http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt9x0nf6g9 No online items Rudolf W. Becking Collection 2003.04 Becking (Rudolf W.) Collection Finding aid prepared by Adrienne R.S. Harling, MLIS and Edith Butler, MA, CA. Help was provided by Suzanne Guerra, Joan Berman, and Tasha Becking Leonard Processing of this collection was funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives program. Humboldt State University One Harpst Street Arcata, CA, 95521-8299 (707) 826-3441 2011 Rudolf W. Becking Collection 2003.04 1 2003.04 Title: Rudolf W. Becking Collection Identifier/Call Number: 2003.04 Contributing Institution: Humboldt State University Language of Material: English Physical Description: 122.0 Cubic feet94 Record Storage Boxes, 9 Oversize Boxes Date (bulk): Bulk, 1940-2005 Date (inclusive): 1850-2010 Abstract: Rudolf Willem Becking was a professor of Forestry and Natural Resources at Humboldt State University from 1960-1983. He did extensive work in Northwestern California. His research interests included Redwoods, sustainable forestry (Plenturung), plant community ecology (Phytosociology), serpentine endemics, the Marbled Murrelet, timber cruise methodology, and many other topics. He worked in the Great Smoky Mountains in the 1950s-1960s and again in the 1970s. He did additional scholarly work in Indonesia, the USSR and in China. Becking also participated in political processes in the Northern California region. Highlights include involvement in the establishment and later expansion of Redwood National Park (1960s and 1970s), municipal environmental issues related to the city of Arcata, California and Humboldt Bay in the 1970s and 1980s, revision of the California Forest Practices Act in the 1970s, and many other regional environmental issues. Language of Materials: English creator: Becking, Rudolf Willem, 1922-2009 Access The collection is open for research. Copyright Copyright to the unpublished Becking material is the sole property of Humboldt State University Library. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Special Collections Librarian. Aquisition Information In 2003, Becking moved from his Arcata, California home office and donated the first of three installments of what is now the Rudolf W. Becking Collection to the Humboldt State University Library. Becking sent the second installment when he moved from Oregon to Utah. The last installment came after Becking’s 2009 death, arriving in 2010. The first two installments were packed by Becking, and the last installment was packed and shipped by family from Becking’s final residence in Utah. A number of foreign language books relating to forestry and botany were not accessioned by HSU. The majority of these books were from or about the Netherlands, Indonesia, India, Fiji, China, Japan, and the USSR. Biographical Information Rudolf Willem Becking was born in 1922 in Dutch-occupied Indonesia to a Dutch family. He had an early interest in the natural sciences that he shared with his brother and father. During World War II, Becking was captured as a Prisoner of War by the Japanese. He received two forestry degrees from Wageningen University in The Netherlands in 1952. Becking married H. Louise Sheltema, and they moved together to Seattle, WA, where he received his PhD from the University of Washington in 1954. He had brief employment with the Dutch Forest Service and universities in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Alabama before being hired at Humboldt State University in 1960. He retired from HSU in 1983, but remained an active professor emeritus, teaching classes and sponsoring graduate students for many years after. Both Becking and his wife died in 2009 and were survived by all three of their children. Becking lived the majority of his life in the United States, but had significant international influences from being raised in Indonesia, attending college in The Netherlands, and traveling extensively throughout his life. Thus, Becking’s approach to forestry and botany were unique amongst his American colleagues. For example, Becking was a strong advocate of Plenturung, an all-aged sustainable harvest model, at a time when even-aged harvest (clear cutting) was central to American forestry. In addition, Becking practiced Phytosociology, a technique of plant community analysis that had international support but very few American proponents. Throughout his career in the United States, Becking corresponded with a vast network of international colleagues. Although primarily identified as a forester, Becking’s work was interdisciplinary. In addition to forest growth and yield, he did research on plant and forest community ecology, taxonomy, and plant biology. He was a specialist in dipterocarps and redwoods, and did significant work with serpentine endemics, the lichen Usnea longissima, and forest/plant communities of the Great Smoky Mountains. Soil analysis was essential to his forest and plant research. Becking also did substantial research in ornithology (though he considered himself an amateur), primarily focused on the old-growth-forest-dependent Rudolf W. Becking Collection 2003.04 2 2003.04 Marbled Murrelet. Becking was a skilled illustrator and used his artistic ability as a tool in his scientific work. Becking was a citizen activist who focused on environmental management issues. During his long-term residence in Arcata, California, he engaged with the City of Arcata’s management of municipal transportation, waste, and forests. Becking was elected onto the Arcata City Council in 1972. Through letter writing, speaking, community organizing and other campaigning, Becking also worked for ancient forest conservation and improved forest policy. He was involved in many regional issues including the establishment and expansion of Redwood National Park, stopping the building of the Gasquet-Orleans Road (G-O Road), and the critique of numerous proposed timber sales on public lands. Becking worked on environmental protection of Humboldt Bay, proposed (with Deane B. Mather) the development of a regional recreation area he called the “Tri-Lake Plan”, and advocated against the proposed Butler Valley Dam. As a teacher, Becking left a lasting impression on his students who have described him as challenging, approachable, empowering and inspiring. He formed mentorships with students that often became lasting friendships. He was known for engaging his students in scientific studies that involved real-world field, lab and data analysis work. He integrated his own research interests and projects with his forestry and natural resources curricula. Becking attended the Humboldt Unitarian Fellowship and occasionally gave talks there that provided a view of how his work as a scientist and activist intersected with his spirituality. For more biographical information, see BEN Botanical Electronic News ISSN 1188-603X No. 421 February 4, 2009 , written by Adolf Ceska (with help from the Becking family). Scope and Content The Rudolf W. Becking Collection is documentation of the professional and political work of Dr. Rudolf Becking from the time of his post secondary education in the 1940s and 1950s, through his teaching career in the 1960s-1990s, and his continued work until his death in 2009. The collection contains primarily textual materials including research notes, data, correspondence, publications, and reports. There are also non-textual materials including photographs, slides, maps, posters, illustrations, sound recordings, and computer files. Major topics covered include all-aged forest management (Plenturung), plant community ecology (Phytosociology), old growth conservation, serpentine endemic plants, redwood biology, redwood forest ecology, timber cruise methodology, Marbled Murrelets, and the municipal environmental management of Arcata, California. Processing Information The Becking Collection came to HSU in three installments, and processing began between the arrival of the second and third installments. When the materials were packed to be delivered to the library, their original order was disrupted. At the library, to prepare for final processing, HSU Archivist Edie Butler and Processing Archivist Adrienne Harling sorted the collection according to topic and geographic area. Processing was completed primarily off campus, in several installments of 10-20 boxes at one time. The collection was processed efficiently, and series were arranged at different levels of detail (based on need and perceived research value). Becking used recycled manila envelopes and 3-ring binders to organize his materials. He labeled most envelopes and binders. When processed, materials were transferred out of the envelopes and binders and into file folders and archival storage boxes. Folder contents were transferred in their original order. Becking’s labels were used as folder headings when available, and the processing archivist provided additional information and generated folder headings for unlabeled materials (differentiated from Becking’s labels with brackets []). Becking’s spelling, grammar and punctuation were not edited when his labels were transferred to file folders. There were many loose materials that came with the collection, which were sorted according to collection series and labeled with the terms “loose” and/or “miscellaneous” without further description. The lack of description of these materials should not be mistaken for lack of research value,