Several members of the College of Forestry community were honored on University Day with awards for their exceptional contributions.
Arijit Sinha, professor in wood science and engineering, received the Excellence in Postdoctoral Mentoring Award. Arijit has worked with five postdoc scholars since 2019. As a mentor, he prepares them to be successful researchers, providing guidance on proposal writing and budget planning that are essential skills for securing research funding. He also encourages collaboration with industry partners, helping postdocs build professional working relationships with experts in the field.
Arijit Sinha
Greg Goralogia, research associate in forest ecosystems and society, received the Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring by a Post-doc Award. Greg has mentored 12 undergraduate and 11 graduate students over the past five years, working one-on-one with students through all the stages of their research projects, from an abstract idea through experimentation and finally to results.
Ashley D’Antonio, associate professor in forest ecosystems and society, received the Faculty Teaching Excellence Award. Ashley teaches three required courses in the Tourism, Recreation and Adventure Leadership Natural Resources program, one of which also fulfills the Contemporary Global Issues requirement in the Baccalaureate Core. She is also active in training and programs for the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Congratulations! We’re incredibly thankful for all our dedicated faculty and staff who make a lasting impact every day.
The new Forest Ecosystems and Society (FES) department Kids Book and Toy Library is officially up and running! This resource is located in the FES Mail and Copy Room (321F Richardson Hall) and is available to anyone in the department who may need to bring their children to work for a few hours, offering books and toys to keep them entertained while employees work.
This initiative is an important step in fostering a family-friendly and supportive work environment, helping to maintain a healthy life balance. Kids sometimes need to come to the office, and this library is a small way of recognizing and supporting that reality.
A big thank you to Dana Warren and Josephine for setting up and organizing this space. The library will be maintained by those who use it. To donate items or help maintain the collection, reach out to Dana Warren.
Artificial intelligence enhances monitoring of threatened marbled murrelet
Photo: Brett Lovelace/Oregon State University
Artificial intelligence analysis of data gathered by acoustic recording devices is a promising new tool for monitoring the marbled murrelet and other secretive, hard-to-study species, research by Oregon State University and the U.S. Forest Service has shown.
The threatened marbled murrelet is an iconic and elusive Pacific Northwest seabird that relies on the sea for food but raises its young as far as 60 miles inland in mature and old-growth forests.
“There are very few species like it,” said co-author Matt Betts of the OSU College of Forestry. “And there’s no other bird that feeds in the ocean and travels such long distances to inland nest sites. This behavior is super unusual, and it makes studying this bird really challenging.”
A research team led by Adam Duarte of the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station used data from acoustic recorders, originally placed to assist in monitoring northern spotted owl populations, at thousands of locations in federally managed forests in the Oregon Coast Range and Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Researchers then developed a machine learning algorithm known as a convolutional neural network to mine the recordings for murrelet calls.
Findings, published in Ecological Indicators, were tested against known murrelet population data and determined to be correct at a rate exceeding 90%, meaning the recorders and AI are able to provide an accurate look at how much murrelets are calling in a given area.
“Our results offer considerable promise for species distribution modeling and long-term population monitoring for rare species,” Duarte said. “Monitoring that’s far less labor intensive than nest searching via telemetry, ground-based nest searches or traditional audio/visual techniques.”
College of Forestry graduate student Matthew Weldy joined Betts and Duarte in the study, along with Zachary Ruff of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Jonathon Valente, a former Oregon State postdoctoral researcher now at the U.S. Geological Survey, and Damon Lesmeister and Julianna Jenkins of the Forest Service.
Indigenous Knowledge and western science braided into recommendations for land managers
Two College of Forestry faculty are among the lead authors of a report that combines Indigenous Knowledge and western science for the purpose of informing future climate-adapted land management decisions across the United States. The authors say their recommendations include “practical and cultural management interventions that could help avert the loss of thousands of acres of old-growth forest.”
The report, co-led by Cristina Eisenberg and Michael Paul Nelson of OSU and fire ecologists Susan Prichard of the University of Washington and Paul Hessburg of the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station, urges that Tribal stewardship practices such as thinning and burning be considered in future land management decisions by the U.S. Forest Service. The Forest Service had expressed interest in gaining a better understanding of the connection between Indigenous Knowledge and western science in land management planning.
