At Oregon State University College of Forestry, students, faculty and staff work collaboratively with alumni, donors and partners toward a shared desire to improve life for all. Whether it’s developing innovative approaches to forest management, creating new wood products, preserving the health and vitality of ecosystems or expanding and supporting local economies, the college is strengthened by this collective approach.
At this year’s Dean’s Dinner on May 24, the college community honored current students and alumni who are making a difference in our changing world. This year’s outstanding alumni are leading the charge to ensure healthy forests, gender equality, and robust and resilient economies. Learn more about their legacies and join the college in celebrating their accomplishments:
An advocate for women in forestry, Leahy was the second woman tenured in the University of Maine School of Forest Resources and first to achieve the rank of full professor. She was a founding member of SWIFT, a UMaine group supporting women and gender minorities in forestry programs, and was an advisory council member for the inaugural 2022 Women’s Forest Congress. She recently served as the associate dean for the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture and associate director of the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station at UMaine.
Camille Chow-Moyers ‘14, B.S. Renewable Materials and Interior Design
After graduation, Chow-Moyers went on to work for Roseburg Forest Products in quality assurance and sales, before a 6-year stint working as a program manager of international compliance and auditing for Benchmark International (Eugene, OR and Shanghai, China). Today, she is co-owner of MCM Global, LLC (Portland, OR and Yorkshire, England), a consulting and auditing firm that specializes in international forestry compliance and quality management systems.
Suzanne Simard, Ph.D. ‘89, M.S. Forest Science ‘95, Ph.D.
Simard is a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia and the author of the book, “Finding the Mother Tree.” She is known for her work on how trees interact and communicate using below-ground fungal networks. Her work has influenced filmmakers and her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles, presented at conferences around the world and in 2023 she received the Kew International Medal.
During the dinner at CH2M Hill Alumni Center, the College of Forestry graduate scholarship committee recognized our top incoming and returning graduate students with College of Forestry fellowships. The committee selected 28 students, both Master- and Ph.D.-level, to receive college fellowships totaling just over $150,000 for the 2023-2024 academic year. Scholarships range in value from $3,000 to $8,000.
Pictured L to R: Victoria Diedrichs, M.S. Wood Science & Engineering; Katie Wampler, Ph.D. Water Resources Science, Forest Engineering, Resources and Management; Mark Kerstens, Ph.D. Forest Engineering, Resources and Management; Kira Minehart, Ph.D. Recreation Ecology, Forest Ecosystems and Society; Dean Tom DeLuca; Jacob Atkins, M.S. Wood Science & Engineering; David Hamilton, Ph.D. Forest Engineering, Resources and Management.
A version of this story appeared in the Fall 2023 issue of Focus on Forestry, the alumni magazine of the Oregon State University College of Forestry.
Alumni come home to help the Forestry Club host and win the 83rd AWFC Conclave logging sports event
Conclave 2023 participants test their skills and endurance in the choker race
Over the span of three days, from April 13-15, student forestry teams from across the American West gathered at Peavy Arboretum for the annual Association of Western Forestry Club’s Conclave logging sports event. Each day, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., more than 150 students competed in events like axe throwing, caber toss, birling and log chopping. The Oregon State University Forestry Club team proudly claimed the No. 1 ranking, with many of the team’s competitors also earning first place in their individual events.
Last hosted by Oregon State University in 2012, the success of the 2023 Conclave was due in large part to the support of dedicated alumni, including former logging sports team members, who secured sponsorships, spent hours in the research forest fixing up the arenas and volunteering at the event. This year, to celebrate that spirit of giving back, the chopping arena was dedicated to Patrick “Hoss” Fitzmorris who graduated from OSU in 2013. Patrick, along with his fellow logging sports team members from the classes of 2010-2015, worked tirelessly to build the George W. Brown Sports Arena and the chopping arena to host the 83rd Annual AWFC Conclave in 2012. Patrick passed away in December 2022.
The College of Forestry would like to thank all the community volunteers and the generous sponsors who helped make the 83rd AWFC Conclave such a success.
