Jim Sedell Oral History Interview

Born and raised in Oregon, Jim Sedell completed a BA in philosophy at Willamette University and a PhD in stream ecology at University of Pittsburg before returning to Oregon to take a post-doc position at OSU and the Andrews Forest in 1972. He quickly exercised his energetic leadership style in the Stream Team community across the OSU campus and the International Biological Program stream research. He led the Andrews Forest-based Oregon site in the highly influential River Continuum Project before moving to Weyerhaeuser Co. in the late 1970s. He was an early leader of aquatic ecosystem research at Mount St. Helens after the 1980 eruption and returned to a stream ecologist position at the US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corvallis around that time. A broad, synthetic thinker, Sedell advanced research on roles of big wood in rivers and other connections among ecological, forest, and watershed processes. He moved to Forest Service research administration position in the Washington Office and Directorship of the Pacific Southwest Research Station, before retiring and working for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Even after leaving the region, he continued to support Andrews Forest programs.