He received his Ph.D. in botany in 1971 from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse. His dissertation, on the history of Catskill forests, was the beginning of a lifelong study. It was later expanded and published in book form as The Catskill Forest: A History.
He received his Ph.D. in botany from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse in 1971. His initial research on the history of Catskill forests marked the beginning of an ongoing inquiry, which was later developed into a comprehensive publication titled The Catskill Forest: A History.