Skip to main content

Daniel Walton

Daniel Walton Daniel Walton, a native of The Woodlands, Texas, and graduate of the forest resources management program, didn’t know forestry would be for him until he arrived at WVU.

Walton began his collegiate career as an environmental geology student at another university, but left after finding the subject wasn’t to his liking. From an early age, he had heard about forestry from his great-grandfather who often talked about wanting to be a forester even though he was a chemist.

“I had always thought I’d like to be involved in environmental sciences, but it just didn’t click,” Walton said. “I knew my great granddad, and he was a cool guy, so forestry was always in the back of my mind. After I left Pitt, I went on a hike along the Appalachian Trail, and that got me thinking more directly about forests and forestry.”

In 2011, Walton enrolled in forestry classes at WVU.

“I didn’t know that forestry was going to be my thing until I got to WVU,” he said. “One of my first classes was forest ecology, and I did really well; I liked it. A lot of that was due to the professors – they were all fantastic. That drew me in and I got really engaged.”

As a student, Walton was a recipient of the Ben Meadows Natural Resource Scholarship from the Society of American Foresters.

 

The $2,500 scholarship is awarded annually to a student who is working toward a bachelor of arts or science degree in agroforestry, urban forestry, environmental studies, natural-resource management, natural-resource recreation, wildlife management, wood science, fisheries management, or related disciplines.