Dr. Shaw, CEMML’s “Founding Father,”
Announces Retirement

Dr. Robert B. Shaw, CEMML’s Director, has announced his retirement from Colorado State University effective 1 May 2007. Dr. Shaw departs after 25 years of research, teaching and service to CSU as a faculty member (Professor in the Departments of Range Science; Forest Science; and Forest, Range and Watershed Stewardship) in the Warner College of Natural Resources and as CEMML’s first Director. In 1985, Dr. Shaw planted the seeds for CEMML’s growth and international recognition as a University-based center of excellence to support military lands management. He collaborated with Army researchers to conduct the first inventories on the condition of grasslands associated with the Army’s acquisition of the 245,000 acre Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site in southeastern Colorado.

In the late 1980’s the development of the Army’s Integrated Training Area Management and Land Condition-Trend Analysis programs by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (USACERL) led to a major effort to inventory and monitor training lands on installations throughout the U.S. In cooperation with the Army and USACERL, CEMML played a major role in training installation personnel and in implementing these land management programs. Dr. Shaw led a group of CEMML field researchers in the botanical survey of Pohakuloa Training Area on the island of Hawaii, which resulted in the discovery of nearly two dozen rare and endangered plants, including the rediscovery of Tetramolopium arenarium (A. Gray) Hillebr., previously thought to be extinct, and a newly described species, Tetramolopium diersingii Shaw and Lowery.

In 1991, CEMML was officially designated by Colorado State University as a research Center and began a period of rapid growth and success in supporting the Army’s land management programs. Today CEMML employs over 250 professionals on military installations throughout the U.S. in support of natural and cultural resource management and environmental programs.

Dr. Shaw’s professional contributions to Army land management and conservation include the development and application of carrying capacity concepts (tracked vehicle days - TVD) to military lands and numerous studies on the long-term impacts of military activities and disturbance on vegetation and endangered species. He has published over 50 technical reports and professional journal articles on this research, and has participated in technical exchange programs for military lands management with the United Kingdom, Republic of South Africa, Australia and Germany.

Though Dr. Shaw is an avid golfer, he will not be cruising the fairways full time. He is returning to his home state of Texas and alma mater, Texas A&M University (College Station, TX), to assume duties as Associate Director of the Institute of Renewable Natural Resources and Professor in the Department of Rangeland Ecology and Management. The Institute of Renewable Natural Resources is a unit of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station (TAES) and Texas Cooperative Extension (TCE). The Institute fosters research and extension programs focused on natural resource science and management.