1. American Journal of Public Health | Published online ahead of print October 16, 2014
with a “homesteader grandfather
who was nutty for horses.” His
father, employed only part time
through the Depression-era Works
Progress Administration, intro-
duced him to the West’s national
parks on extended fishing and
camping adventures through
Montana, Idaho, and Oregon.
“This became a significant part of
my identity,” says Burch. So much
so that he would devote his doc-
toral thesis at the University of
Minnesota to the subject. For
Burch, the study of wilderness,
recreation and family together-
ness was a way to reveal the
united States’ ongoing political
and historical dance with our en-
vironment and to foster a sense of
humility and cooperation with the
natural world.
His appreciation for the “other
side of the American story” was
sharpened during his years as an
undergraduate at the University
of Oregon during the late 1950s.
Working as a janitor and window
cleaner to supplement his stu-
dent loans, Burch was unable to
resist taking up the cause of his
fellow workers, whom he felt
were badly underpaid. He be-
came president of a Building Ser-
vices Local union, organizing
local union groups and urging
employees to get involved. “You
recognize the stress and the diffi-
culty of their situation. There are
a lot of folks worse off than you,
and you have responsibilities
BILL BURCH IS REVERED FOR
his humility and kindness as well
as groundbreaking work in urban
forestry.
How do we use our potential
for better survival and opportu-
nity? Bill Burch is thrilled by
questions like this.
A groundbreaker in the com-
munity forestry movement and
in particular the field of urban
⏐ FACES OF PUBLIC HEALTH ⏐
e1 | Faces of Public Health | Geller
| Alyson Geller, MPH
ecology, Burch has revitalized
communities and empowered
vulnerable populations. His keen
focus on the human dimension
of forestry has earned him a rep-
utation as a consummate com-
munity builder as well as a hum-
ble and beloved teacher and
colleague.
As Frederick C. Hixon Profes-
sor Emeritus of Natural Resource
Management and Senior Re-
search Scientist at Yale’s School
of Forestry and Environmental
Studies, Burch was the first direc-
tor of Yale’s Tropical Resources
Institute and Urban Resource Ini-
tiative. He has held numerous so-
cial science and research man-
agement appointments with the
US Forest Service, National Park
Service and Connecticut Depart-
ment of Environmental Protec-
tion and has been a grantee on
projects in Asia and Latin Amer-
ica sponsored by US AID, The
Ford Foundation, the MacArthur
Foundation and the World Wild-
life Fund. His innovative work on
community forestry systems in-
cludes projects throughout South-
east Asia as well as the parks and
open spaces of Baltimore, Mary-
land; New Haven, Connecticut;
and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
A HEART AS BIG AS THE
WORLD
Burch grew up walking in the
woods near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho,
Bill Burch
Urban Forestry Pioneer, Compassionate Community Builder
Above: Bill Burch, Blanchard, Maine.
Right: Burch and friends. “The dogs
reflect the story of how black and
white – well, grey — can survive in
the wilderness.”

2. Published online ahead of print October 16, 2014 | American Journal of Public Health Geller | Faces of Public Health | e2
⏐ FACES OF PUBLIC HEALTH ⏐
says. At a time when there had
been little faith in urban vitality,
Burch adjusted the lens, viewing
cities as ecosystems composed of
multiple watersheds, and viewing
maintenance crews as community
foresters who would have the
skills to map, organize, and work
with individual neighborhoods.
The Baltimore URI, and soon
after that initiatives in New
Haven and Philadelphia, would
give rise to a new kind of ecol-
ogy that recognized the distinc-
tive features, challenges, and
promises found in the urban set-
ting. In 1997, the National Sci-
ence Foundation would acknowl-
edge this movement by funding
the nation’s first urban long-term
research sites, one of which
would be the Baltimore Ecosys-
tem Study. Today there are 26
urban long-term sites in the
United States.
School of Forestry students
with their bags packed for Far
East locales were persuaded in
the generous and good-natured
way that only Burch could per-
suade them, to stay local and
work with URI. On both sides of
the world, people were dispos-
sessed of the land, he told them.
In both places people needed to
be empowered to take ownership
of their environments. Moreover,
much of what we learn from US
cities can reveal meaningful les-
sons about how we investigate
rural villages. Burch promised
one graduate student, “Every-
thing you wanted to do in Laos
or Thailand you can do in Balti-
more.” Morgan Grove would join
Burch as Co-Principal Investiga-
tor of the Baltimore Ecosystem
Study. Twenty-five years later, he
is still overseeing the project.