“Our forests are in grave danger in the face of climate change,” said Eisenberg, the College of Forestry’s associate dean of inclusive excellence. “By braiding together Indigenous Knowledge with western science, we can view the problems with what is known as Two Eyed Seeing, to develop a path forward that makes our forests more resilient to the threats they are facing. That is what this report is working to accomplish.”
Eisenberg, who is Native American, is the associate dean of inclusive excellence and the Maybelle Clark Macdonald Director of Tribal Initiatives for the college and Nelson is a professor of environmental philosophy and ethics.
“Our report is deeper than changes in policy and management—it proposes a fundamental change in the worldview guiding our current practices,” Nelson said. “Our writing team’s cultural, geographic and disciplinary diversity allows for guidance on a shift in paradigms around how we approach forest stewardship in the face of climate change.”
Represented on the core writing team are Tribal members and Forest Service personnel as well as faculty from North Carolina State University, the University of Missouri, the University of Idaho, the University of Minnesota, the University of Arizona, the University of California and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
A version of this story appeared in the Fall 2024 issue of Focus on Forestry, the alumni magazine of the Oregon State University College of Forestry.
Tree Ring Lab studies fire history through dendrochronology
Andrew Merschel inspects fire scarring on a ponderosa pine in Central Oregon
The College of Forestry’s Tree Ring Lab takes a deep dive into learning from tree rings—through the science of dendrochronology. By analyzing tree rings, lead scientist Andrew Merschel, Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) postdoctoral scholar with the U.S. Forest Service and Oregon State University, is uncovering important new information about fire history, forest stand development and Indigenous burning that informs our understanding of forest ecosystems, the complexity of old-growth development and how we might better steward the diverse forests of the Pacific Northwest.
Merschel works with a large team of management collaborators, science partners and students to collect, process and interpret the stories trees tell through their rings and wood. Associate Professor Meg Krawchuk and Amanda Brackett co-direct the lab and all three work together to support the research, training and teaching opportunities the lab provides.
“This research allows us to travel back in time and provide evidence of historical fire regimes that created the mature and old-growth forests we value so much today,” said Merschel. “There’s a surprising amount of fire in our forests documented by tree rings—it’s the basic ecology work that I wish we would’ve been doing decades ago to inform management of our forest ecosystems today.”
Graduate students in the Tree Ring Lab are applying this research in various ways. Ph.D. student Jennifer Bailey Guerrero is studying the development of marbled murrelet nesting habitat in relationship to fire. Sven Rodne’s master’s degree research involves historical stand and fire reconstructions in southwest Oregon. Charles Drake, who is also pursuing his master’s degree, is looking at historical fire throughout the McDonald and Dunn Research Forests. A team of undergraduate students and field technicians are critical to collecting and processing samples, and are aspiring tree ring scientists, ecologists and practitioners of the future.
“Tree rings provide a shared understanding of the history of forests, people, fire, climate, wind, water, management—it’s all there,” said Krawchuk. “When you walk into a room with a cross section of tree rings and their stories, it opens up a rare opportunity to talk through ideas and worldviews about trees and forests that draws people in and brings them together in an astonishing way.”
Reconstructing historical, cultural fire regime in Oregon’s Coast Range
Glenn Jones, a master’s student in the department of forest engineering, resources and management, is an Oglala Lakota descendent, an enrolled member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe of rural Northern California, and an active prescribed fire/cultural fire practitioner. Jones is working with Assistant Professor Chris Dunn to reconstruct a historical, cultural fire regime in the east slope of the Central Oregon Coast Range. Through a cultural lens, Jones sees the past seven generations (approx. 150 years) of land management as the crux of contemporary forest conditions. By better understanding forest conditions of our ancestral past, through Indigenous Knowledge and fire history, it informs our future seven generations’ land management strategies in forests that are threatened by contemporary wildfires, climate change and contain critical habitat for culturally and ecologically important species. Funded by the Seeds of Success Bureau of Land Management grant, Jones will be working in conjunction with the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians of Oregon and BLM lands to carry out his research.
