BOB ZYBACH

I was a 16-year-old member of the last graduating class from Blue Mountain School when I first met Bob Zybach through my mother, who was working with him on a project about early Coos County history.

McLeod and Douglas recorded their observations in daily journals that describe miles of sparse prairie burned clear of most vegetation, punctuated by scattered groves of trees - mostly oak with some conifer, more so on the eastern slopes of the Coast Range. There was no "sea of old growth" – or even second growth.

Why do those who purport to care so much about western Oregon's forests continue to ignore and/or deny such a vast storehouse of history – information that sheds an illuminating light on the past, to say nothing of the future?

Now DeLuca has immersed himself – and the College of Forestry he leads – in an eyebrow-raising proposal that could cost the forestry school dearly. At issue is the political fate of the Elliott State Forest, an enormously valuable natural asset...

I got a telephone call one morning in April 1987 that was to change my professional life.The caller was a man I'd never met: Carl Stoltenberg

Zybach introduction for OF&WJ essay