In places like Nepal and
Northern Philippines, communi-
ties are naturally bound to their
environments, says Burch. “In
In 1983, Burch was named
Founding Director of Yale’s new
Tropical Resources Institute
(TRI), an enterprise that would
provide generations of students
with opportunities to promote
environmental stewardship
through research, outreach, and
conservation management.
Today, TRI continues to flourish,
facilitating hundreds of in-country
collaborations and partnerships
with organizations working
throughout tropical regions.
“YOU’VE GOT TO DO THAT
HERE!”
Burch enthusiastically shared
all that he was learning overseas
about the potential for parks and
green space to support and ener-
gize local communities—and it
was during one such discussion
that a colleague handed him his
aha moment. As a member of a
conference panel on US national
parks, Burch was describing the
work he was doing with the Insti-
tute of Forestry in Nepal, training
government staff to work with
the community.
A fellow panel member named
Ralph Jones, who had just been
appointed Director of Baltimore
Recreation and Parks, turned to
me and shouted, “Why aren’t
you doing that with my parks
department?”
So Burch, who had never been
to Baltimore, did just that, work-
ing with Jones and Yale School of
Forestry Dean John Gordon to
establish the Yale Urban Re-
source Initiative (URI).
Ralph Jones’ unexpected death
shortly after this meeting com-
pelled Burch to see the effort
through. “We worked from the
script of the community forestry
work and launched a partnership
with the city of Baltimore,” Burch
because you are a university stu-
dent. You have to step up.” Burch
and his wife Judith befriended
many other student couples in
their Eugene neighborhood, in-
cluding an African American
man married to a white woman.
When the couple had a stillbirth
and were not allowed to bury the
child in Oregon, the Burches be-
came surrogate parents so that
the child could be buried there.
As in life, Burch’s work would be
distinguished by a powerful
sense of empathy and service.
In the decades to come,
themes generated by the civil
rights and environmental move-
ments would resonate for Burch,
sharpening his understanding of
people’s dependence upon their
communities as safe havens and
spaces for work, recreation and
gathering. In the wake of the
race riots of the 1960s,
communities were struggling,
suddenly dispossessed of their
neighborhoods. My interests
moved closer to issues of equity
in access to public services.
Burch’s extensive work
throughout Southeast Asia and
other developing regions fol-
lowed, as he felt there was much
to learn from communities who
depended so deeply upon their
environments. As a grantee on
projects sponsored by such orga-
nizations as the World Wildlife
Fund, USAID, and the Ford and
MacArthur Foundations, Burch
worked with governments,
schools, and local populations, to
provide residents with the ability
to tend and sustain the resources
they needed for survival. De-
voted to supporting those whose
lives depended on the forest,
Burch says, “I was like Willie
Loman in Southeast Asia, trying
to market community-based nat-
ural resources management.”

3. ⏐ FACES OF PUBLIC HEALTH ⏐
American Journal of Public Health | Published online ahead of print October 16, 2014e3 | Faces of Public Health | Geller
these were people who shared
her principals and were just try-
ing to maintain a life. The next
time I saw her she was dancing
in the streets—just enjoying the
fact that she had such a contri-
bution to make.
Self-proclaimed “Burch-o-
philes,” many of whom would
become his colleagues, refer to
Burch as the ultimate teacher,
humble, generous, and possess-
ing a profound understanding of
the human condition. In the tru-
est spirit of public health, Bill
Burch is guided by the people he
hopes to serve, taught by his stu-
dents, and energized by unex-
pected turns in the road.