Oregon State Forestry Club Conclave 2023 Awards
Winning Team: Oregon State University, 1st place
Bull of the Woods: Eli Gold, 1st place; Zeke Bluhm, 2nd place; Angus Nicholson, 3rd place
View the photo album and see the full results on the Conclave website.
A version of this story appeared in the Fall 2023 issue of Focus on Forestry, the alumni magazine of the Oregon State University College of Forestry.
Editor’s Note: On Aug. 5, 2023, after this story went to print, the Lookout Fire was sparked by lightning in the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest. It will be some time until the full extent of the damage is determined. Meanwhile, regular updates on the fire are being posted on the HJ Andrews Forest website.
Celebrating 75 years of the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest
Managed by Oregon State University in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, the Andrews, as it’s affectionately known, is a 16,000-acre ecological research site east of Eugene in Oregon’s western Cascades. First established in 1948 as a U.S. Forest Service Experimental Forest, the Andrews is committed to long-term, place-based research and celebrates its 75th anniversary this November.
“Most ecological research lasts for only two or three years,” says Matt Betts, a professor of landscape ecology and the lead principal investigator. “At the Andrews, we’ve studied tree growth and death in the same stands for 52 years, examined fish populations in the same section of stream for 37 years and measured climate and streamflow for 65 years across the forest.”
This kind of long-term research is incredibly rare and extraordinarily valuable because it’s nearly impossible to understand an ecological system on a two-to-three-year time scale. In fact, research results from short-term studies are often overturned by long-term studies.
However, this same commitment to long-term research can also be a challenge. How do you stay excited about looking at the same thing in the same place for 50 years?
Associate Professor and Co-Principal Investigator Catalina Segura says she never feels like her hydrology research at the Andrews is repetitive. “The ability to ask diverse questions in this same place keeps the excitement alive,” Segura says. “The overlapping research adds to the thrill, and on an emotional level, I have a deep love for the Andrews.”
Segura is not the only one. The love for the Andrews Forest runs deep and wide. And not just with scientists and researchers. The Andrews has a robust humanities program welcoming writers, artists, musicians and philosophers to explore the meaning of the ancient forest ecosystem.
“Though our data goes back 75 years, the legacy of the Andrews is found in its people,” says Betts. “We have a global, intergenerational alumni group and even now, have over twenty graduate students and postdoctoral fellows doing research, studying a range of topics from tree canopies and climate resilience to groundwater and streamflow to environmental psychology and social science.”
The collaborative nature of the Andrews extends its legacy goes beyond the College of Forestry. Posy Busby, a microbiologist and associate professor in the department of botany and plant pathology at the College of Agricultural Sciences and Brooke Penaluna, the lead scientist with the U.S. Forest Service, are also co-principal investigators, with a long history of research at the Andrews.
“The Andrews is a special and unique place because it makes you feel alive and curious about the world,” says Penaluna. “It’s also particularly special because of the people that make up its partnership, including Pacific Northwest Research Station, the Willamette National Forest, and the College of Forestry.”
A version of this story appeared in the Fall 2023 issue of Focus on Forestry, the alumni magazine of the Oregon State University College of Forestry.
As the #1 forestry college in the nation, the Oregon State University College of Forestry is a recognized leader in sustainable forestry, land management solutions, climate-friendly forest products, green building, and smart recreation and urban planning. We provide students with exceptional learning, research and development opportunities and are committed to building an inclusive culture at the College that identifies and removes barriers to learning and access. We prepare students to be agents of change, ready to create and contribute equitable solutions to present and future challenges concerning sustainability and global change.
The College of Forestry received over $25 million in research grants and contracts for FY 2023. The awards support College of Forestry research that advances scientific knowledge critical to the health of forests, people and communities.