New dual degree to focus on wildland-urban interface issues
Assistant Professor Chris Dunn is working on a new dual degree program with Erica Fischer, an associate professor in the College of Engineering, to train the next generation of wildland-urban interface researchers. It aims to bridge the gap between modeling and mitigating wildfire in natural landscapes and the built environment as more fires intrude upon communities. He is also part of a collaborative spatial fire planning process across the Pacific Coast states that bring partners, stakeholders and Tribes together to pre-plan wildfire response to be more proactive instead of reactive. A third project takes a critical look at using prescribed and cultural fire in recently burned areas to maintain the reduced risk, while protecting recovering areas from a reburn fire.
Assessing post-fire regeneration after the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire
John Bailey, professor of silviculture and fire management, is evaluating post-fire regeneration and recovery four years after the Holiday Farm Fire near Eugene, Oregon, including the potential to use drones to assess forest recovery. He’s also examining the fuel hazard implications of operational silviculture on Humboldt and Mendocino Redwood Companies’ lands in Northern California, and how it can be used to address wildland fire risk. His newly released book “A Walk with Wildland Fire” covers these two topics as well as the dozens of other complex issues surrounding society’s challenging relationship with wildland fire—before, during and after it occurs.
Expanded courses update “fire and restoration” curricular option
Led by Associate Professor John Punches, Guard School is a wildland firefighting course with field sessions on campus and in the OSU McDonald and Dunn Research Forests. Available in credit and non-credit versions, undergraduate and graduate options, and open to OSU students and employees, Guard School utilizes National Wildfire Coordinating Group and Federal Emergency Management Agency curricula and certifies participants as entry level wildland firefighters. Punches also leads the prescribed fire practicum, which teaches students how to use prescribed fire to achieve ecological and fuel reduction objectives, with an emphasis on private land efforts. The course includes student led prescribed fire implementation. Additionally, Associate Professor Daniel Leavell, in collaboration with Professor Mark Hoffman from the College of Health, has created a new Wildland Firefighter Health and Safety course, and work is underway on a Dealing with Stress in Wildland Fire Ecampus course. Funding for these new courses has been provided through a grant from the Bureau of Land Management.
A version of this story appeared in the Fall 2024 issue of Focus on Forestry, the alumni magazine of the Oregon State University College of Forestry.
Extension Fire Program fosters place-based partnerships
As a land grant university, Oregon State University takes research and innovation out of the labs and puts them into practice in the communities and landscapes around the state through Extension programs. While OSU’s influence extends globally, our success is also measured by our ability to equip and support every Oregonian—both rural and urban.
Oregon faces increasing challenges and opportunities related to wildland fire. In response, Oregon State created a dedicated Extension Fire Program in 2020 to help foster fire-adapted communities and resilient ecosystems through place-based partnerships. Six regional fire specialists provide wildland fire outreach, education and engagement. Two outreach program coordinators lead special initiatives focused on fire science application and workforce equity. A manager and director support their work and provide overall program direction.
This team helps build “place-based partnerships,” meaning they live and work in each of their service areas and have deep regional fire history and ecology knowledge. They also collaborate with communities and partners on shared visions for fire adaptation that fit the local geographical and social context. This place-based work is guided by the program’s Theory of Change, which is an approach that supports strong and equitable processes for living with fire at all scales.
The work of the Extension Fire Program is diverse, and includes community fire preparedness like wildfire protection planning and tools for evaluation and adaptation; and efforts to increase landscape resiliency, such as prescribed fire education, training and capacity building. The team emphasizes partnerships with communities facing disproportionate wildfire risk and those with less access to mitigation and recovery resources.
Emily Jane “EJ” Davis, an associate professor in the College of Forestry and social scientist, is the director of the Extension Fire Program.
“Research shows that community-based approaches to living with wildfire that engage local people are the most effective. The Extension Fire Program leads by those principles, and seeks to bring together all the agencies and organizations in wildland fire so that we can do more collectively,” explained Davis.
Nice to meet you!
