Forestry college celebrates 100 years
OSU College of Forestry considered by many to be the best program of its kind in the world
Rachel Crews
Issue date: 11/6/06 Section: News
This year, OSU's College of Forestry is celebrating its centennial anniversary.
And the celebration comes at a time where the college is receiving plenty of good news.
"We are generally perceived to have the strongest research and academic programs in the world," said Ed Jensen, associate dean of academic affairs.
A poll taken last year of 53 forestry programs from the U.S. and Canada named OSU's program the best. This poll had three main criteria: the number of professional publications, the number of citations in those publications, and colleagues' perception of the program's strength.
OSU was not only perceived to have the strongest program, but also was shown to have close to a thousand more citations than the second place school, Duke University.
Hal Salwasser, dean of the College of Forestry, said OSU would have had an even stronger lead in that poll if it had included the total number of publications OSU has been cited in. The poll only recognized five main publications in its data.
With 600 students, 15,000 acres of forest, 5,500 graduates, and an annual budget of more than $20 million, the College of Forestry is stronger than ever, Salwasser said.
Ninety-six years ago, the first graduating class consisted of four students. Among them was T.J. Starker, of the Starker Lecture Series. Four generations of Starkers have graduated from OSU's College of Forestry.
One of the college's distinctions is its expansive Hinkle Creek Watershed project.
"Interdisciplinary projects probably aren't unique to OSU, but the power, the scope and the scale of the projects are pretty close to unique," Jensen said.
Hinkle Creek is the first large watershed experiment. The five-year study is the first to examine contemporary forest practices' effects on fish.
The college had its peak enrollment in the 1970s. This phenomenon occurred throughout the U.S. due to demographic influences - the Earth Day movement among them. The real point of interest in the enrollment history of the College of Forestry is the steady rise in enrollment in recent years, when most other colleges have experienced a decline.
"We are ranked first due to our relationships across campus, scientists, federal agencies, managers in the public and private sector and leaders throughout the conservation community," Salwasser said.
"We have the unique ability to pull together interdisciplinary teams that cross typical college, agency and ownership boundaries," Jensen said. "We have such a large aggregation of people who are interested in management of forest resources."
Jensen said forests will become increasingly important. The role of forests as wildlife habitats, their influence on the volume and quality of water, and the significant role forests play in climate change are all reasons why there will be an increased focus on forestry in this century.
"I think forests are going to have to become part of the solution," Jensen said.
And the celebration comes at a time where the college is receiving plenty of good news.
"We are generally perceived to have the strongest research and academic programs in the world," said Ed Jensen, associate dean of academic affairs.
A poll taken last year of 53 forestry programs from the U.S. and Canada named OSU's program the best. This poll had three main criteria: the number of professional publications, the number of citations in those publications, and colleagues' perception of the program's strength.
OSU was not only perceived to have the strongest program, but also was shown to have close to a thousand more citations than the second place school, Duke University.
Hal Salwasser, dean of the College of Forestry, said OSU would have had an even stronger lead in that poll if it had included the total number of publications OSU has been cited in. The poll only recognized five main publications in its data.
With 600 students, 15,000 acres of forest, 5,500 graduates, and an annual budget of more than $20 million, the College of Forestry is stronger than ever, Salwasser said.
Ninety-six years ago, the first graduating class consisted of four students. Among them was T.J. Starker, of the Starker Lecture Series. Four generations of Starkers have graduated from OSU's College of Forestry.
One of the college's distinctions is its expansive Hinkle Creek Watershed project.
"Interdisciplinary projects probably aren't unique to OSU, but the power, the scope and the scale of the projects are pretty close to unique," Jensen said.
Hinkle Creek is the first large watershed experiment. The five-year study is the first to examine contemporary forest practices' effects on fish.
The college had its peak enrollment in the 1970s. This phenomenon occurred throughout the U.S. due to demographic influences - the Earth Day movement among them. The real point of interest in the enrollment history of the College of Forestry is the steady rise in enrollment in recent years, when most other colleges have experienced a decline.
"We are ranked first due to our relationships across campus, scientists, federal agencies, managers in the public and private sector and leaders throughout the conservation community," Salwasser said.
"We have the unique ability to pull together interdisciplinary teams that cross typical college, agency and ownership boundaries," Jensen said. "We have such a large aggregation of people who are interested in management of forest resources."
Jensen said forests will become increasingly important. The role of forests as wildlife habitats, their influence on the volume and quality of water, and the significant role forests play in climate change are all reasons why there will be an increased focus on forestry in this century.
"I think forests are going to have to become part of the solution," Jensen said.
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