Tim Schowalter Oral History Interview

Before coming to OSU in 1981, entomologist Tim Schowalter had been involved with Jornada Experimental Range in New Mexico and Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in Georgia, two US Department of Agriculture sites with deep university affiliations, IBP, and ultimately LTER involvement, so he knew about large, long-term ecosystem research efforts. Once he joined the faculty of OSU in 1981, he pursued NSF-funded projects concerning log decomposition, herbivory of Douglas-fir seedlings, and spider communities in canopies of old and young forests. Several of these projects connected with Andrews Forest and others did not. As with many entomologists at land-grant universities, his work spread across applied and basic subject matter and from single species to ecosystem-scale questions. He expanded his interest in inter-site studies to other LTER sites as his career progressed.