Here are some examples of the new awards:
The Economic Development Administration awarded $8 million for three projects titled: “Smart Forestry: Paving the Way from Forest Restoration to Mass Timber” “Prototyping and Testing of Mass Timber Housing Systems” and Construction of an “Oregon Fire Testing Facility”. Business Oregon provided $1.9 million in matching funds for the project. Principal Investigators: Iain Macdonald and Woodam Chung
“Protecting water security from wildfire threats in the Western US” Sponsor: US Forest Service for $1.6 million Principal Investigator: Kevin Bladon
“Optimal individual tree management for climate smart forestry using process-based modeling” Sponsor: USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture for $650K Principal Investigator: Bogdan Strimbu
“Developing a Professional Fire Management Education, Training, and Experiential Learning Program” Sponsor: USDI Bureau of Land Management for $800K Principal Investigator: John Punches
“Forest Operations Training Partnership (LARI 202)” Sponsor: US Forest Service for $267K Principal Investigator: Francisca Belart
Predicting near real-time post-fire debris flows along ODOT corridors.
Landslides can have major environmental, societal and economic impacts — and they often occur in conjunction with extreme events, like heavy precipitation, wildfires and earthquakes.
In mountainous, forested terrain across the West, like in Oregon, shallow landslides are a persistent hazard that can impact aquatic ecosystems and the structure of a forest. But despite the prevalence of this hazard, much remains unknown about the interplay between a landslide, the forest structure, and events like heavy rainfall and wildfires.
Richardson Chair in Forest Engineering, Resources and Management, Ben Leshchinsky is leading a team to learn more about landslides in forested environments — which will help provide new insights into how the dynamics of a forest and its vegetation affect the size and rate of landslides. This group is developing models to predict the susceptibility of future slides in mountainous, forested regions and evaluate the importance of forest vegetation on landslide size and rate. These efforts will provide insights into how vegetation may influence shallow landslides, particularly following wildfire.
The team is using climate monitoring stations, remote sensing and field testing of burned and live roots across the Cascades to better understand how factors like slope vegetation influence the likelihood of landslides and debris flows, as well as the timing at which these hazards are critical. Understanding more about slope stability and susceptibility will also provide valuable insights into how extreme events like heavy rainfall might initiate slope failure — especially how forests and their associated root strength may control post-wildfire mass movements.
Oregon State University researchers are collaborating with many agencies on this project including the Oregon Department of Forestry, the United States Forest Service, the United States Geological Survey, Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, and Oregon Department of Transportation.
Nearly a century of data provides knowledge for the future.
Since 1926, Oregon State University has conducted hundreds of studies across the College of Forestry’s 15,000 acres of research forests. These studies have contributed impactful solutions to the everyday and real-world challenges of sustainably managing forests for many uses.
Cat Carlisle who is pursuing a graduate degree in the Forest Engineering and Resource Management department, is adding her own study to the mix, examining the potential for Oregon’s forests to contribute to carbon storage and sequestration. Carlisle is analyzing the inventory of carbon stock in the McDonald and Dunn Forests — and projecting how different forest management strategies might shift carbon levels in the forests over the next 150 years.
“The hope is to find ways to use forest management to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and sequester it in biomass, to contribute to climate change mitigation. I hope this project sheds light on how to manage a sustainable working forest in a way that considers ecological factors like carbon stock, especially as the climate changes,” Carlisle explained.
Because Carlisle is conducting this work in the research forests, she was able to immediately jump in and access a wealth of existing data.
Edmund Hayes Professor in Silviculture Alternatives, Klaus Puettmann, manages a long-term research study in the McDonald-Dunn and facilitates opportunities for students to learn in the forests. His study investigates alternatives to clearcutting and examines whether features of mature and old-growth Douglas-fir forests could be retained through a variety of types of timber harvests. He is a staunch advocate for the research forests and their value as a long-term resource.
“The research forests offer examples of a wide range of forest conditions and hold great value for researchers and teachers who want to consider a multitude of forestry approaches,” Puettmann says, “We don’t have many examples of different silviculture treatments that are this close to campus and accessible to students.”
Puettman says one of the greatest benefits of performing his research project on the McDonald and Dunn research forests is the wealth of long-term data available. “Researchers and educators investigating various studies can potentially launch their project with the help of decades of data,” he said.
Learn more about past and present research in Oregon State University Research and Demonstration Forests.
