at Oregon State University Winter1990 Winter1990

et me begin my first Dean's Column by telling you how honored I am to have been selected to serve as dean of the L College of Forestry. It is an awesome responsibility, but an exciting one, given the issues we face in forestry and the outstanding faculty, staff, and alumni support we have to meet those ERSAL researcher Dennis Isaacson challenges. at tlze computer. Story on page 3. The coming decade wHl be a challenging one for the College and for forestry in the Pacific Northwest. My vision for the College in the next decade is that we will become an intellectual center for forestry in the West, a generator and catalyst for new ideas in forestry, and a voice for the ethical context of our profession. To fulfill this vision, we must strengthen our position as a key source of relevant, reliable, and unbiased information about forests. We want people to turn to the College for factual information, and that includes decision makers in government and industry as well as members of the public and the environmental community. We must also be in touch with a broader array of clients to help us sense emerging issues, so that we can help shape the future. And we need to be more active as partici­ Winter 1990 pants in the public debate. Volume 3, No. 1 In his tenure as dean, Carl Stoltenberg has guided the College through booms and recessions. He has molded an organization with strong pro­ grams in teaching, research, continuing education, and extension. He has College of Forestry positioned us to enter this challenging decade with strength and confidence. Oregon State I hope you'll eagerly join us as we tackle the challenges of the 1990s. Indeed, University it has been the support from outside the College-from alumni, industry, the congressional delegation, legislators, and others-that has made us George W. Brown what we are today. Dean I look forward to this next decade with great anticipation and to the opportunity to work with you in serving Oregon and its people. Gail Wells Editor

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Focus on Forestry is published three times each year (Fall, Winter, Spring) by the College of Forestry, George Brown Oregon State University. Any or all Dean, College of Forestry parts of this publication may be Oregon State University reproduced with credit to the College of Forestry.

2 Focus on Forestry Winter 1990 THE BIG PICTURE Indian Reservation, Luther is respon­ collected by Landsat. ERSAL proc­ sible for the health of the elk and essed the numbers and printed out a ERSAL paints a deer populations on the reservation. map of the imaged reservation. Fifty­ Among other things, these large eight different types of landscape portrait of the game animals need both open areas features, corresponding to 58 differ­ in which to forage for food and ent patterns of reflected light, were landscape in light forested areas to protect them from plotted on the map. the elements. These forested areas The information was also pre­

~ I are called thennal cover. sented to Luther on magnetic tape so entral Oregon's Warm Luther had a pretty good idea of that he could manage the data on his Springs Indian Reservation the state of the large-game habitat on own computing system. With some covers 650,000 acres of the reservation. But he wanted more­ fieldwork, Luther and his colleagues highly varied landscape­ precise information. were able to verify ERSAL's code Cmature timb erlands, young and "We are at a point in our timber and translate it into a highly detailed middle-aged managed forests, grassy management," he says, "where we and accurate map of the different rangelands, and high deserts of need to know how much thermal types of vegetation that were of juniper and sagebrush. cover we have, because that is typi­ interest to them. To manage a land of such diver­ cally what's being harvested." To Now Luther knows exactly how sity is a challenge. But wildlife gather such information from the much thermal cover there is on the manager Terry Luther has a good ground-650,000 acres of it­ reservation, and where it lies. ER­ handle on his part of the job, would have been a formidably SAL's work, he says, adds a valuable thanks to Oregon State Univer­ time-consuming tool to his kit. sity's ERSAL. task. ERSAL's main focus ERSAL's real name is Environ­ now is on wildlife habitat. mental Remote Sensing Applica­ With a three-year, $496,000 tions Laboratory. Remote sens- grant from NASA, ERSAL's scientists, collaborators, and graduate students are devel- oping remote sensing to study A composite image of such things as the harvest­ Oregon, from data gathered induced fragmentation of by NASA's Landsat satellite. Douglas-fir forests in the Oregon Cascades, and the light patterns that character- ing, says William J. Ripple, ize the habitat of the north­ director of ERSAL, deals with ern spotted owl. the patterns of light reflected To Dennis Isaacson, from the Earth's landscapes remote-sensing specialist and detected by sensors at ERSAL, such studies mounted on satellites and are essential to prudent aircraft. Instead, in 1985 the Warm Springs forest management. "I like to draw Since 1972, when it was born out of tribes got in touch with ERSAL. a parallel between European forests a grant from NASA, ERSAL has been and ours in Oregon," he says. "In finding ways to refine the raw data Eye in the sky Europe, the transition from natural collected by remote-sensing instru­ to managed forests took place over ments into formulas to help foresters ERSAL gets its remote-sensing in­ three millenia. In western North and other land managers make better formation from NASA It's gathered America it's taking place over less decisions. 'We conduct research to by sensors mounted on the Landsat than a hundred years. It only makes find out what we can see with satellites, in orbit more than 500 sense that we use every bit of infor­ satellite data," says Ripple-he's also miles away in space; or on such mation available. These systems can assistant professor of forest re­ aircraft as the high-flying U-2 plane, help guide us into a completely sources-"and what we can do to which surveys the Earth from 12 managed landscape, and that's turn it into useful information." miles up. The sensors record the what's in our future." ERSAL's information proved very patterns of light waves reflected from Not to use such tools, he says, "is useful to Terry Luther. As fish and the landscape and store them as like driving a car with your eyes wildlife biologist for the Confeder­ numbers on a magnetic tape. shut." ated Tribes of the Warm Springs The Warm Springs data were • Focus on ForestnJ Winter 1990 3 Timber harvest and wildlife: A ' new study brings them tOgether

