Dr. Birdsey was a lead author of two Special Reports for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He was a lead author of the first North American “State of the Carbon Cycle” report and is currently a member of the science team guiding the second report. A 2011 global forest inventory he co-authored has been cited more than three thousand times by subsequent scientific research. He has published extensively on forest management and strategies to increase carbon sequestration, and facilitated the development of decision-support tools for policy and management.
At the national level, Dr. Birdsey is working with the Forest Service to implement carbon assessments for all National Forests. Meanwhile, he is working with counties and municipalities to incorporate forests into their greenhouse gas inventories. When not at work, Dr. Birdsey can be found planting fruit and nut trees in upstate New York in hopes of making his property there self-sufficient for future generations.