By Chris Petersen
Title: H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest Oral History Collection, 1991-2020
Predominant Dates: 1996-2020
ID: OH 028
Primary Creator: Geier, Max G
Extent: 0.15 cubic feet. More info below.
Arrangement: The collection consists of five series, with materials organized chronologically within each series: 1. Max Geier Interviews, 1996-1998; 2. Samuel Schmieding Interviews, 2013-2017; 3. Sara Khatib Interviews, 2020; 4. Fred Swanson Audiocassettes, 1991-2009; 5. "H.J. Andrews The Man" Digital Collection, 2016-2017.
Date Acquired: 00/00/2018
Languages of Materials: English [eng]
The first three series of the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest Oral History Collection document three separate oral history projects that delved into the history and operations of the Andrews Forest.
Series 1 consists of 54 microcassette audio tapes created by historian Max Geier from 1996 to 1998, and containing the contents of oral history interviews collected by Geier in support of his book, Necessary Work: Discovering Old Forests, New Outlooks, and Community on the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, 1948-2000. (USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station General Technical Report PNW-GTR-687, March 2007) In addition to traditional oral history interviews conducted with one or two narrators, the collection also includes recordings of group conversations held at a workshop on the history of the Andrews Forest; during a site visit to the forest itself; and with sets of people who have collaborated on projects related to small watersheds and riparian zones. The contents of all of the microcassettes held in the series have been migrated to digital format. Nearly all of the interviews have been transcribed - raw drafts were compiled by students supervised by Geier, and then later finalized by Fred Swanson and Samuel Schmieding - and released online. A copy of Geier's completed book has also been made available online by the U.S. Forest Service.
Series 2 consists of born digital interviews recorded to audio-only by historian Samuel Schmieding. The Schmieding interviews were conducted as a component of a larger project seeking to document the history of the Andrews Experimental Forest. That project was organized by Fred Swanson, a U.S. Forest Service geologist, and Cindy Miner of the Pacific Northwest Research Station Directors Office. Most of the interviews were collected from 2013-2014, with two additional sessions recorded near the end of 2017. As with the Geier interviews, all of the Schmieding sessions have been transcribed and made available online.
Series 3 is comprised of born digital interviews collected over Zoom during the Covid-19 pandemic by Sara Khatib, then a master's degree student in Anthropology at the University of Oregon. Khatib's interviews were collected in service of her master's thesis, "What is an Old-Growth Forest? The Shaping and Reshaping of Scientific Inquiry at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest" (2021). The Khatib interviews are fully transcribed and available online; a copy of her thesis is also accessible through the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest website.
Series 4 consists of four standard audiocassettes collected by Fred Swanson and documenting events that connect with the history of the Andrews Experimental Forest. Two tapes - a retirement talk and a life history interview - focus on the work of Jerry Franklin, a renowned research forester and plant ecologist. The remaining two cassettes are dedicated to a group interview of Roy Silen, leader of the Forest Genetics Research Project. All four of the cassettes have been migrated to digital format, transcribed, and released online.
Series 5 contains five groups of digitized archival documents that were scanned by Samuel Schmieding out of the privately held Horace J. Andrews Family Papers in 2016-2017. The documents shed considerable light on the biography of Region 6 Chief Forester H.J. Andrews (1892-1951), for whom the Blue River Experimental Forest was renamed in 1953. The documents are generally grouped by theme and include personnel files, correspondence, publications, news articles, obituaries and condolences, and photographs. Nearly all of the documents were scanned as multi-page PDF files; two group photographs were scanned as .tif files. In addition to the digitized documents, Series 5 includes spreadsheets created by Schmieding that provide insight into his workflow as well as additional information about the original items themselves. Reference access to the born digital materials in Series 5 is available upon patron request.
The Blue River Experimental Forest was designated by the United States Forest Service in 1948, and renamed the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest five years later following the death, in an automobile accident, of Region 6 Chief Forester Horace J. Andrews. In the years since, the forest has served as a laboratory for a wide array of scientific investigations including trials related to forest operations efficiency and the impacts of logging on numerous aspects of forest ecology. The site was also selected for two long-term trials sponsored by the National Science Foundation -- the International Biological Program, and the Long-Term Ecological Research Network. Many of these experiments have been led by Oregon State University research scientists working in collaboration with employees of the U.S. Forest Service. In more recent time, the forest has also nurtured the creative work of writers- and artists-in-residence sponsored by OSU's Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature and the Written Word.
Max G. Geier is Professor Emeritus of History at Western Oregon University, where he also served as chair of the university's Social Science Division. His scholarly interests include environmental and North American history, with a particular focus on community development in the western United States and Canada. In addition to two books on the history of forest science research in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, Geier is the author of The Color of Night: Race, Railroaders, and Murder in the Wartime West (Oregon State University Press, 2015), a study of a racially charged 1943 murder trial.
Samuel Schmieding is an independent research historian and photographer with interests in environmental history as well as the history of science, geography, cartography, Native American history and Latin American history.
Sara Khatib is a cultural anthropologist who earned a bachelor's degree in Anthropology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2016, and a master's degree in Anthropology from the University of Oregon in 2021.