learcutting may be the because it increases their food supply. two-storied stand, and harvesting of most efficient way to grow Certain smaller animals benefit small patches within a stand. One and harvest timber, but too, says wildlife biologist Bill stand will be left as a control. C certain wildlife species McComb, associate professor and Snags w_ill be left on each of the suffer when their habitat is lost. A Tappeiner's partner in the research. treahnent stands. They will be new, large-scale study on the Col­ "A whole host of nongame birds and clumped together on some and lege's McDonald Research Forest is several small mammals are coloniz­ scattered on others, to see which looking at ways to harvest and ers-they move into a clearcut and arrangement is preferred by cavity- replant timber without nesting animals. Some eliminating wildlife of the snags will be species that live in natural; others will be mature forests. created by using dyna­ Findings of the study mite to blow the tops could ultimately be from living trees. applied in the form of The study, covering timber harvest plans about 500 acres, is the that win support rather largest and the first ever than censure from the of its kind to be carried environmental commu­ out on the 7,000-acre nity. More immediately, McDonald Forest. It had the study should yield · its roots in an annual valuable·information short course in wildlife J about how Douglas-fir and sil viculture~ devel­ seedlings perform in oped by Tappeiner and McCoQ'lb and taught for the first time last May to A McGillivray's · forest agency managers. warble1: is cradled iu a Information gained lwma11 hand. The bird is · from the study will be one ofmol'e tllall 50 part of the continuiJ.1g species of birits and curriculum of the mammals obsl'rveif in course. tlze McDonald Forest The researchers wildlife study. began the experiment by identifying the study stands and taking stock of the animals liviJ.1g areas where some big trees are left, reproduce rapidly." But othet small there. McComb and two graduate and how the big trees respond when birds and mammals, such as wood­ students counted more than 50 their neighbors are cut down. peckers, hermit warblers, brown species of birds and small mammals. The experiment will thus be a creepers, and red-backed voles, aren't The mammals were trapped and re­ good teaching tool, says John adapted to rapid movement and leased; the birds had to be identified Tappeiner, professor, silviculturist, reproduction. by their calls. This kind of wildlife in­ and one of the study's two principal ''We know that if we clear-cut," ventory, says McComb, takes. a keen investigators: "It'll be something that McComb says, "it's going to be along ear. "You might hear three Wilson's both students and the public can time before that mature forest comes warblers all at once--one 20 feet come and look at." back again. Our goal is to try tec11- away in one direction, another 40 Because clearcutting is uncompli­ niques where some mature forest is feet the other way, and the third one cated and cost-effective, says left on site, either as scattered trees or back behind you. And there may be Tappeiner, it has been the customary as pockets of mature timber." 15 other species all singing at the and preferred method of harvesting The study involves 33 stands of 15- same time." The wildlife will be and regenerating Douglas-fir. 20 acres each. They will be harvested counted again each spring. Changes Clearcutting can also be beneficial for under three general regimes: clearcut­ in the composition of the animal some wildlife, notably deer and elk, ting, selective cutting to produce a community will be noted and

