The Oregon Forest Science Complex (OFSC), primarily made and grown in Oregon, highlights an entirely new way of thinking about building and design. The complex is comprised of three buildings; Richardson Hall, the new George W. Peavy Forest Science Center (PFSC) and the new A. A. “Red” Emmerson Advanced Wood Products Laboratory (AWP). The new additions total 95,000+ square feet and are a great example of how sustainably managed forests can be used to create beautiful buildings out of wood and establish a connection with outdoor landscapes.
Thanks to the vision, support and work of former dean Thomas Maness, the leadership of former interim dean Anthony S. Davis, the State of Oregon, OSU Foundation and numerous donors, faculty, students, staff, and alumni, the complex provides a learning environment that is one of a kind.
The complex features 20 classrooms and several computer rooms and laboratories, including the FERN Student Center and the Peavy Arboretum. In these spaces, faculty, students and researchers can participate in active learning and discovery while utilizing cutting-edge technology.
The OFSC features innovative materials, from Accoya wood cladding to View dynamic glass windows. By utilizing these products and others, like cross-laminated timber and mass plywood panels, the project highlights how mass timber and structural wood products building solutions can increase the value of Oregon’s natural resources and enhance our communities.
By the Numbers
TOTAL SIZE: 95,000+ square feet
PROJECT FUNDING: A public-private partnership that brought together four lead donors, gifts from more than 100 others and matching bonds from the State of Oregon
INCORPORATED WOOD: Baltic birch, black walnut, Douglas-fir, juniper, maple, red alder, and white oak
Like most seniors in forest engineering, Ethan Harris had a plan for his capstone project. On Starker Forests land in the Oregon Coast Range, he would survey a stand, appraise its timber value, develop a harvest plan and coordinate with mills and truckers.
But when stay-at-home and social distancing orders came down from the governor’s office in March, Harris had to change course. Timber cruises and other survey work were cancelled. Instead of meeting in person to pore over maps and review details, the project team met virtually through Zoom.
Harris’ most significant hurdle, he says, was to get over his dismay with the setback. Woodam Chung, Stewart Professor of Forest Operations, helped Harris to find available data and complete the project.
Another senior, Wade Christensen, had a similar experience for his capstone. Help arrived in the form of remotely sensed LIDAR data from a leading expert in the field, Bogdan Strimbu, assistant professor in Forest Engineering, Resources and Management. Allowing for differences between direct observation and point clouds, Christensen was able to estimate timber volumes and complete his work.
Both Harris and Christensen graduated on time, but they are only two examples of the stressful scramble brought on by pandemic restrictions last spring. Adjusting capstone projects, jumping into remote classes, recalibrating internships, filling gaps in students’ resources — all fell to faculty, advisors and support staff.
What they accomplished, says Christensen, “was monumental.”
For Nicole Kent, Manager of Advising & Academic Relations for the College of Forestry, the shift became all consuming. She and her team make sure that the college’s nearly 1,000 undergraduates get the courses and experiences they need. They also conduct student orientations and other events.
Only about half of those students are on the Corvallis campus. Others work at OSU Cascades in Bend, at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande or through Ecampus. “We were already doing a lot of remote teaching. That gave the college a head start in adjusting to the pandemic,” says Kent.
Most students in Corvallis are there because they want to learn in person — in the forest, on field trips, in labs, face to face. When restrictions were imposed in March, students saw internships and other work-experience opportunities evaporate. Some courses were cancelled and others shifted to the computer screen.
Although some students had already completed their internships, others had planned to do so during the spring term. “The absence of those experiences was challenging for some,” Kent adds.
Nevertheless, the College of Forestry prides itself on producing work-ready graduates, so advisors and faculty shifted gears to find alternatives. They determined what courses would provide the required learning outcomes and kept students on the path to graduation.
“I can’t say enough about how wonderful the Student Services team is and how hard they have worked,” says Kent. “They were all at home working remotely. They stepped up to show such great care and compassion for our students.”
Those efforts included finding financial help when income had suddenly dried up. The OSU Foundation led an effort that saw over 3,000 donors contribute over $1-million for Beavers Care, an initiative to make a difference for OSU students, faculty and staff in urgent need of emergency support. College staff navigated the federal CARES Act to determine who was eligible for assistance and who was not. Staff also identified additional university resources to help fill gaps in their personal lives, such as access to groceries and medications.
Staff in the college’s IT office made extraordinary efforts to make sure all students had access to computers and the internet at home. During the same weeks, the college was moving into the new Peavy Forest Science Center building. IT was assisting students with Zoom meeting software, loaner computers and off-campus access to computer labs.
“All the work they were doing behind the scenes made a huge difference,” says Kent.
Faculty members also stepped up to help each other. For example, David Stemper, senior instructor in Forest Ecosystems and Society, sent an invitation to all faculty in March offering to assist people who were new to online teaching. He has been teaching remote courses for the college since 2008.
Among the challenges of teaching in a remote environment, he says, are managing discussions, monitoring student performance and grading. “The biggest challenge is that, since you don’t face students one on one, you have to put in extra effort to add a personal, thoughtful touch to all correspondence.”
