Rolf Anderson Oral History Interview

Rolf Anderson had a long career in various capacities on the Willamette National Forest, including head of planning in the Supervisors Office and as a District Ranger. Many of these roles involved incorporating research findings in management, and he was always supportive of interactions with the Andrews Forest research community. Anderson begins this oral history by reviewing his early personal history, including being raised in Washington, DC, experiencing nature through Boy Scouts, and graduating from Penn State University in forestry. Family visits took him to the Pacific Northwest and he was impressed by National Parks and Weyerhaeuser ads in magazines. Summer experiences with the Forest Service on the Olympic Peninsula and in Roseburg sold him on moving to the Northwest for work after completing his undergraduate degree in forestry, and he caught on with the Forest Service in Montana just at the agency’s timber and recreation programs were ramping up. He describes how the climate and culture didn’t suit his family well, so he moved to Eugene and began work for the Willamette National Forest on the Oakridge Ranger District from 1959 to 1966 or so.

Anderson describes the work of those days, especially laying out timber sales and forest roads all emphasizing logging of old growth in very remote areas, but also being ready to fight fires locally or sometimes far away. He discusses how the big fires of 1910 shaped Forest Service policy for decades and what it was like to work in a big fire-fighting operation. He became aware of the Andrews Forest program while still at Oakridge, but didn’t have much interaction. He proceeded to work as a forester dealing with timber sales on several ranger districts on the Willamette and Malheur National Forests and encountered strong positive relations with local communities, but tension between rapid timber cutting vs. environmental protection was beginning to emerge. This leads Anderson to recount how planning under the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) would lead to designation of protected areas and a reduction of the rate of cutting. He describes the effects of the 1962 Columbus Day windstorm and the 1964 flood, and their impacts on watersheds and timber salvage programs.

Anderson acknowledges a turning point in his career when he left his role as a forester to do a one-year degree in General Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which was followed in 1975 with a position in recreation on the Siuslaw National Forest. He then moved to the Willamette National Forest and within a few years, he had become head of long-range planning in the Supervisors Office as the forest began its planning under NFMA. Mike Kerrick was his boss. This put him in the position of leading interdisciplinary teams of specialists trying to meet expectations set forth in several acts of Congress while dealing with divergent expectations of competing stakeholder groups.

Questions in the interview then turned to his views about the Andrews Forest program and its people and the difference in cultures between the national forest and research communities. Anderson explains how the two groups and cultures gradually learned how to work together on what became big issues, such as spotted owls and old growth, and how a string of forward-thinking rangers on the Blue River District was a key factor. He reflects on Jerry Franklin and his political savvy, and how his use of field gatherings called Pulses built team knowledge and spirit. Comments on others involved with the Andrews and Ranger District programs and their tight collaboration follow. This occurred all the time Anderson was leading the National Forest through its plan development, but at the end he was “planned out” and took the job as Ranger at Sweet Home with a daily, hour-long commute which give him abundant time to reflect on planning and the task of putting a plan – any plan – on the ground.

Next the interview turned to the “Forest Wars” and how he and the National Forest staff had the challenge of interacting with highly polarized groups and local communities, and how contentious the interactions could be. He describes how he would be public about being Forest Service in the milltown of Sweet Home, and facing up to the tough issues around reductions in logging. He goes on to reflect on the Willamette Forest-Andrews “tech transfer” model of rapid exchange of ideas and information, leading to change in on-the-ground practices. Next Anderson discusses his perceptions of the politics of wilderness area designation, the Northwest Forest Plan, his work with McKenzie River Trust, interest in engagement of arts and humanities, and other issues. He recounts some of the history of the upper McKenzie River, including the town of Blue River. Anderson closes with reflections on favorite places, and says he told his kids to spread his ashes in a wildflower meadow in the Iron Mountain area along the Santiam highway, which aligns with his life as a birder and one who likes to travel in rural landscapes.