4 Focus on Forestnj Winter 1990 compared among the different through June of 1999, but Tappeiner stands. 'We know that if we and McComb would like to carry it The experiment will study not beyond that date. They believe the only wildlife but reforestation clear-cut, it's going study can contribute significantly to methods, and perhaps nail down-or the knowledge of Douglas-fir regen­ revise-conventional wisdom about to be a long time eration and the impact of logging on regenerating Douglas-fir forests. For wildlife. "Twenty years ago," example: "We know Douglas-fir does before it comes back Tappeiner says, "our ability to well in openings," says Tappeiner. regenerate clearcuts was less success­ "We'd like to find out how big an again. Our goal is to ful than it is today. Now we know opening is needed. In the two-storied how to do that; we've got a system stands and the small openings, we try techniques where that works. I think that's a big accom­ can study how the remaining trees plishment, but we can't rest on our affect the regrowth of the seedlings, some mature forest is laurels. We need to try something and the regrowth of native hard­ different; to achieve some simple woods and shrubs as well." left on site.' alternatives." The study is projected to last •

SoITie neighbors opposed to Mac Forest study

he College of Forestry's It's understandable, say College silvicultural-alternatives officials, that people who live next to T study was met with protests a serene setting like the McDonald in mid-August when neighbors of Forestwouldpreferthatitremain McDonald Forest learned that untouched. But that's not in keeping cutting was a bout to begin on the with the mission of a research forest, first harvest unit just west of Lewis­ which is to provide a place where burg Saddle. various management alternatives, in­ Bill Atkinson, director of OSU cluding ways of harvesting timber, can be tried. Atkinson stresses, however, that the College's research mission 'Throw bricks at us embraces the whole ecosystem­ Researc11 forest director Atkinson including the human component of for a clearcut that it. "We are trying to show," he says, same time throw roses at us for "that multiple-use management is a preserving stands of old growth, for you don't like, but real, workable thing-that with continuously expanding our trail careful planning you can harvest system, for providing a training throw roses at us for timber and still have recreation, ground for thousands of foresters water, wildlife, all the other re­ and research sites for hundreds of preserving stands of sources." important projects.'" This isn't the first time the College Some of the other resources that old growth.' has fielded protests from Mac Forest the College is developing right now, neighbors. There was an outcry in Atkinson says, include a trail for 1988 when 55 acres just adjacent to elderly and handicapped visitors the road on Lewisburg Saddle were near Peavy Arboretum, a auto­ harvested. bicycle historic tour of the Soap Research Forests, and manager Jeff Responding to protests from the Creek Valley, and an old-growth Garver met with about 40 neighbors public, Atkinson, in a 1988 issue of trail. to discuss their concerns. the College's student newsletter, Hi­ "There will probably always be The meeting helped defuse some Lead, wrote: "If I were able to say one people who object to some things," objections, says Atkinson, at least thing to these critics, it would be: Atkinson says. "We won' t be able to for now. "Many of them," he says, 'Hey-look at our entire operation please everybody. But when people "appreciated the nature of the and not just the part of it you dis­ come to realize the variety of things research when it was explained to agree with. Throw bricks at us for a we do here, I think most of them them." clearcut that you don't like, but at the will support us." . •

Focus on Forestnj Winter 1990 5 Teaching the machine to see magine- just for the sake of are totally different. We use methods futurist fantasizing-a scientific 'The capability of the that are suited to what a computer instnunent fo r visual perception, can do, rather than what a human can I a "seeing machine," if you will. human eye is quite do; we don't have a computer that Imagine that this instrument is so 'sees' in a human way." finely tuned that it can pick out, say, phenomenal.' With further refinement of the a tiny split or a subtle pitch streak computer's eye comes more potential that is barely distinguishable from applications: For example, in furni­ the grain of the wood nearby. open holes but not closed defects. ture and mill work joinery, where Such a thing exists today, but it's "The process must be made sensitive subtle likenesses in the grain and not a scientific instrument. It's the enough to recognize defects of all color of wood could be matched so human eye and brain, which work sizes, shapes, and colors," says smoothly as almost-perhaps- to together to perform an astonishing Funck. fool the human eye. Machine vision series of complex, rapid, and largely could make it intuitive judgments. "If a machine possible to get could see as well as a 3-year-old," says David Butler, "our research Charles would be years ahead of where it is." Bn11111er (left) Butler, operations researcher and mathematician, is one of three leaders and David of a Forest Products team researching Butler confer machine vision-a complex and as tltey work cutting-edge field of study that aims at tlte terminal to find ways to teach computers to of a 11ew,