Stemper says a handful of people responded to his offer. One was a simple observation from Bruce Shindler, OSU professor emeritus whose environmental interpretation course provided Stemper with his first college teaching experience in 2001. “He told me that ‘you and people like you are why I enjoy working for the College of Forestry,” says Stemper.
Throughout spring term, OSU and the college communicated with students, sending updates about available resources and helping people who were struggling with isolation. “It sounds trite,” says Stemper, “but it revealed this strong learning community that we all have. It showed a lot of collective character on the part of OSU.”
A version of this story appeared in the Fall 2020 issue of Focus on Forestry, the alumni magazine of the Oregon State University College of Forestry.
As a forest soil scientist, Tom DeLucahas worked in Sweden, the United Kingdom, China, the Rocky Mountains and other far-flung places. He has focused on elemental, environmental and silvicultural cycles that link forest productivity to the soil ecosystem and human activity. He has served in leadership positions at Bangor University in the U.K., the University of Washington and University of Montana.
But when the chance came to advance the legacy of his friend and colleague Thomas Maness and direct one of the world’s leading forestry programs, he jumped. “I’ve known Oregon State as the premier forestry program in the nation, if not the world,” says DeLuca, who succeeds Maness as the Cheryl Ramberg-Ford and Allyn C. Ford Dean of the OSU College of Forestry.
In 2012, at about the time that Maness became dean, DeLuca was hired as director of the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the University of Washington. “We gave talks at the same professional meetings, hit it off and became friends.”
DeLuca says he and Maness shared similar perspectives about the future of forestry. “Thomas started things in motion as dean that I’m excited to pick up and advance. For example, if OSU becomes the steward of the Elliott State Forest, we would have a tremendous opportunity to push the limits of what sustainable forest management looks like on the landscape. How can we meet our needs for fiber without degrading habitat?
“I see forestry as a key element of a sustainable future on Earth. Our survival as a species ties directly to forests and all of the attributes that we depend on — whether it’s clean water, air, forest products or diversity of species.”
As a boy growing up in Madison, Wisconsin, DeLuca enjoyed spending time outdoors. His family dabbled in farming and he learned about the value of early mornings and the self-sufficiency demanded by agricultural work. They made frequent backpacking trips to the forests of Idaho and Montana. His strong connection to the woods and the West motivates him today.
“I spend as much time outdoors as I can. I love to be in the woods. I do a fair amount of trail running, skiing and cycling,” he says. As young parents, he and his wife Denise took their three sons Vince, Emile and Henry on outdoor excursions nearly every weekend to instill that same love of the land.
DeLuca has a fondness for books about the land and people pushing their limits — whether physical, emotional or mental. He also enjoys a wide variety of music. However, when it comes to personal accomplishments, he reflects on his own family with gratitude and happiness: “Raising those three boys is probably the best thing I can point to in my life to date.”
It follows that DeLuca places the College of Forestry’s educational mission at the top of his priorities. Kids growing up in urban areas often lack familiarity with rural landscapes, he says, and may associate forestry primarily with clear-cuts.
He notes, however, that in the 1890s, the science of forestry developed in response to the destructive practices of an earlier age. “Forestry was the first environmental science practiced at a landscape level in the United States. We need to reclaim that ground. We need to recapture peoples’ and kids’ imagination around forestry.”
DeLuca believes educational excellence means producing graduates who combine a deep understanding of forest ecosystems with a conservation ethic and strong communication skills.
Toward that end, DeLuca sees his leadership role as enabling faculty and students. “It’s not about me; it’s about us as a college. It’s my job to help create the conditions in which people can do their best work,” he says. “It takes systems thinking and an integration of practice to create an effective team.”
DeLuca recognizes the college has leading institutes and departments, which bring a diversity of perspectives and collaborations to the sustainability challenge. By connecting students with current research, faculty create an exceptional educational experience. Across the state, the OSU Forestry and Natural Resources Extension Program carries the learning to communities that are dealing with issues from wildfire to economic dislocation.
The college has also benefited from the leadership of Anthony S. Davisas interim dean, says DeLuca. “He seized the momentum created by Dean Maness and moved the college forward on multiple fronts, including the completion of the Oregon Forest Science Complex, exploring the creation of the Elliott State Research Forest and the establishment of the Wood Identification and Screening Center at OSU.”
In his research, DeLuca has found the enduring footprint of human activity across the world. For example, in Sweden, where he conducted field work with ecologists and archaeologists, northern forests were regarded as pristine and untouched by humans. However, the Sámi people had managed those forests and alpine tundra for millennia, just as Native peoples exerted a strong influence on forests in North America.
“We have to recognize that humans are part of the landscape,” he says. “They are and always will be.”
A version of this story appeared in the Fall 2020 issue of Focus on Forestry, the alumni magazine of the Oregon State University College of Forestry.
The College of Forestry’s world-class students and faculty conduct innovative research across the entirety of the forest landscape. Our research happens in labs and outdoors– on public and private lands across the state and in the College’s own 15,000 acres of College Research Forests as well as around the nation and the world.
