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Budget for College of Forestry will see 85 percent cutback
Reduced demand for lumber means no extra revenue for OSU College of Forestry
Makenna Bishop
Issue date: 2/13/09 Section: News
The nation's economic crisis has impacted universities across the nation.
Recently, there has been a significant reduction in operating funds for the College of Forestry and Oregon State.
The downturn negatively affects many colleges and departments on campus, but the impact on the College of Forestry is considered somewhat sudden.
The College of Forestry is unique in that it has annual revenue from two sources that no other college has. One is a tax on timber harvested in the state - 92 cents on every 1,000 board feet. The second is the net-profit on harvest in the college forests, mostly McDonald and Dunn Forests near Corvallis.
In the current economy, the market for logs has fallen so low that the College of Forestry has deferred doing any commercial harvesting of timber, meaning the incoming revenue is small.
Hal Salwasser, dean of the College of Forestry, said they were required to cut back during the time when the economy for logs was low. Through the process of reducing, the staffing has decreased from nine faculty members to four.
Of these members, one has been transferred to a different department and two are scheduled to retire.
"Unfortunately, the positions of the two remaining faculty members had to be terminated, and I hate doing that," Salwasser said. "These people were highly-valued employees who have given a lot of talent and time to the college."
The budget for the college forests has been reduced by 85 percent. All projected maintenance will need to be done by volunteers.
"It's very painful; we had planned projects that now have to be deferred. Maybe in three or four years we'll be back and able to generate timber sales," Salwasser said. "We're just a microcosm of the bigger national crisis."
Barbara Bond, a professor in forestry, said the biggest impact has been spending more time on committees organized for the purpose of dealing with the financial crises. Inevitably, this takes away from her other work.
Recently, there has been a significant reduction in operating funds for the College of Forestry and Oregon State.
The downturn negatively affects many colleges and departments on campus, but the impact on the College of Forestry is considered somewhat sudden.
The College of Forestry is unique in that it has annual revenue from two sources that no other college has. One is a tax on timber harvested in the state - 92 cents on every 1,000 board feet. The second is the net-profit on harvest in the college forests, mostly McDonald and Dunn Forests near Corvallis.
In the current economy, the market for logs has fallen so low that the College of Forestry has deferred doing any commercial harvesting of timber, meaning the incoming revenue is small.
Hal Salwasser, dean of the College of Forestry, said they were required to cut back during the time when the economy for logs was low. Through the process of reducing, the staffing has decreased from nine faculty members to four.
Of these members, one has been transferred to a different department and two are scheduled to retire.
"Unfortunately, the positions of the two remaining faculty members had to be terminated, and I hate doing that," Salwasser said. "These people were highly-valued employees who have given a lot of talent and time to the college."
The budget for the college forests has been reduced by 85 percent. All projected maintenance will need to be done by volunteers.
"It's very painful; we had planned projects that now have to be deferred. Maybe in three or four years we'll be back and able to generate timber sales," Salwasser said. "We're just a microcosm of the bigger national crisis."
Barbara Bond, a professor in forestry, said the biggest impact has been spending more time on committees organized for the purpose of dealing with the financial crises. Inevitably, this takes away from her other work.
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