"see," with the aid of video cameras, ( $30,000 some of the same things that humans mac/tine - can see, and to make some of the v ision judgments that humans now make instrument based on what they see. called a Butler, associate professor of statistics, and co-leaders James Funck spectro­ and Charles Brunner, associate and radiometer. assistant professors (respectively) of forest products, are finding ways to use machine vision to do such things Here is where it's hard to explain high-quality finish work out of as locate defects in sheets of veneer, to people that machine vision is more smaller, less-expensive pieces of clear make less-conspicuous joints in wood than meets the eye. Says Butler: "A wood. products, and devise the most person on the production line says, 'I "I think we've been successful in efficient way to saw a board. can see that defect-how come the combining the talents of people with For example, one study, led by machine can't see it?"' quite different backgrounds," says Funck, used a camera to record how The answer is that most people Butler. Among the research assistants ribbons of veneer were clipped into don't realize how remarkable their and graduate students working on sheets at a particular mill. Funck then own vision is. "The capability of the the project are people with degrees in digitized the pictures, manipulated human eye," says Brunner, "is quite computer science, electrical engineer­ the digitized images, and recon­ phenomenal compared to that of a ing, mathematics, and statistics, as structed the clipping process. This machine-vision system. When a well as forest products. "So this is made it possible for him to try person sees, it's a virtually instanta­ really quite an interdisciplinary various clipping schemes to find the neous event: You see the gestalt, the approach." most efficient one. Using this infor­ whole field." Machine vision, on the "It took us a while to get up to mation, the study found, a typical other hand, must work with one tiny, speed," says Brunner, "but I think we mill could increase its recovery of specific piece of information at a now have a critical mass of talent. In good veneer by up to 9 percent. time. So to try to understand it in the next 10-15 years there will be a Machine vision is used to some human terms can be misleading. "We large increase in the use of machine­ degree in mills already, but its capa­ are trying to get computers to achieve vision systems, and we feel our bilities, while promising, are far some of the same kinds of perform­ research can make a significant inferior to those of the human eye. ance that a human can achieve," says contribution to their application in For instance, the scanner can identify Butler, "but typically our teclmiques the wood-products industry." •

6 Focus 011 Forestri1 Winter 1990 Do you need extra income in retirement?

As you plan for retirement are you looking for ways to increase your monthly income?

Many of our College of Forestry friends have given timber property or other highly appreciated assets in exchange for lifetime income.

Life income agreements are a wonderful way to make a charitable gift today while retaining income for your retirement.

Life Income Agreements can help you:

•Increase your monthly income •Avoid paying taxes on the appreciation in property values •Receive a charitable contribution deduction to help offset taxes •Avoid probate costs •Produce a growing income as a hedge against inflation •Make a meaningful gift to the College of Forestry

For more infonnation on Life Income Agreements, please write or call Dr. George Brown, Dean, College of Forestry, OSU, Peavy Hall 150B, Corvallis, OR 97331-5704, phone (503) 737-2221. Or complete the fol­ lowing form and mail. r------Dr. George Brown, Dean College of Forestry Oregon State University Peavy Hall 150B Corvallis, OR 97331-5704

Please send me a complimentary copy of:

0 "Giving Through Life Income Plans"

0 "The Charitable Remainder Unitrust-a gift that pays you life income" Nam.e ______Address------City______State ______