Trevor Denning is on a mission to make the outdoors more accessible for people with physical disabilities. And he’s starting with Peavy Arboretum, in the Oregon State University College of Forestry Research Forests.
Denning, who graduated in 2022 from the College of Forestry with his bachelor’s degree in tourism, recreation and adventure leadership, with a double minor in natural resources and leadership, has been in a wheelchair since 2011, after a spinal injury when he was 15. With the guidance of his major professor Ashley D’Antonio, he focused his final capstone project on ways to make Peavy Arboretum more accessible to those with physical disabilities. That project launched him into a short-term position with the research forests.
“I believe there needs to be more people who are disabled making decisions about accessibility because we are the ones with the real-world experience and know what needs to change,” said Denning. “On many occasions, I have visited a local, state or national park that is deemed ‘accessible,’ when in fact, it is not.”
Accessibility, according to Denning, is “not a one-shoe-fits-all type of problem to address.”
“One of the greatest barriers or obstacles to accessibility is the lack of knowledge about the vast amounts of disabilities that exist,” said Denning.
His work in the research forests will include providing trail information to people with disabilities so they can be empowered to make the best and most informed decision for themselves about whether they can navigate the trail. Information like trail length, width, travel surface, grade, elevation gain, location of the steepest pitch, as well as trail conditions, will be posted on the research forest website.
As the research forest team and volunteers perform trail maintenance and work on new trails, Denning will provide input and guidance and review processes like entrance and gate accessibility.
“Most people don’t think of the research forest as a place for people with physical disabilities. But it needs to be,” said Stephen Fitzgerald, director of the Oregon State University Research Forests. “Peavy Arboretum has shorter trails with less elevational pitch that have the potential to be modified easily. Trevor had a plan, ideas, expertise and the lived experience to help us begin to make these changes.”
“Navigating a nondisabled world is tough,” said Denning. “Restaurants, grocery stores, bookstores, classrooms and housing are some of the many things that need to be made more accessible. The first step is having people who are disabled in a position to make these changes. For the longest time, I have wanted to be one of those people.”
And now he is. After his work in the research forests, Denning hopes to work for a federal agency such as the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service or the Army Corps of Engineers, helping give people with physical disabilities greater access to the outdoors.
OSU Extension quickly mobilizes to respond to emerald ash borer discovery.
In late June 2022, the dreaded emerald ash borer, which has decimated hundreds of millions of ash trees east of the Rocky Mountains, was discovered in Oregon. Oregon State University Extension Service, working with Oregon Department of Agriculture, Oregon Department of Forestry and other partners, responded immediately.
After ODA confirmed and announced the identification of the invasive insect in Forest Grove in Washington County, OSU Extension stepped in to curate and disseminate essential information about the devastating pest and assist with initial monitoring efforts to determine how far and fast the insect is spreading in Oregon.
“For emerald ash borer, and other known and emerging issues, OSU Extension has become a valued and trusted partner because of our ability to quickly bring relevant expertise to the table and effectively share research-backed information through our statewide network,” said Alex Gorman, OSU Extension forester. “With this foundation and our established connections with agency partners, we were poised not only to contribute to the immediate response, but also to longer-term actions.”
Gorman had only recently started in his new position serving Washington, Columbia and Yamhill counties. His first reaction, he said, was a sense of dread followed by sadness. Gorman knew what to expect from his exposure to EAB while a graduate student at the University of Minnesota.
Guided by Oregon’s existing emerald ash borer readiness and response plan,he knew how to quickly contribute that expertise. OSU Extension’s role is to conduct and share results of relevant research, which includes coordinating Oregon Forest Pest Detector training programs and providing information through its established channels and programs, including Master Gardeners, Master Woodland Managers, Master Naturalists and other volunteer networks.
The same day the detection was announced, OSU Extension activated an interdisciplinary team that includes faculty and staff with expertise in forestry, pest management, invasive species, horticulture and communications. The OSU team quickly organized essential information on their online EAB resources webpage and shared it through social media, announcements on county webpages and newsletters. The page includes information on how to identify ash trees, how to identify the insect and recognize look-alikes, how to monitor for EAB and report sightings and recommendations for tree protection.