He would shepherd his students
not for months but for years—so
wanting you to be successful. He
is very humble. He would tell
his students, “You need to recog-
nize this as a mutual path of
learning. You need to learn from
the community about their pri-
orities. They have a lot to teach
you about how things work in
their community.” He brought
this richness of observing a
place—such a broad, encompass-
ing way of looking at the land-
scape. Hundreds of students
have learned from him how to
rethink how we work in this
field. –Colleen Murphy Dunning,
Director, Urban Resources Initia-
tive, Yale School of Forestry and
Environmental Studies
Bill more than anything helped
me to see the beauty in urban
areas. We’d walk through New
York City or Philadelphia and
he would express the wonder of
a child alongside the under-
standing of a great master. He
continuously marvels at the way
in which human and natural
systems interact. I can’t enter a
new place without seeing the
patterns that Bill has taught me
to look for. –Marc Stern, Associ-
ate Professor, Department of
Forest Resources and Environ-
mental Conservation, Virginia
Tech
He is empathic and inspirational
and fiery. He has stuck with me
through time as a friend and a
mentor. I have a great deal of
gratitude. I can’t imagine what
my life would have been like
without him. –Morgan Grove,
US Forest Service Research Sci-
entist, Co-Principal Investigator,
Baltimore Ecosystem Study
Bill Burch has taught us that
from the get go it’s always
about the people. In the end,
our actions can improve the en-
vironment–engaging conserva-
tion and restoration activities
are so critical—but only as they
improve the lives of people. He
sees people as agents of positive
change, with the ability to orga-
nize and improve things. –Erika
Svendson, US Forest Service
Research Social Scientist and
Co-Director of the NYC Urban
Field Station
His work on awareness of peo-
ple and especially vulnerable
populations when it comes to
greening the city resonates with
those of us seeking to improve
population health and well-be-
ing. He is also a humble and
brilliant colleague, who is un-
failingly kind and respectful to
those of us he mentors and
guides. –Mary E. Northridge,
Editor in Chief, American Jour-
nal of Public Health
Bill is first and foremost not
cynical. He believes in what he
is doing and he believes there
are answers to things. I’ve
worked with him in underdevel-
oped and troubled areas. His
engaging lectures are not at the
expense of realism—he insists
on a certain level of academic
rigor. But you also have to
believe, and things can be
done. –Russell Barbour, Associ-
ate Director for Statistics and
Data Management at the Yale
Center for Interdisciplinary
Research on Aids
About the Author
Alyson Geller is a freelance writer and edi-
tor who has covered public health issues
such as healthy cities, tobacco control,
health care access, and women’s health.
Correspondence should be sent to Alyson
Geller, e-mail: alysong1@comcast.net. Re-
prints can be ordered at http://www.ajph.
org by clicking the “Reprints” link.
This article was accepted August 12,
2014.
doi:10.2105/AJPH.2014.302269
social gathering place and also a
long-term a project requiring
many hands to maintain it.
Student interns also were re-
quired to teach nature education
to children—to build a base of
kids who would then educate
their parents about things like lit-
tering and conserving water.
(“Kids are great for changing
their parents.”)
As people reclaimed their
neighborhoods, social isolation
diminished. “You knew who lived
in the house next door,” says
Burch. “And it’s where people
know and look after each other
that they have a greater chance
of surviving.”
TEACHING COMPASSION
Adopting the role of commu-
nity forester would require many
of Burch’s students to leave their
comfort zones. “To get people out
of the academic mix and into situ-
ations they would not normally
enter into – that was a major part
of their education – learning how
to adapt,” says Burch. “That is
what you had to do if you were
going to try to rebuild communi-
ties from the ground up.” An ad-
vocate of healthy skepticism
(though never cynicism) he en-
couraged his students to question
authority, “especially their own,”
and open their minds to options
they might not have considered.
Always he listened and supported
them, with characteristic kindness,
enthusiasm, and compassion.
Remembering one student
who seemed reluctant to venture
out of the office and into the
neighborhood Burch says,
I told her she had to dip her
foot into the dark waters if she
was going to learn anything. So
we went out together to talk
with the local people. We found
her a partner in the local com-
munity. And she learned that
Nepal, you’re trying to farm on
cliffs. The terrace is a critical part
of the mountain ecology.” Com-
munities are driven together by
the seasons, by religion, by
shared challenges, and this helps
them to whether the calamities,
he says. “They get through by
working with each other and get-
ting an answer.” For Burch, the
landscape of the city would like-
wise hold the potential to unify
and support its communities.
SITTING ON THE STOOP
Baltimore’s neighborhoods
blossomed under the URI. The
discovery of more effective water
systems would lead to a reduc-
tion in polluted runoff and more
productive tree planting. Over
time, sidewalks were canopied in
shade and native songbirds set-
tled in. Still, says Burch, gardens
and parks were not the end, but
“critical tools for bringing people
together who didn’t usually talk
to each other.” The most vibrant
renewal would be shaped by the
hands of community members as
they worked with each other to
address challenges.
Burch sent his students to Bal-
timore’s front stoops, where they
would be encouraged to sit by
people’s sides and listen. “You’re
not there to tell people what to
do,” says Burch. “You’re there to
ask questions and provide facili-
tation and skills. And in chatting
with people you’ll find that other
things come up.”
Residents were asked to iden-
tify their most pressing chal-
lenges and brainstorm solutions.
Students worked to connect them
to government agencies, local
businesses and with each other.
In this way, neighborhood resi-
dents transformed a trash-strewn
lot into a community garden
both sustaining and colorful—a