Across Oregon, our Extension Fire Team is there for the many different communities, climates and ecosystems of the state. Serving over 4.2 million Oregonians, six agents, two coordinators, a program manager and director work hard to ensure communities are wildfire ready and wildfire safe. Meet the team and learn more about the regions they serve:
EMILY JANE “EJ” DAVIS Fire Program Director I love supporting and learning from our diverse team. We each have different backgrounds, experiences and values, which come together to make our program multifaceted and interesting. As a social scientist, I am interested in understanding how diverse people and organizations can work together to support more fire-adapted communities and resilient landscapes.
CARRIE BERGER Fire Program Manager As the manager of the program, I love the diversity of people I get to meet and developing a connection with them. These relationships allow us to find common ground to work on (wildfire) solutions for the benefit of Oregon’s communities and landscapes.
MANUEL MACHADO Outreach Program Coordinator My favorite part about this role is that it aligns with my personal values and does not place limitations on what can be done to empower our communities and change systems of inequity. Here in the Rogue Valley, I feel fortunate to work alongside and learn from a community so full of passion and grit.
AUTUMN ELLISON Outreach Program Coordinator I find it really energizing when I can connect people with each other for information, resources or to help answer questions. Watching new partnerships grow from these efforts is inspiring!
AARON GROTH Regional Fire Specialist, Northwest Coastal Wildland fire has played a key role across the Coast Range and the loss of cultural or Indigenous fire has led, with other factors, to the loss of over 90% of Oregon’s coastal grasslands and decline in oak habitat in the eastern foothills. As highlighted by the Echo Mountain Fire Complex, even relatively small fires can have devastating impacts on homes, recreation, timber, habitat and water.
KAYLA BORDELON Regional Fire Specialist, Willamette Valley & Cascades The counties I serve are home to half the population of the state, including the urban core of Oregon and many small, rural communities. This diversity means that I support community and landscape resilience in a variety of ways—from crafting resources for smoke and wildfire preparedness for outdoor workers in the heart of the Willamette Valley, to working with partners to prioritize landscape treatments across large rural landscapes. No matter where I am in my region, momentum is strong to develop pathways to fire resilience that are community-driven and locally-relevant.
MICAH SCHMIDT Regional Fire Specialist, Northeast A unique thing about my region is that northeast Oregon is filled with small communities in which the people take care of each other. I enjoy my position because I can help these communities prepare for and interact with fire in a positive way.
KATHERINE WOLLSTEIN Regional Fire Specialist, Southeast While I help individuals, organizations and communities apply rangeland and fire science, one of the more meaningful aspects of my job is helping these groups find ways to effectively organize and work together toward fire adaptation. In my region dominated by public land and where ecological, social, and political dynamics and resource-dependent livelihoods all intersect, this work is endlessly interesting.
ARIEL COWAN Regional Fire Specialist, Central The rural and urban communities of the Central Region have deep connections with the outdoors, including our fire-adapted ecosystems. As the region grows quickly, I enjoy demystifying fire for people of all ages and backgrounds through experiential learning of local fire ecology and empowering readiness for wildfire seasons.
CHRISTOPHER ADLAM Regional Fire Specialist, Southwest Southwest Oregon landscapes and communities are incredibly varied but all of them have a fire story. It’s a privilege to work across the region to help write the next chapter!
A version of this story appeared in the Fall 2024 issue of Focus on Forestry, the alumni magazine of the Oregon State University College of Forestry.
Using science to inform policy for a wildfire adapted Oregon
Photo: Emily Jane “EJ” Davis
In response to longer and more severe wildfire seasons, a growing population living in the wildland-urban interface and the extensive impacts of the 2020 Labor Day fires, the Oregon Legislature passed Senate Bill 762 in 2021, laying the groundwork for statewide wildfire community adaptation efforts in a rapidly changing wildfire environment.
As part of this broader statewide effort, SB 762 directed Oregon State University, in collaboration with Oregon Department of Forestry, to create a map identifying where wildfires pose the most hazard to structures and other human developments. OSU was also directed to map the wildland-urban interface, or WUI, to be used in tandem with the wildfire hazard map to guide new defensible space and fire hardening building code standards in high-risk areas, bolstering community protection across Oregon. Additionally, SB 762 called upon OSU to map social vulnerability to help decision makers further allocate limited resources to those most in need.