ZiP------~Phone ______I IL ______

Focus on Forestry Winter 1990 7 Involved, engaged, outspoken That's the College of Forestry-and its new dean

n assuming the dean­ first step toward such involve­ ship of the Oregon State ment: "We need to be there University College of and tell what we know. We Forestry, George Brown need to get into the system acknowledges he's stepping before decisions are made; we into some big shoes. How do shouldn't wait to be invited." you affirm both your own Another item on Brown's vision for the future and the agenda is to build bridges­ contributions of your well-re­ and mend fences- with the spected and highly effective environmental community, a predecessor? How, in short, constituency that has in the do you follow an act like Carl past been "highly suspicious of Stoltenberg' s? us, because they haven't liked In fact, says Brown, who some of our answers." The has worked in close partner­ College needs to counter that ship with Stoltenberg as a hostility, he says, with a member of the College of climate of open intellectual Forestry's administrative George Brown: "It's time to light the fuse." exchange. team, his own leadership will Finally, the College needs to be in many ways an organic reach out to the public. "There outgrowth of the legacy that 'This is not your classic is an awful lot of misunder­ Stoltenberg has already standing," says Brown, "of established: A College that is ivory-tower forestry school. how the forest-products esteemed by its peers, in­ industry and the natural volved in forestry policy We're in the thick of things.' resources of the state influence issues, engaged at the cutting the economy of local commu- edge of research, and commit- nities. I'd like to have more ted to transferring its know- basic public education on the ledge to the public that sup- linkages between our natural ports it. believes, because of the often-acrimo­ resources and the economic well­ "This is not your classic ivory­ nious atmosphere in which forestry being of communities." tower forestry school," says Brown. and land-management questions are It is because of Stoltenberg's "People here are involved in trying to debated. "We need to have a regular painstaking preparation, Brown solve the forestry problems in the place where people can come to believes, that the College is now state. Our blending of the theoretical understand what we know and don't poised to assume a larger place in and the applied sets us apart-we're know about how forests function. Oregon's natural-resources con­ in the thick of things." And I mean the interaction of all sciousness. "He's positioned us to do The College is thus poised to values-wildlife, water quality, that. He's put us on the launch pad­ assume an even more influential aesthetics, spiritual values. now it's time to light the fuse. Our posture, Brown believes. "We should "Our role is to conduct careful message is, 'We're prepared to move be an intellectual Mecca for forestry research and analysis and then, as an into the next decade with strength."' in the West. I know that sounds a educational institution, provide an Brown is aware that a high profile little bit presumptuous," he says opportunity for the open interchange isn't always compatible with a solid, thoughtfully, ''but what I mean is, we of ideas, clearly acknowledging the unbiased credibility. "There's a great should be a place where people turn wide array of perspectives and deal of risk involved. There'll be for new ideas, a place where they uncertainties typical of natural­ pressures from all sides. People come to find an open forum to debate resource issues. This is the classical won't always like us. We have to be those ideas, to argue them, to test role of higher education and one in the eye of the hurricane." But the them out. I want us to be considered universities have played for centu­ College is uniquely qualified to be a a source for good, hard, factual, unbi­ ries." voice for responsible stewardship in ased information on the forest system What will it take to turn Brown's the management of natural re­ and how it influences the quality of vision into reality? For one thing, an sources, and that, Brown asserts, life in Oregon." aggressive engagement in the makes the risks worthwhile. Such a haven for forestry learning natural-resources policy arena. The "Here at Oregon State," he says, is needed now more than ever, he College, he says, needs to take the "we are sensitive both to the needs of