The College of Forestry received over $11.2 million in new and continuing awards for FY 2020, an increase of 31% from the previous year and the highest total since FY 2016. The awards support College of Forestry research that advances scientific knowledge critical to the health of forests, people and communities.
College of Forestry advisors McKenzie Huber and Autumn Granger have been recognized as the Oregon Academic Advising Association Advisors of the Year for 2020! Autumn is a first generation college student herself, and understands the importance of having someone to help guide you. McKenzie has her Ed.M. in College Student Services Administration from Oregon State University and has dedicated her career to academic advising.
Our advisors assist students in making the most of their educational opportunity and stay with their students from orientation to graduation. Learn more about our undergraduate degree options and take a virtual tour today!
Catalina joined the Department of Forest Engineering, Resources, and Management in 2013 and runs the Watershed Processes Lab. The goal of her research program is to understand the physical processes that control the movement of water and sediment and the effects that the variability of these processes have on water availability, water quality, and stream ecology.
If you’re interested in a career dedicated to improving our forest ecosystems, learn more about our undergraduate and graduate degree programs.
In this lecture, associate professor Mariapaola Riggio introduces us to the sensor network in the George W. Peavy Forest Science Center. This new building in OSU’s Oregon Forest Science Complex is a pioneer mass timber building showcasing innovative forest products and novel engineering solutions. Data are currently collected from a comprehensive sensor network in the building and investigated to cross-check assumptions made during the design phase. This truly makes it a living laboratory, and the monitoring data will provide many lessons for students, researchers and the mass timber industry.
Professor Riggio has been with the Department of Wood Science and Engineering since 2015. Her research interests include architecture, structural engineering, structural health, timber mechanics, and building design. Her work has led to important collaborations with the University of Oregon and the advancement of mass timber initiatives. Our undergraduate degree in renewable materials and graduate degree in wood science can lead to a career with innovative products and engineering solutions.
—This lecture was part of the College of Forestry’s Stay at Home lecture series, featuring presentations by College of Forestry professors, students, and researchers.
In “CLT industry enters 2020s (to face a different world than imagined),” professor Lech Muszyński looked into his crystal ball to see how the global pandemic is going to impact the future of this budding industry. Cross laminated timber (CLT) is an innovative wood panel product made from gluing layers of solid-sawn lumber together, and has been gaining in popularity. Will that continue?
Lech Muszyński is professor of novel composite materials and advanced manufacturing in the Wood Science and Engineering department. His work has led to innovations across a number of mass timber products, including cross-laminated timber. Our undergraduate degree in renewable materials and graduate degree in wood science can lead to a career creating innovative products and building a sustainable economy.
—This lecture was part of the College of Forestry’s Stay at Home lecture series, featuring presentations by College of Forestry professors, students, and researchers.
Jim Ayorekire, a visiting Fulbright scholar at the College of Forestry, recently gave a presentation as part of our Stay at Home Lecture Series. Dr. Ayorekire joined us in November 2019 from Makerere University in Uganda where he is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Forestry, Biodiversity and Tourism. He talked about his research and experiences at OSU.
During his time in the College of Forestry, Jim co-taught a course in the Tourism, Recreation and Adventure Leadership degree program. In TRAL 354 (Communities, Natural Areas, and Sustainable Tourism), he was able to share Eastern African experiences, giving the students a global perspective. In his research, he studies human-gorilla conflict in the greater Virunga landscape of Rwanda and Uganda. This was a valuable perspective for our students! We welcome scholars and students from all over the world to collaborate with us in our classrooms, forests and labs.
–Dr. Jim Ayorekire holds a PhD in Sustainable Tourism Management from the University of Cape Town – South Africa and a Master’s degree in Land Use & Regional Development Planning from Makerere University. His research centers on the role of tourism as a driver for natural resource conservation, and enhancement of community livelihoods and inclusive development. He also has extensive experience in knowledge transfer and curriculum design and has been focusing on innovative program and curriculum development in Tourism, Forestry, and Resource Management.
The annual Western Forestry Graduate Research Symposium (WFGRS) showcases graduate and undergraduate student research. This year, the symposium partnered with the College of Forestry’s Stay at Home Lecture Series to share student’s research through a series of 5-to-12 minute online presentations. Over the course of four webinars, topics such as ecology, forest management, forest products, and human uses were explored.
In the first session, Interim Dean Anthony S. Davis kicked off the symposium with opening remarks, followed by seven presentations ranging from sustainable forest certification costs and benefits to early successional forests of the Klamath-Siskiyou region.
In the second session, students presented their research proposals on topics as broad as riparian restoration, wildfire effects on water quality, timber faller safety, and more.
For the third session, presentations included Tree Mortality in the McDonald-Dunn Research Forest and The Economic Consequence of a Log Export Tax in Oregon.
In the final session, student presentations ranged from the use of low-grade cross laminated timber to comparing the performance of Douglas-fir and western hemlock seedlings in different nursery containers.
-The Western Forestry Graduate Research Symposium is organized entirely by College of Forestry graduate students. The purpose of this symposium is to promote academic excellence by challenging students to present their work to and receive feedback from their academic and professional peers on their proposed and current research from a diverse audience, fostering student engagement, enthusiasm, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
