Dr. Oliver has a wide geographic range of expertise. Much of his early work is incorporated in a book he wrote entitled Forest Stand Dynamics (1990, and update edition in 1996) with a former student as co-author. He is currently working on landscape approaches to management and global resource issues and is involved in the technical tools, policies, and management approaches. He is interested in integrated, global, trade-off approaches to sustaining renewable energy, biodiversity, other resources, and human quality of life. He and his wife, Fatma Arf Oliver (retired engineer), are writing a book: Global Resources and the Environment. He is also studying the fossil fuel and carbon dioxide savings potential of building with wood; as well as the benefits of appropriate wood use to rural, forest communities.

He has consulted with timber companies, private landowners, industry associations, state and national forests, and public and elected officials in most major timber regions of the United States and some areas abroad. He has convened regional, national, and international symposia, forums, and workshops. He has testified at United States Senate and House of Representatives Committee Hearings. He was a member of the Science Panel at President Clinton’s Forest Conference in 1993 and has served on or chaired various scientific panels for the United States and Washington State executive and legislative branches of government, NAFTA, and the Society of American Foresters.

Dr. Oliver is the author of more than 150 scientific and technical papers. His work has taken him to all parts of the United States and to Canada, Mexico, Turkey, Nepal, Japan, Thailand, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Ecuador, India, China, Germany, France, Austria, South Korea, Brazil, Chile, Ukraine, Bhutan, and Australia.