The College of Forestry led an interdisciplinary team from across OSU. Their diverse expertise included wildfire risk science, rural economic development and social vulnerability, community combustion and impacts and communications and outreach. This team worked directly with a 26-member rulemaking advisory committee, county commissioners and planners, and engaged the public to co-produce maps that used the best available science, grounded in local knowledge of landscapes and communities.
“The hazard map was designed to give the state agencies implementing those codes a science-based foundation for deciding where to prioritize implementation,” said Andy McEvoy, a College of Forestry wildfire risk scientist involved in the maps’ development. “The state of Oregon wants to invest resources, people power, dollars, education and outreach into the communities where they can most positively affect risk reduction.”
Informed by science and practice
When the initial maps were released in the summer of 2022 according to the legislatively mandated timeline, they sparked many questions and concerns from people across Oregon. The pushback was strong enough that ODF rescinded the first maps less than two months after they were released.
Since then, the OSU science team working on the maps have been reviewing public feedback, coordinating with local professionals and planners, and incorporating changes into draft maps that address the primary concerns expressed about the first maps. Two significant changes reflect how fuels are less likely to burn on agricultural lands that are either irrigated or managed as hay and pasture. OSU researchers relied on input from fire modeling specialists, fire and fuel professionals and ranchers to develop the specific changes.
Public feedback in 2022 also caused the legislature to pass Senate Bill 80 during the 2023 session. SB 80 clarified that the map reflects environmental hazard rather than risk, an important distinction that more accurately captures the science behind the map and how to interpret it.
The OSU team, along with five other state agencies and groups, also embarked on a comprehensive public engagement effort to provide information about the draft maps and how they’ll be used by state agencies, and to address concerns about how community wildfire disasters across the West are affecting Oregon’s insurance market.
Looking to the Future
As a dynamic tool, Oregon’s wildfire hazard map will continue to be updated every five years based on current data, best available science and policy direction to support statewide strategic community wildfire programs. By engaging with policymakers and the public, OSU scientists gained firsthand scientific knowledge, learned from practitioners’ experience, and found gaps in public outreach and engagement processes fostering new and nontraditional partnerships and collaborations to address some of Oregon’s most pressing needs.
“Our efforts here in Oregon have demonstrated the challenge, but also the importance of leveraging science to inform policy decisions,” said Chris Dunn, a College of Forestry assistant professor of wildfire risk science. “It will be a big help in Oregon as well as other Western states grappling with increasing community wildfire risk.”
How was wildfire hazard calculated? To create the wildfire hazard map, OSU researchers combined two primary datasets: (1) burn probability, the average annual likelihood a location will experience wildfire, and (2) fire intensity, measured in flame length. Both were modeled across Oregon using the best available science with the help of state and local fire professionals using four criteria: climate, weather, topography and vegetation.
Who was involved? Led by the College of Forestry, the OSU research team included experts in: –Wildfire risk science: Assistant Professor Christopher Dunn and Andy McEvoy –Rural economic development and social vulnerability: Associate Professor Mindy Crandall and Caitlyn Reilley –Community combustion and impacts: Professor Erica Fischer –Communication, project coordination and public interface: Shannon Murray and Myrica McCune
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 $20 million in research grants and contracts for FY 2024. The awards support College of Forestry research that advances scientific knowledge critical to the health of forests, people and communities.
“DNA Methylation Control for Site-Specific Recombinases: Biosafety and Efficacy” Sponsor: USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture for $649,916 Investigators: Steven Strauss, Kelly Vining and Greg Goralogia
“The Northwest Fire Science Consortium” Sponsor: USDI Bureau of Land Management for $509,997 Investigators: Emily Jane Davis and Holly Ober
“Real-time Surface Monitoring for Improved Safety, Response, and Repair” Sponsor: Oregon Dept of Transportation for $468,000 Investigators: Ben Leshchinsky and Michael Olsen
“Assessing the Impact of Invasive Annual Grasses and Wildfire on Native Pollinators Within the Sagebrush Steppe Biome” Sponsor: USDI Fish and Wildlife Service for $335,750 Investigators: Jim Rivers and Jonathan Dinkins
“Developing Next Generation Leaders in Forest Resource Optimization and Economics: Mass Timber Products” Sponsor: USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture for $262,500 Investigators: Arijit Sinha, Eric Hansen
Recent developments have thrust forest degradation into the global conservation spotlight. This is following on major policies like the European Union’s recent ban on imports from degraded forests, and the COP28 resolution to halt degradation. Yet amidst these policy advances, the question remains: what is “forest degradation”?
