Don Field’s research interests include human ecological patterns associated with natural resources in community-regional or landscape systems.
Emphasis in these systems is directed at the relationship of parks and protected areas to adjacent land use patterns.
Don has been a leader in demonstrating the relationship between the social and biological sciences and their connection within interdisciplinary research projects.
He has served ten years as Regional Chief Scientist and Associate Regional Director of Science, Pacific Northwest Region, National Park Service.
Don has also served nine years as Associate Dean, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and Associate Director of the Wisconsin Agriculture Experiment Station and Director of the School of Natural Resources, all at the University of Wisconsin.
In between, he has served as a professor in forestry at the University of Washington and Oregon State University. He has authored or co-authored numerous articles for such journals as Rural Sociology, Water Resources, Journal of Leisure Research, Leisure Sciences, and Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, and has written or co-edited 10 books, including Rural Sociology and the Environment, Community and Forestry, On Interpretation and National Parks, and Rural Development.
Don is the co-founding Editor of Society and Natural Resources, was co-editor of Leisure Sciences, and Associate Editor of the Journal of Leisure Research.
His awards include Meritorious Service from the Department of Interior, Award of Merit from the Rural Sociological Society’s Natural Resources Research Group, NRPA’s National Research (Roosevelt) Award, and a Senior Scholar Fulbright award to Australia.