Forests and university teaching
Peet studied botany and forest vegetation at Wisconsin, then Rocky Mountain vegetation at Cornell. He joined UNC–Chapel Hill in 1975.
His research connected identification of individual plants with comparison of species and vegetation patterns across landscapes.
References: [1]
A cooperative vegetation survey
In 1988 Peet, Tom Wentworth, Mike Schafale, Alan Weakley and colleagues established the Carolina Vegetation Survey. The program connected universities, botanical gardens, conservation organizations and volunteer botanists.
Intensive field events brought different expertise together. Plot records supplied a basis for describing communities and assessing natural-area quality.
Comparable records
Standardized collection methods and data formats enable comparison of plant identifications, sites and community records across areas and institutions.
The material supports environmental monitoring and vegetation classification as well as descriptions of individual stands; shared methods make the origins of later analyses traceable.
References: [2]
Plant knowledge in protected areas
After retiring in 2018 Peet continued research and became Friends of Plant Conservation president in 2020, supporting the identification, acquisition and management of rare-plant sites.
At Redlair Preserve he identified an unusually large chalk maple and sought forestry verification. Measurements revealed another, still larger tree nearby, connecting species knowledge with checked field measurements.
References: [1]