The European Union preliminarily defined forest degradation as conversion from primary forest into tree plantations. In an article published recently in Nature Ecology and Evolution, an international team of forest scientists argue that much more will be required to reduce forest degradation.
“Even forests that aren’t old growth can have tremendous benefits for biodiversity and carbon storage” says Matt Betts, a professor in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University. “In major wood producing parts of the world, clearcut harvesting that leaves little time for regeneration between cuts can have severe negative effects on forest ecosystems” he said.
Clearcut harvest in New Brunswick, Canada (photo credit: Matthew Betts)
According to the article, measuring forest degradation needs long-term data across whole regions to detect if biodiversity and carbon have been harmed. But satellites have been collecting data from space that can be used for this purpose since the 1980s the authors point out. For instance, Zhiqiang Yang, a scientist with the US Forest Service and co-author on the paper, uses satellite data and Google Earth Engine to measure long-term carbon and biodiversity changes.
“This study is ground-breaking in assigning a science-based process for tracking the degradation of forest integrity for all the world’s forests that at least in some regions like North America exceed deforestation losses,” said Dominick A. DellaSala, Chief Scientist, Wild Heritage, who was not involved in the study but supports a moratorium on primary forest logging internationally and mature forest logging in the US.
Forests house 80% of the world’s biodiversity and nearly half of the world’s 4 billion hectares of forests are managed for timber production. The paper notes that addressing forest degradation in the European Union policy and COP28 agreement has the potential to be a substantial step toward ameliorating the dual climate and biodiversity crises. “But we need to get the measurement part right” Betts said.
Graduates of the College of Forestry are our most valuable resource. Our alumni serve as a critical bridge between the university and the world, connecting Oregon State University and its students to communities and employers. They inspire our students to make a difference and they shape the world we live in.
This year, we honor the outstanding accomplishments of three College of Forestry alumni.
Randy Hereford 1977, B.S., Forest Engineering and Forest Management
Randy joined Starker Forests in 1978 and became President and CEO in 2019. Randy’s primary responsibilities have been directing timber harvest planning, log marketing, road construction, and fire management. With his broad experience, he has served on a multitude of advisory boards on county, state and national levels. He is currently a board member of the Oregon Forest and Industries Council (OFIC), the National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO), and Keep Oregon Green. Over the years, he has participated in a number of OSU College of Forestry advisory boards, and served on several Forest Protective Associations. Randy has been a member of the Society of American Foresters (SAF) since he was a college student at OSU, and is a SAF Certified Forester. Bringing his leadership and personal history in forestry to the table, Randy participated in and was a signer of the new Private Forest Accord which will impact forestry in Oregon for decades to come.
Valerie Hipkins 1989, M.S., Forestry and Genetics 1994, Ph.D, Forestry and Genetics
Valerie serves as the Associate Deputy Chief for Research and Development in the Washington Office of the US Forest Service. Prior to this position, she was the Assistant Regional Director in the North Atlantic-Appalachian Region of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. She has also held assignments in the Forest Service as Acting Station Director at the Pacific Southwest Research Station, the Acting National lead for Reforestation and Nurseries, and the Director of the National Forest Genetics Lab. Valerie received her B.S. in Forestry from Humboldt State University, and her MS and PhD in Forestry and Genetics from Oregon State University. She recently accepted the position of director for the Pacific Northwest Research Station effective July 1, 2024.
