Dr. Kuttner holds a B.Sc.F. degree in Forest Resource Management from the University of New Brunswick (1999), and a Master of Science in Forestry (1999) and Ph.D. in Forestry (2010) from the University of Toronto. Ben became a Registered Professional Forester in Ontario in 2001 and established Kuttner Forestry Consulting in 2003. He has over 20 years of professional experience as a forestry consultant on a wide array of projects for government, industry, and ENGO clients, including urban canopy cover assessments, urban forest management planning, environmental audits, wood supply analyses, program reviews, jurisdictional scans, policy development, market analysis and authoring forest management plans and reports. Ben recently served a 3-year term on Ontario’s Provincial Forest Policy Committee and was also Chair of the Urban Forest Working Group of the Ontario Professional Foresters Association from 2018-2021.
Dr. Kuttner is currently an Assistant Professor in the Graduate Department of Forestry and The Institute of Forestry and Conservation within the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto. Ben teaches undergraduate courses in bioenergy from sustainable forest management, sustainable forest products and field methods in forest conservation. He also teaches graduate courses in forest ecology and silviculture and forest management planning. Ben also remains active as a forestry consultant. Dr. Kuttner was the lead analyst and co author of Toronto’s 2018 Canopy Cover Study and acted as lead analyst of canopy cover in support of Oakville’s 2017-2027 Urban Forest Sustainable Forest Management Plan, which he also co-authored. In 2022, Kuttner Forestry Consulting completed an Urban Forest Canopy Study for the City of Guelph, in partnership with Diamond Head Consulting Ltd. In 2023 Kuttner Forestry Consulting developed a LiDAR-and multispectral imagery-derived tree population model/inventory for residential lands on Oakville in support of a Bill 23 impact study. Most recently, Ben co-authored a Woodlands Management Strategy and a woodland forest management plan for the Cities of Burlington and Vaughan.
