The current Executive Director, William Schuster, PhD, announced last fall that he would be stepping down as director in October 2022 after 30 years of dedicated service. Under his leadership Black Rock Forest has grown into a biological field station of national significance, featuring an award-winning “green” campus supporting more than 13,000 student-visitor days in the Forest each year as well as some 50 – 100,000 annual public visitors. More than 700 scientific papers have resulted from work at Black Rock Forest since it was founded in 1927 with the great majority produced since the Consortium was formed in 1989. Dr. Schuster was honored for his service on May 5 during Black Rock Forest’s Annual Benefit at the Metropolitan Club in New York City and received the organization’s E. G. Stillman award.
The William S.F. Schuster, PhD, Fund for Research was established to support future science research at Black Rock Forest, including, but not limited to, projects such as the ecological connectivity research currently underway at Black Rock Forest. This Fund will strengthen the research component of Black Rock Forest’s mission to advance scientific understanding of the natural world through research, education and conservation programs and will provide a legacy for Dr. Schuster’s work to be extended at Black Rock Forest. It was founded by generous benefactors to honor three decades of Bill Schuster’s consequential leadership of Black Rock Forest, with the goal of raising $500,000 in an endowed fund, to ensure that research at Black Rock Forest remains financially supported and continues to make important new discoveries over the long term.