Beverly E. Law

Beverly Law is an American forest scientist. She is professor emeritus at Oregon State University known for her research on forest ecosystems, especially with respect to carbon cycling, fire, and how human actions impact future climate.

Early life and education Law was born in St. Paul, Minnesota and grew up on a lake where her grandfather taught her about the woods; she describes herself as someone who loved birds, forests, and being outdoors. Going to college, she was split between marine biology and forest ecology, but decided on forest ecology after taking a class from Katherine Ewel. She earned her B.S. in forest management from the University of Florida in 1980. After college she worked at multiple places including AT&T, the University of Florida, and the Environmental Protection Agency in Oregon presentations at websites, and newspapers.

Research Law's research combines direct measurements of forest data, remote sensing, and modeling that spans from regional to global scales. Her Ph.D. research established the metrics needed to estimate aerial coverage of different types of vegetation from space and then used that information to assess net primary production in Oregon. At Oregon State, she quantified temporal changes in respiration in a pine forest through measuring changes in carbon dioxide levels. While building the equipment needed to measure photosynthesis in this project she realized that the spikes in carbon dioxide were caused by cars waiting at a nearby traffic light which she described as an "ah-ha" moment that expanded her interest in global change research. Law's research has revealed that allowing old-growth forests to live longer increases carbon storage by forests relative to planting of new forests. A 2020 investigation by ProPublica revealed that the Oregon Forest Resources Institute, a state-funded agency, was acting as a lobbying arm for the timber industry while discrediting this research despite the fact that the paper passed peer review. More recently, Law contributed to an article looking at the relationship between the wildfires caused by climate change and their impact on human health, particularly the exposure to wildfire particulate matter across the United States.

In 2006 a paper was published on the role of logging in the recovery of an area after the 2002 Biscuit Fire; a series of lightning-caused fires in the Siskiyou National Forest burning nearly half a million acres of forest. The paper was controversial (e.g., Biscuit Fire publication controversy) and resulted in a series of articles following up the initial publication. Subsequent research by Law and colleagues revealed carbon emissions from the fire was 16 times higher than the region's annual production in the years prior to the fire.

Selected publications

Awards and honors Fellow, American Geophysical Union (2014) Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow (2004) Norbert Gerbier-MUMM International Award, World Meteorological Organization for Law et al. (2002) paper,