An existing publication, Oregon Forest Pest Detector Pest Watch — Emerald Ash Borer, was rapidly updated online and a pocket guide was reprinted. Copies immediately went to ODF and all OSU Extension offices around the state for distribution. The guide includes insect identification, host plants, signs and symptoms and what to do if you suspect an insect you’ve seen is EAB.
“We have infrastructure, expertise and capacity to disseminate information in a way that makes sense and is helpful and productive and informative,” said Chris Hedstrom, communications and outreach coordinator for the Oregon IPM Center in OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences. “Extension does a great job moving quickly. We have the ability to publish quickly and to house all the information in one place.”
OSU Extension’s EAB resource page includes several publications, articles, a video and a podcast episode. Extension foresters have distributed information through educational workshops, webinars, community events and social media posts through OSU Extension’s Master Gardener program.
This year’s Dean’s Dinner was a celebration of our scholarship recipients, outstanding alumni, donors, and college community.
Dean Tom DeLuca started the formal awards ceremony by recognizing professor emeritus Darius Adams for being the recipient of the 2023 International Marcus Wallenberg Prize. He shares the award with Joseph Buongiorno, Professor Emeritus of Forest Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Richard W. Haynes, the US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station in Portland, OR. They were recognized for their work on the original and groundbreaking forest economic models, the Timber Assessment Market Model (TAMM) and PAPYRUS, a spatial equilibrium model of the North American pulp and paper industry. Both models extend to the widely used Global Forest Products Model (GFPM). Dick Waring was the recipient of this significant honor in 2020 and we recognized him here last year (after two postponements due to COVID). It’s rare to have a professor from a college recognized once, let alone twice in three years, yet that’s what’s happened within our incredible College of Forestry community!
Randy Rosenberger introduced Dr. Suzanne Simard, Forest Ecosystem’s & Society’s Outstanding Alumni awardee. Suzanne is a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia and the author of the book, “Finding the Mother Tree.” She is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence. Her work has influenced filmmakers (the Tree of Souls in James Cameron’s Avatar) and her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide. Suzanne is known for her work on how trees interact and communicate using below-ground fungal networks, which has led to the recognition that forests have hub trees, or Mother Trees, which are large, highly connected trees that play an important role in the flow of information and resources in a forest. Suzanne has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and presented at conferences around the world. In 2023 she received the Kew International Medal.
Jeff Hatten introduced Jessica Leahy, Forest Engineering, Resources & Management Outstanding Alumni awardee. Jessica has been actively engaged in supporting and encouraging women in forestry. She was the second woman tenured in the School of Forest Resources at the University of Maine (UMaine) and the first to achieve the rank of full professor. She has mentored at least seven Ph.D. students to completion, six of whom are women and went on to academic positions. She was a founding member of SWIFT in 2016, a group created at UMaine to support women and gender minorities in forestry educational programs, and was an advisory council member for the inaugural Women’s Forest Congress in 2022. She has authored over 50 papers with over 2000 citations in social sciences in forestry. She recently served as the Associate Dean for the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture and as the Associate Director of the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station at UMaine. In addition, she is a highly involved member of the professional forestry and landowning community including the Society of American Foresters and the Maine Woodlands Owners landowner advocacy group. A forest landowner herself, she and her husband were recognized as Maine’s Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year in 2020.
Eric Hansen introduced Camille Chow-Moyers, Wood Science’s Outstanding Alumni awardee. Camille received her B.S. in Renewable Materials and Interior Design from Oregon State University in 2014. She went on to work for Roseburg Forest Products in Quality Assurance and Sales, before a 6-year stint working as a Program Manager of International Compliance and Auditing for Benchmark International (Eugene, OR and Shanghai, China). Today, she is co-owner of MCM Global, LLC (Portland, OR and Yorkshire, England), a consulting and auditing firm that specializes in international forestry compliance and quality management systems.