8 Focus on Forestnj Winter 1990 ·· Retirement: just a change of opportunities for Stoltenberg n Carl Stoltenberg's measured forestry, locally, nationally, and and articulate conversation, one internationally, than perhaps any I word recurs with a frequency other place in the world." that is far from accidental. That word His accomplishments as dean are is "opportunities," and it can be read many. Stoltenberg- characteristi­ as an index into Stoltenberg's world cally- talks about them as "opportu­ view, a clue about how he organizes nities"-opportunities to do the job and measures the vicissitudes of his at hand and to build upon the work life. of his predecessors. That life-a life full of accomplish­ "When I came, the opportunities ments- is undergoing some particu­ that existed immediately were to lar scrutiny now that Stoltenberg has provide greater integration and turned over the helm of the College coordination of the different mis­ of Forestry to his successor, George sions the College had: to coordinate Brown. "My opportunities as dean of undergraduate, graduate, and people and to the environment they the College of Forestry were one continuing education, to integrate live in. That is the classic conserva­ thing; those I have as a private research, and to bring in forestry tion ethic, and that's why I've stayed individual are quite different," he extension. And I think we've done a at Oregon State. If in my tenure as says. "I'm rethinking my way of reasonably good job of that." dean I can bring about a reconcili­ looking at the world, rethinking "Classic Stoltenberg understate­ ation of what are perceived as two what my opportunities are now . ment!" says George Brown. "In his diametrically opposed and mutually "I'm going to do some thinking tenure as dean, our teaching pro­ exclusive points of view, then I will and reading gram has profited have felt my effort to be worthwhile. about the issues from his empha- "This College is uniquely posi­ that the commu­ , tioned to provide that reconcili­ nity and the ation." nation are facing, Carl and Brown is a forest hydrologist and and some reflect­ Rose111an1 ing on where I fit professor in the Forest Engineering Stolte11berg Department. He's been on the OSU into them. What role can I play? enjoy a relaxed faculty since 1966, teaching and moment at doing research in watershed man­ Forestry may be a agement and water quality and part of that role, home. serving as department head from but not all­ 1973-1986. He was watershed maybe not even management consultant to the the major part." sis on development of faculty as Weyerhaeuser Co. while on sabbati­ Forestry has played a major part teachers, our research program has cal in 1973. in Stoltenberg's life for a long time, doubled in size, our continuing­ He earned his bachelor's in forest beginning back when he was a boy educa tion program has mush­ management at Colorado State growing up on California's Monterey roomed, and we have the largest University in 1960, his master's in Peninsula. He went on to earn a forestry extension program in the watershed management at CSU in forestry degree from Berkeley in nation. The College has moved from 1962, and his doctorate in forest 1948, a master's in forestry econom­ a reputation as a good, solid forestry hydrology at OSU in 1967. ics in 1949, and a Ph.D. in resource program to one of the very best Three years ago Brown became economics from the University of forestry schools in the United States. associate dean for research. He was Minnesota in 1952. He was attracted Yeah, I'd say that's a 'reasonably appointed dean of the College, after to resource economics because "I was good' job!" a nationwide search, on January 1 of interested in both people and re­ For the next several months this year. sources, and economics provided a Stoltenberg and his wife Rosemary He is a member of SAF, the way to work with the interaction are looking forward to traveling and American Geophysical Union, the between the two." reading. After that "the picture is forestry honorary Xi Sigma Pi and When he became forestry dean at much less clear," Stoltenberg says . Sigma Xi, and the American Associa­ OSU in 1967, Stoltenberg knew he with a smile. tion for the Advancement of Science. was stepping into a large arena. "I've had 23 years of fantastic · He has published widely in profes­ OSU, he says, was and is "the place opportunities at Oregon State. They sional journals. of opportunity for education and have really been wonderful for me! research, the place from which one But now it's time to move on." • can make more of a difference in • Focus on Forestnj Winter 1990 9 Research-which is also supported Yoder receives by NASA. OTIER researchers hope to perfect methods of monitoring the NASA fellowship health of entire forest ecosystems from aircraft or satellites. Barbara Yoder, a doctoral student OSU Forest Science professor in forest science, has received an Richard Waring is head of the $18,000 fellowship from NASA for program in Oregon and also is 1989-90. The fellowship, one of 40 Yoder's major professor. The fellow­ awarded annually by NASA head­ ship also covers tuition and travel quarters, will support Yoder in her expenses for Yoder and Waring to research on the relationship between attend a symposium in Washington, D.C., in May of 1990.

