ENHS Nature Trails February 2005 Article 1

This month's speaker: Sarah Green

If one asks a disparate group of individuals for a definition of "nature," not suprisingly, each will define it differently. If one asks a number of ENHS members to define "nature," though the definitions may have some similar threads, each will sculpt a different entry for Webster. And in most cases, in both groups, the definition will take shape from the point of view of an observer. Interestingly, this month's speaker, ecologist Sarah Greene, perhaps developed her deep bond for nature at an early age through experiencing it rather than observing it. Here's what she told me:

"As a child, I enjoyed nature more as a participant than as an observer. I loved to be outdoors, but never really gave much thought to nature per se, or what it all meant. As a family, we did lots of hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains; we skied and went on pack trips in the summer in the Sierra. Both my parents loved the out-of-doors and passed on this love for and comfort in it to all four of their children. Beyond the nature influence, they emphasized the importance of education, that it didn't make you better than any one else, but it surely enriched your life and provided you with a lot more options for the future.

"I remember I really liked biology in high school, and my 10th and 12th grade English teachers taught me the importance of being able to write and think critically."

Sarah can point to a few landmark experiences in her life that have contributed to her role as an adult:

"Skiing down alone from the top of the cornice at Mammoth Mountain in a driving snowstorm when I was 13 years old; the death of my older brother in a mountain climbing accident in 1970; being a parent."

When asked if anyone in college influenced her to pursue her career choice in the out-of-doors, she responded, "Other than being influenced by my parents, I don't think there really is a specific person. Nothing I did in college directed me towards working out-of-doors. I floundered around after graduation, teaching school, working in the Yale Library and then in the Yale Medical School. As something to do I took an ecology course put on for citizens in the community by the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. After that class, I thought wow! I think working outdoors would be really fun, so I eventually ended up going to the Yale forestry school. Then I knew the idea of working in the woods was such a cool idea. I mean, what could be better than being out of doors and getting paid for it?"

Sarah's formal education included a science program at Southern Connecticut College before she earned her Masters degree in Forest Science at Yale. "But my real training came after school when I started to work."

Now she works part time for the Pacific Northwest Research Station of the Forest Service as a forest ecologist and has since 1979. She manages the Cascade Head and Wind River Experimental Forests, administers the regional Research Natural Area Program, and is currently finishing a book with a colleague on 100 Years of Forest Science at the Wind River Experimental Forest.

"After working in the same place for nearly 30 years, I am really beginning to appreciate and better understand the importance of history." (I wonder if history would be included in Sarah's definition of nature?)

She's had some time to travel along the way: "A trip to the Galapagos islands; seeing the actual rebuilt Viking ships in a museum in Norway; going to Bryce Canyon National Park with my mother."

And what brought her to this part of the country? "Serendipity really. I had been on the East Coast for 11 years and I knew I wanted to return to the West. The only job I was offered after getting my Master's was a summer job working on an OSU grant at Mt. Rainier National Park for Jerry Franklin (a forest scientist and the director of the Canopy Crane Research facility at Wind River in Washington). "

This coming Friday evening, Sarah will tell us about "the use and importance of long-term permanent plots in forest science, and hopefully some more interesting sounding tidbits!"

Editor's Note: I'm not sure how much time Sarah has spent in the gondola car experiencing nature in the forest canopy at the Wind River Research Facility, but I'm sure we will both enjoy and learn from her experiences in this unique research center.

The 11,890-acre Cascade Head Experimental Forest (just north of Lincoln City) was established in 1934 for the scientific study of typical coastal Sitka spruce/western hemlock forests found along the Oregon Coast. In 1974 an act of Congress established the 9,670-acre Cascade Head Scenic Research Area that includes the western half of the experimental forest, several prairie headlands, the Salmon River estuary to the south, and contiguous private lands. In 1980 the entire area was designated a Biosphere Reserve as part of the United Nations Biosphere Reserve system.

The Wind River Experimental Forest, known as the cradle of forest research in the Pacific Northwest, is a major center for ecological and silvicultural research. It includes forests that originated after fires in 1840 and throughout the first 1/3 of the 20th century as well as young forests. It's located in the south-central area of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, north of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, about a 1.5-hour drive east of Vancouver.

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