Kendall Conroy 2016, B.S. Renewable Resources 2018, M.S. Wood Science and Engineering
Kendall is the Marketing Director at Timber Products. Prior to her director role she was the Marketing Manager, and before getting into marketing she was a Technical Sales Representative at RedBuilt. Over the course of her short career, Kendall’s goal has always been to help people build more sustainably, encouraging the use of wood products over non-renewable resources. Kendall gained this mindset during her time at Oregon State University, where she earned a B.S. in Renewable Materials, a B.S. in Sustainability, and a M.S. in Wood Science & Engineering.
Jenna Deibel graduated from the College of Forestry in March 2023 with a Master of Natural Resources (MNR) with a focus in Policy. She also received her Bachelor of Science in Natural Resources with an option in Tourism, Recreation, and Adventure Leadership from the college in December 2021. She recently started her position as an Extension Forester in central Oregon.
Does one class, teacher or experience really stand out? The class that stands out to me as a pivotal experience was Recreation Resource Management with Dr. Mark Needham, which I took Fall Term freshman year. While the course was totally fascinating to me as an ambitious wilderness ranger wannabe, what was truly life-changing was how Mark instantly recognized my passion for the field and agreed to advise my Honors thesis. He later recommended me to my then Department Head, Dr. Troy Hall, for a seasonal role as a field data technician on the Mt. Hood National Forest recording wilderness campsite inventories and visitor encounters.
Because Mark and Troy took a chance on an eager student, the Forest Service hired me back for several summers as a trail crew member and wilderness ranger. I then became the guinea pig for the MNR Accelerated Master’s Program, conducted the Baseline Wilderness Character Monitoring Assessment for the Ochoco National Forest, and ended up teaching Recreation Resource Management at the OSU Cascades campus when it was offered for the first time last term! Instructing that class was really a full-circle moment for me. Not only did I get to teach the same class that captured my attention seven years ago, but I got to supplement the material with my own lived experiences, which was so fun.
How did COF prepare you for your career? CoF not only gave me job opportunities, but also provided a space on campus to foster the skills and knowledge I needed to succeed after graduating. First off, the natural resource education I received at CoF was phenomenal and gave me a strong foundation in ecosystem sciences. Additionally, I attribute the confidence I have presenting and connecting with stakeholders to my time as a Student Ambassador for CoF, where I was responsible for touring prospective students and working alongside Extension folks at events. In short, I wouldn’t be where I am today without CoF!
I’d also like to give a shout out to the Adventure Leadership Institute (ALI) on campus, which isn’t housed in CoF, but many CoF students work for and take classes with the ALI. A CoF graduate is even their Trips Coordinator! While there, I received my Wilderness First Responder certification, took many awesome classes, and was a trip leader for a short time. Being a part of the ALI gave me tangible skills that directly supported my career and experience leading and teaching in the woods.
What are your main duties as an Extension Forester? I think the answer to that question will largely be determined by what I learn about the central Oregon community’s needs during the following months! Generally, I am a non-formal educational resource for the public on forestry and natural resources topics in the region. Topics I could be contacted about might include how to improve the resiliency of a timber stand to mountain pine beetle, or assistance with Forest Protection Act policy interpretation, or even helping form connections with landowners and their local ODFW wildlife biologist, and everything in between! Once I have some time to formally assess the forestry-related needs of the community and how to properly respond, I will be able to start offering workshops and resources to help address those needs, whatever they may be.
And you know I have to ask this, what is your favorite tree? Well, I’m originally from the Bay Area, so growing up it was the California black oak. I have many fond memories spending entire afternoons exploring their branches and observing the small micro-ecosystems that reside in their nooks and crannies. Since moving to central Oregon, however, I’ve quickly fallen in love with the quaking aspen. Just like I used to spend hours with the oaks, now I can lay in the grass and watch the aspen leaves quake until the sun sets!
Anything else you would like to share? I would just like to express how honored I am to serve as central Oregon’s next Extension Forester. I worked with one of my predecessors, Dr. Stephen Fitzgerald, during my time as a CoF ambassador, and I saw just how powerful effective scientific communication could be. I’m fortunate to be surrounded by colleagues who are not only brilliant but are able to communicate their wealth of knowledge in an accessible way so everyone can benefit from it. I’m excited to learn from and work alongside them, and I’m so grateful for the support I’ve already received since starting last week!
