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Doug Smith ‘50 at the memorial conservation
grove he helped create in Camptonville, Calif.
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A
forest grove established as a memorial to four men—three with
close ties to the College of Forestry and a prominent environmentalist—has
been planted at Skyline Ranch in Yuba County, Calif. Another
College alumnus was instrumental in preparing and planting the
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The
memorial honors Robert Conklin, who graduated from the School
of Forestry with a degree in logging engineering in 1923; J.R.
Dilworth, a professor of forest management in the 1950s; and
Robert Reichart, creator of the Self-Learning Center in the
early 1960s. It also honors David Brower, a prominent leader
of the Sierra Club, who was instrumental in efforts to set aside
many of America’s wilderness areas and national parks and monuments.
Douglas Smith, who earned a bachelor’s in Forest Products here
in 1950, helped the owners of Skyline Ranch, Diane Pendola and
Teresa Hahn, reforest their land after a 1999 wildfire. The
two women operate the ranch as a temporary sanctuary for women
newly released from institutions, helping them to rebuild their
lives and prepare to enter society again. |
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Smith
was a friend of Conklin’s, a student of Dilworth’s, and an
eager participant in Reichart’s Self-Learning Center activities.
Conklin worked for Weyerhaeuser for more than 30 years, and
then worked for Cascade Plywood and U.S. Plywood, from which
he retired in 1968. “He expressed dissatisfaction with the
way timber was measured,” says Smith, “and encouraged efforts
to find a better way. He urged me to pursue this via a forestry
research project, which led to talks with Professor J.R. Dilworth.
“This further developed into a (master’s thesis) developed
around improved ways to measure raw material for fiber content
as well as improved forest products potential.”
For his other course work,
Smith says, Reichart’s Self-Learning
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Center “proved to
be a lifesaver.” In cooperation with other Forestry faculty,
Reichart developed course work in print, slide-tape, audiotape,
and graphical formats. “His self-learning concepts are still
in use at several OSU departments, as well as sister colleges
and universities in Oregon.” says Smith.
Smith sees a common thread
among the men memorialized at Skyline Ranch, one that extends
to owners Diane Pendola and Teresa Hahn: “It is their dedication
to advancing that which is worthwhile.”
You may write to Diane
Pendola and Teresa Hahn at Skyline Ranch, PO Box 338, Camptonville,
CA 95922. Doug Smith can be reached at (530) 587-1425.
In memoriam
Harry Bernarr Forse ’34, of Victoria, B.C., in Vancouver,
in August.
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