Sam Austin
Forest Policy Analyst
Sam provides forest analytics and policy support to the SELC’s Forest Resources and Biomass Energy teams. He also fields policy questions from colleagues whose work intersects with forests, ecology, and hydrology.
Prior to SELC, Sam worked as a U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist for almost 20 years. He studied freshwater movement in the Chesapeake Bay, evaluated hydrological drought in the Lower 48 states, and assessed Virginia’s surface water flows and West Virginia’s flood flows. He also served as forest hydrologist for the Virginia Department of Forestry.
“Now more than ever it is essential to understand the characteristics of our ecological systems and the consequences of human actions and policy decisions that can change states of ecosystem organization for better, or for worse,” Sam said. “SELC is committed to effectively defending policies that support and protect the natural systems we depend on and enjoy, and to effectively challenging policies that harm people and our environment.”
Sam grew up surrounded by the farms and coal mines of west central Pennsylvania, then beside the Big Coal River in West Virginia, and later near the Clinch River, in southwest Virginia. He now lives near the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. His favorite areas in the SELC region are in the Appalachians, particularly “the higher peaks and balds of the Black Mountain Range near Asheville.”
- U.S. Geological Survey, Virginia and West Virginia Water Science Center, hydrologist
- Virginia Department of Forestry, forest hydrologist
- M.F., Duke University School of the Environment
- B.A., Warren Wilson College