Thomas R. Vale

Emeritus Professor of Geography

Professor, Institute for Environmental Studies

Education

PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 1973


Research Areas

Physical Geography, Biogeography, Natural Resources, Nature Protection, Western United States.


Research

Physical geography: integrative perspective on environmental systems, with attention to patterns of temporal change.

Biogeography: recent vegetation change, such as tree invasion of meadows, especially in the American West; degrees of naturalness and human impacts on vegetation; structure of animal communities, as expressed in functional guilds, and relations between those structures and environmental characteristics.

Natural Resources: synthetic view of landscape reserves for nature protection, especially in the United States, with special attention to the
meanings of such landscapes and their legitimacy as both resources and places.

American West: characteristics and distinctiveness of Western landscapes and the ways that they express linkages between people and nature.

Recent Publications

“Vertebrate Communities in California’s Sierra Nevada: Relations to Environmental Condition and Change in Spatial Scale,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, (2001)

Fire, Native Peoples, and the Natural Landscape (2002)

“From Frederick Clements and William Morris Davis to Stephen Jay Gould and Daniel Botkin: Ideals of Progress in Physical Geography,” Progress: Geographical Essays (2002)

“Landscape Change, Global Change, and the Wisdom of Roy Bedichek,” Physical Geography (2002)

Contact Information

University of Wisconsin
Department of Geography
550 North Park Street
Madison, WI 53706-1404

Phone (608) 262-6301
vale@geography.wisc.edu

Tom is well known for his colorful shirts and entertaining lectures!

Awards and Honors

James J. Parsons Distinguished Career Award.

Biogeography Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers, 2000.