Fred Swanson is a research geologist who worked for the U.S. Forest Service from 1977-2012. He spent much of his career studying the geology-ecology interface in the Andrews Forest and serving in a variety of leadership positions, including as principal investigator of the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) project. In 2018 he was selected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The narrators interviewed for the projects described in this collection can be broadly grouped into two categories -- U.S. Forest Service employees and Oregon State University faculty. The Forest Service employees who contributed interviews are as follows:
Ed Anderson (Blue River District Ranger), Rolf Anderson (Willamette National Forest administrator), Martha Brookes (research scientist), Lynn Burditt (Blue River District Ranger), Terry Cryer (trades maintenance worker), John Cissel (Blue River Research Liaison), Ted Dyrness (soil scientist), Steve Eubanks (Blue River District Ranger), Jerry Franklin (research forester and chief plant ecologist), Gordon Grant (research hydrologist), Don Henshaw (information technology specialist), Richard Iverson (landslide specialist), Sherri Johnson (Pacific Northwest Research Station scientist), Mike Kerrick (Willamette National Forest Supervisor), Al Levno (research scientist), George Lienkaemper (Corvallis Forestry Sciences Laboratory geologist), Art McKee (Andrews Experimental Forest Director), Ross Mersereau (Andrews Experimental Forest field staffer), Norm Michaels (research forester), Cindy Miner (Pacific Northwest Research Station Assistant Director for Communications and Applications), Russ Mitchell (entomologist), John Moreau (field technician), Jean Rothacher (wife of Jack Rothacher, Pacific Northwest Research Station Forester in Charge), Jim Sedell (research scientist), Roy Silen (Forest Genetics Research Project leader), Zane Smith (Willamette National Forest Supervisor), Fred Swanson (geologist), Bob Tarrant (Pacific Northwest Research Station Director), and Gabe Tucker (Andrews Experimental Forest research scientist).
The OSU faculty members interviewed for the projects include:
Norm Anderson (Professor of Entomology), Linda Ashkenas (Senior Faculty Research Assistant in the College of Agricultural Sciences), Barbara Bond (Professor of Forest Ecology and Ecophysiology), George Brown (Professor of Forest Engineering and Dean of the College of Forestry), Kermit Cromack (Professor of Forest Ecosystems and Society), Bill Ferrell (Professor of Forest Ecology), Stan Gregory (Professor of Fisheries), Robert Griffiths (OSU and Forest Service research scientist), Jim Hall (Professor of Fisheries and Wildlife), Mark Harmon (Professor of Forest Ecosystems and Society), Julia Jones (Professor of Geography), Jack Lattin (Professor of Entomology), Andy Moldenke (Professor of Entomology), Tim Schowalter (Professor of Entomology), Phil Sollins (Professor of Forest Ecosystems and Society), Susan Stafford (Professor of Forest Science), Jim Trappe (Professor of Mycology) and Dick Waring (Distinguished Professor of Forest Science).
More Extent Information: 56 microcassette audio tapes, 4 standard audiocassettes; 26.87 GB born digital; 2 boxes
Statement on Access: The collection is open for research.
Acquisition Note: The Max Geier interviews were transferred to the Special Collections and Archives Research Center by the OSU College of Forestry and the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station in 2018. The remainder of the collection was donated to SCARC by Fred Swanson in 2020 and Sara Khatib in 2021.
Related Materials:
The Oregon State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives Research Center is home to a great many collections documenting the history of forests and forestry in the Pacific Northwest. Prominent among these collections are the Gerald W. Williams Papers (MSS WilliamsG), the Royal G. Jackson Papers (MSS JacksonR), and the College of Forestry Records (RG 139).
Additional materials related to the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest can be found in the Facilities Services Records (RG 193) and John D. Lattin Papers (MSS Lattin). Documentation of the Long-Term Ecological Research Network program is described as a component of the Research Office Records (RG 170). SCARC also holds two topically related oral history collections that were generated by Samuel Schmieding with the assistance of Fred Swanson: the Northwest Forest Plan Oral History Collection (OH 048) and the Mount St. Helens Oral History Collection (OH 050). The full contents of both of those oral history collections are available online through the SCARC exhibit, Voice of the Forests, Voices of the Mills.
Other SCARC oral history collections that incorporate natural resources as a major point of emphasis include the Oral History Interviews, Personal Histories and Sound Recordings Collection on Agriculture, Forestry and Oregon History (OH 005), the Soap Creek Valley History Project Oral Histories (OH 006), the Horner Museum Oral History Collection (OH 010), and the Oregon State University Sesquicentennial Oral History Collection (OH 026).
Preferred Citation: H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest Oral History Collection (OH 028), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
Finding Aid Revision History: This finding aid was originally published in 2019 and was updated in 2023.
Geier, Max G
Khatib, Sara
Schmieding, Sam
Swanson, Frederick J. (Frederick John), 1943-
Andrews, Horace J. (Horace Justin), 1892-1951
Experimental forests--Oregon.
Forest insects--Oregon
Forest management--Northwest, Pacific.
Forests and forestry--Research--Oregon.
H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest (Or.)
Natural Resources
United States. Forest Service. Pacific Northwest Region
University History
Audiocassettes.
Born digital.
Oral histories (literary genre)