Resler honored at SAF convention in Spokane Rex Resler

Rexford A. Resler, '53 and '54, was president of the American Forestry honored with the Gifford Pinchot Association, a position he held until Medal at the 1989 SAF National 1984. Convention, held last September in Resler was honored for his Spokane, Wash. contributions to the development of The highly regarded award is the National Forest resource and presented by SAF every two years to land-management legislation. recognize outstanding contributions Particularly noted was his work with by a forestry professional to the Congress in clarifying controversial administration, practice, and profes­ forest-resource bills. sional development of North Ameri­ In his writing and public speak­ Barbara Yoder can forestry. The award and accom­ ing, Resler continues to be an articu­ panying engraved medallion com­ late spokesman on national forestry the photosynthesis of leaves and m emorate Gifford Pinchot (1865- issues. He has appeared on many canopies and their capacity to reflect 1946), founder and first president of forest-policy discussion platforms sunlight. Her studies are part of a SAF. nationwide. larger research effort in remote Resler earned his bachelor's Resler and his wife Lee raise sensing-monitoring the health of d egree from OSU in 1953 and his Missouri Foxtrotter horses on their forests from aircraft or satellites. master's in 1954. He was active in the five acres near Terrebonne, Oregon. In carefully controlled laboratory Forestry Club and led the crew that studies, Yoder will be m easuring the completed the Forestry Cabin in light that is reflected both from Peavy Arboretum. Forestry enrollment: individual leaves and from tiny He began his career with the greenhouse forest canopies no bigger Forest Service in 1953, serving as It's on a roll than 15 inches square. She will use district ranger on the Siuslaw and this information to test som e specific then the Rogue River National The College of Forestry is bigger hypotheses about how photosynthe­ Forests. He later became deputy by 87 students-80 more under­ sis-the plants' food-making capac­ regional forester in the Pacific graduates and seven more graduate ity- is related to the amount and Northwest. He was appointed students than last fall, according to kind of light reflected. associate chief of the Forest Service in Perry Brown, associate dean for in­ Yoder's research is part of a larger Washington, D.C. in 1972. He retired struction. study called OTTER- Oregon from federal service in 1979, but The numbers spell an enrollment Transect Terrestrial Ecosystem went on to become executive vice increase of 25 percent overall and 35

10 Focus on Forestrlj Winter 1990 percent for undergraduates. Bacillus thuringiensis (B.t.). Those that acreage will stay about the same, and, The increase is reflected in most accept the foreign genes are cloned­ barring catastrophe, we'll have old­ programs: Forest Products is up 33 propagated by means of tissue growth forests indefinitely. percent for both undergraduate and culture-and then rooted. "If every­ These and other projections about graduate students; Forest Resources, thing worked," says Strauss, "all the Oregon's timber availability over the 31 percent; and Forest Engineering, cells within our genetically modified next 100 years were offered by a team 19 percent. Forest Science is slightly shoots will have the new genetic of public and private timber experts down. Total enrollment is 306 under­ information." at the third Starker Lecture last No­ graduates and 130 graduates. B.t. is a bacterium that is also an vember. "I believe this is the biggest insecticide. It's used in sprays to Members of the team were John percent increase we've ever had," control many insects including gypsy Sessions and Brian Greber of the says Brown. moth caterpillars, which can be very College faculty, K. Norman Johnson harmful to Douglas-fir. Ultimately of the College faculty and the researchers hope to produce governor's staff, John Beuter, former Douglas-fir seed stock with genetic associate dean at the College of Donor hits the target resistance to the gypsy moth. Forestry and now an adjunct faculty The $30,000 gene gun is actually member and a private forestry with new gene gun leased rather than purchased, so that consultant, and Gary Lettman of the Thanks to the generosity of an it can be replaced periodically with Oregon Department of Forestry. anonymous donor, the Forest Science an updated model. Half the lease fee Beuter and Jolmson were two of Department's gene-research effort was donated by a College of Forestry the authors of a 1976 timber-availabil­ has its own gene gun- and it's alumnus who prefers to remain ity report titled "Timber for Oregon's literally a gun, says Steven H . Strauss, anonymous. The rest comes from Tomorrow," widely known as the National Science Foundation match­ Beuter Report. ing funds given in connection with Like the 1976 report, the 1989 Strauss' Presidential Young Investi­ update looked at the availability of gator award. timber on federal, state, and private The gene gun has attracted the industry and nonindustry lands, and interest of other gene researchers calculated the effects on the economy here, particularly those studying based on a number of scenarios. botany, agricultural chemistry, crop Other projections: science, and horticulture. Says We've recently been cutting more Strauss: "I imagine this machine is than we can sustain on the current going to get quite a lot of use on this land base, but not by much: Only campus." about 5 to 10 percent, say the re­ searchers. Sustainable harvest can be achieved by the next decade if we wish, at a moderate cost in jobs and How much timber is income. However, if this is done, according out there? Experts to the proposed actions of public management plans and the likely offer projections actions of private owners, the level of harvest that can be termed "sustain­ Forest Science's new gene gun Timber harvest in Oregon over the able" could increase, surpassing the next decade will probably fall below level of the recent past, by 2030, and what was cut in the late 1980s, says a could rise 10-15 percent above that assistant professor and geneticist. team of experts that includes four level by 2090. The new machine uses .22-caliber OSU professors. That decline will be Moreover, there's room for in­ shells to propel tiny particles of felt unevenly over the various creasing the sustainable harvest even . tungsten loaded with foreign genes timber-producing regions of the more by intensifying management, into the cells of young Douglas-fir state, but the statewide impact won't especially on nonindustrial private ·'needles. be enough to halt or reverse lands. Strauss uses the gene gun to Oregon's current economic growth. The timber-availability report is to bombard Douglas-fir cotyledons And over the long haul, harvested be printed and made available to the with genes from the bacterium trees will get smaller, clear-cut public by early 1990. •

