the 1980’s, he helped transform and modernize forest management in NB by combining GIS and forest simulation in the development of sustainable forest management plans. His work was adopted across Canada and the world. Dr. Erdle serves as a forest management consultant for government, industry, and NGOs. He remains a member of the Nova Scotia Forest Biodiversity Science Advisory Committee, JD Irving Science Advisory Committee, and as a Registered Professional Forester of New Brunswick.

We thank Dr. Erdle for his contribution to our faculty, and students, and to forestry in our region and beyond. He has made a difference. We celebrate his well-deserved induction into the New Brunswick Forestry Hall of Fame.