Amy Riley, Director of Student Success, acknowledged the work of the student clubs and organizations – Xi Sigma Pi, SAF Student Chapter, Forest Utilization Society, the Forestry Club, the Natural Resources Club, and the International Forestry Students Association. The College of Forestry Ambassadors help us recruit prospective students, represent college academic programs to legislators and key stakeholders, work with alumni groups, and represent the College at many on and off campus events. Amy recognized them for their service to the College, which is in addition to their outstanding academic performances, involvement in extracurricular activities, family responsibilities, jobs, and community connections. Lastly, she recognized the OSU Forestry Club for hosting, and winning, the 83rd Annual Western Forestry Conclave Logging Sports Event in April. Conclave is an annual logging sports event held at different colleges throughout the northwest, was last hosted by Oregon State University in 2012.
The OSU Forestry Club with Jessica Fitzmorris and Amy Riley
Jacob Atkins, a graduate student in Wood Science, recognized outstanding faculty for their excellence in teaching and excellence in mentoring. The Xi Sigma Pi “Julie Kliewer” Excellence in Mentoring Award went to Mindy Crandall, Forest Engineering, Resources, and Management. The Aufderheide Excellence in Teaching Award went to Jim Kiser, Forest Engineering, Resources, and Management and Kevin Bladon, Forest Engineering, Resources, and Management.
The winner of the Pack Essay Award is Burke DeBoer, a natural resource student. Their essay was titled “Fungi and the Future of Farming.” The Photo of the Year award went to Adam Smith, a pre-forest engineering student, for his photo titled “Monsoon Plains Sunset.” Each year the College of Forestry is honored and privileged to award graduate fellowships and undergraduate scholarships to deserving new and returning students. These awards are made possible through the generous contributions and continued support from our scholarship and fellowship donors. The College of Forestry’s Scholarship Committee reviewed 393 applications for undergraduate scholarships, and 145 students were selected to receive scholarships totaling $664,050 for the 2023-2024 academic year. College of Forestry fellowships recognize our top incoming and returning graduate students as well, nominated by their degree program. The Graduate Scholarship committee selected 28 students, both Master- and PhD- level, to receive college fellowships totaling just over $150,000 for the 2023-2024 academic year. All students who were able to attend came up in small groups for congratulations with the Dean, pictured below.
Dr. George Brown, the former dean of the College of Forestry, passed away peacefully on June 9 surrounded by his family.
George arrived at Oregon State University in 1964 as a Ph.D. graduate student studying forest hydrology and began his College of Forestry teaching and research career in 1966. In 1973, he was appointed head of the Forest Engineering Department and in 1986 he became Associate Dean for Research. In total, he was a faculty member or administrator at Oregon State University for 32 years, retiring in 1999 as Dean of the College of Forestry, a position he held for 10 years.
As Dean, George encouraged the kind of systems-based, collaborative and inter-disciplinary research the college continues today. He pushed faculty members to work across organizational and institutional boundaries and transformed the Oregon State College of Forestry into the leading recipient of grants and contracts among the nation’s forestry schools before his retirement. George was also actively involved in the Corvallis community, volunteering and fundraising for community service organizations including Community Outreach and the Boys and Girls Club. After retirement from the college, George stayed in regular contact with many in the community. The logging sports arena in the Peavy Arboretum is proudly named after him.
George Brown left an amazing legacy at the College of Forestry. The work and research we pursue on a daily basis is built on those who came before us, and George’s 32 years of incredible contributions are of immeasurable value.
George is survived by his wife Joan, daughters Christen Maier, Annie Brown Kurowski, son in law, Brad Maier, three grandchildren, sister Sally Presson, nieces Kim Blaes, Amy Presson and nephews Don and Matt Presson.
A celebration of life is scheduled for July 21st at 10 a.m. at the First United Methodist Church and is open to the public. The college will also hold a celebration of life for George in the fall.
The family suggests that memorials may be made to the Dean’s Fund for Excellence & Innovation in the College of Forestry or the George W Brown Scholarship Endowment through the Oregon State University Foundation. Donations also can be made online at fororegonstate.org. Please note “in memory of George W Brown” on the memo line or in the online giving form. The family also suggests memorials may be made to Community Outreach or the Corvallis First United Methodist Church Foundation.
