Ralph Johnson is the Project Leader for the Nebraska Forest Service in the areas of Wood Products Marketing, Utilization and Inventory with primary focus on the utilization of woody biomass. He came to the Nebraska Forest Service from Purdue University where he taught courses in natural resources measurement and quantitative analysis and served for a short time as the Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension Educator in Vermillion County, Indiana. He worked as a biometrician and forester for the USDA Forest Service for more than 30 years, where he provided expertise in cruising, scaling, forest inventory and vegetation simulation. He was instrumental in expanding the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) to many forested ecosystems in the United States. He has worked in continuing education for the University of Montana, where he was a program manager for the UMOnline distance education program.

Ralph received a B.S. in Forest Management from Humboldt State University, M.F. from Oregon State University, M.A. from Colorado State University and Ph.D. from Colorado State University. His doctorate specialty is in professional continuing education.

Ralph brings experience in natural resources measurement combined with experience in distance learning and professional continuing education. His current tasks include supervising programs in biomass, forest inventory and GIS and managing NFS properties.

Ralph and his wife, Sharon, raise a small flock of Hampshire sheep and enjoy their four grandsons and a granddaughter.