Focus on Forestry Winter 1990 11 Top Weyerhaeuser executive stays in touch

n his senior year of forestry involved on a nationwide basis." Johnson to come along for company. school, Norm Johnson, OSU 'SS Among his many other service in­ "Well, I stood in line with him. and 'S7, just assumed he would volvements, Johnson is a member of They handed me some papers and I I go to work for the Forest OSU's Forest Research Lab Advisory filled them out. They wanted $40; I Service like his dad. But a happy Committee, and chairs the subcom­ had $40 on me. That's how I got accident intervened. "I'd accepted a mittee that recommends research started in college." job with the Forest Service at priorities for the Johnson came to OSU Waldport," he says, "starting when I FRL. in 19S3. Combining full­ graduated. His many time work with school, he "Then one day a professor of mine, accomplish­ earned top grades, Jim Krygier, stopped me in the hall ments have landed several scholar­ and said, 'Swede (that was my nick­ carried him a ships, and graduated first name then), you took a couple of long way from in his class in 19SS. He courses in entomology, didn't you? his childhood holds a master's from Well, Weyerhauser is looking for an home, Happy OSU and a doctorate in entomology assistant for the summer. Jack logging entomology from Why don't you apply?"' camp in north­ Berkeley, and has pub­ Johnson got the job, and his career ern Arizona's lished over 100 articles on changed course in a very fruitful high ponder­ entomology and forestry. way-for him, for Weyerhaeuser, and osa-pine coun­ Except for two years as for OSU. try. His father professor of entomology Norman E. Johnson's life is full of was a forester at Cornell, Johnson has such fortuitous circumstances. He on the Coconino spent his entire career at jokes, "I was a victim of lack of National Forest, Weyerhaeuser.He planning," but he does seem blessed and with three assumed his present post with an intuition for work that suits other children in the family there in January of 1984. his considerable talents. was no money to spare. "I quit He has kind words to say about Johnson, S6, is vice president for school after the eighth grade," says OSU College of Forestry. "What research, engineering, and technol­ Johnson. "Then for the next year I makes it world-class, in our mind, is ogy commercialization at Weyer­ hung around home and tried to take its ability to cooperate not only with haeuser. The giant, diversified wood­ a few correspondence courses. external organizations but inter­ products company runs the largest Finally my father had had enough of nally-between schools, between de­ private-sector forestry research and this, and he boarded me out to high partments. This kind of cooperation engineering program in the world. school in Flagstaff," for there was no is not common at most universities. With responsibility for 700 employees further schooling to be had in camp. "Carl (Stoltenberg) has taken the and an annual budget of $70 million, Jolrnson had no educational whole program along in a well­ Jolrnson fits the title conferred upon ambitions past high school gradu­ understood direction. You can find him by OSU forestry dean George ation, but another lucky happen­ better single programs at other Brown: "He's the 'dean' of corporate stance changed his mind. A friend wuversities, but no university that I research. He has been in the heat of was driving up to register at Arizona know of pulls it together as well as things in the area of research and State Teachers College (now North­ OSU does." management; he's been very, very ern Arizona University) and asked •

College of Forestry Non-Profit Org. Oregon State University U.S. Postage Peavy 154 PAID Hall Corvallis. OR 97331 Corvallis, OR 97331-5704 Permit No. 200

12 Focus on Forestry Winter 1990