Yale School of the Environment

Professional school at Yale University in forestry and environmental sciences

Yale School of the Environment (YSE) is a professional school of Yale University. It was founded to train foresters, and now trains environmental students through four 2 year degree programs (Master of Environmental Management, Master of Environmental Science, Master of Forestry, and Master of Forest Science), two 10 month mid career programs, and a 5 year PhD program. Still offering forestry instruction, the school has the oldest graduate forestry program in the United States. The school changed its name to the Yale School of the Environment in July 2020. It was previously the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

The school was founded in 1900 as the Yale Forest School, to provide high level forestry training suited to American conditions. At the urging of Yale alumnus Gifford Pinchot, his parents endowed the two year postgraduate program. At the time Pinchot was serving as Bernhard Fernow's successor as Chief of the Division of Forestry (predecessor of the U. S. Forest Service, USFS). Pinchot released two foresters from the division to start the school: fellow Yale graduate Henry Solon Graves and James Toumey. Graves became the School's first dean and Toumey its second. When the school opened, other places in the United States offered forestry training, but none had a post graduate program. (Both Pinchot and Graves had gone to Europe to study forestry after graduating from Yale.) In the fall of 1900, the New York State College of Forestry at Cornell had 24 students, Biltmore Forest School 9, and Yale 7. became one of the "charter members", along with William L. Bray of the New York State College of Forestry, by then reestablished at Syracuse University, and Raphael Zon, of the Ecological Society of America. In 1950, the "activist wing" of that society formed The Nature Conservancy. Beginning in 1912, Yale classes took occasional field trips to the land of the Crossett Lumber Company in Arkansas. For two decades from 1946 until 1966, the company provided the school a "camp," including cabins and a mess hall, used during spring coursework on forest management and wood products production. Yale students have also used a field camp at the Great Mountain Forest in northwestern Connecticut since 1941. Reflective of the expanding variety of environmental interests, the school changed its name to the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies in 1972. YSE hosts the bi annual Yale Environmental Sustainability Summit. The school's 16th and present dean is Ingrid "Indy" Burke, who replaced Sir Peter Crane in October, 2016. The school changed its name to Yale School of the Environment in July 2020 and, within the school, created a distinct Forest School with dedicated faculty and degrees. It also teaches the Yale College undergraduate courses needed for the Environmental Studies major.

Yale School of the Environment offers 17 joint degrees, three of which are external programs with Pace University School of Law, Vermont Law School, and Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.

The school offers classes at Kroon Hall, Sage Hall, Greeley Labs, Marsh Hall, the Environmental Science Center, and the houses at 301 Prospect St. and 380 Edwards St. Kroon Hall, the school's main building, is named for the philanthropist Richard Kroon (Yale Class of 1964). The building has of space. It is "a showcase of the latest developments in green building technology, a healthy and supportive environment for work and study, and a beautiful building that actively connects students, faculty, staff, and visitors with the natural world." The building obtained Platinum Rating under the LEED certification system. A three alarm fire burned several buildings within the Yale Myers Forest Camp on May 28, 2016. The damaged camp buildings and a new research center were rebuilt in 2017.

The school has an active tradition of student involvement in academic and extracurricular life. Many students take part in student interest groups, which organize events around environmental issues of interest to them. These groups range in interest from Conservation Finance and International Development, to the Built Environment and "Fresh & Salty: The Society for Marine and Coastal systems". There are also social and recreational groups, such as the Forestry Club, which every Friday organizes themed "TGIF" ("Thank God I'm a Forester") happy hours and school parties; the Polar Bear club, which swims monthly in Long Island Sound under the full moon (year round); Veggie Dinner, which is a weekly vegetarian dinner club; the Loggerrhythms, an a cappella singing group; and the student run BYO Café in Kroon Hall opened in 2010. A notable YSE tradition is the extravagant environmentally inspired decoration of graduation caps in preparation for commencement.