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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels September 14, 2004 Retired forester from Ashland gets group's top honor By Steve Zimmerman Ashland Daily Tidings Steve Armitage isn't sure what he is going to do with his free time now that he has retired from the Bureau of Land Management. But one thing he has done in recent days is accept one of the forest industry's most prestigious awards. The Society of American Foresters has recognized Armitage of with its Presidential Field Forester Award. The award recognizes foresters who have displayed uncommon talent and innovative methods to achieve a record of excellence in the application of forest management. Armitage said he was flattered and surprised by the honor. And he plans to share it with many others who worked with him over his 30 years. "The work that that was based on has been going on for the last 10-15 years with BLM in the Applegate. I just happened to be supervisor of the group that did the thinning. That project, not just me but the work done, has received a lot of recognition. "It is a team effort. The award was for some of what I did during my career but I look at it as a team effort, and I look at it as: That work does not get done by one person, it gets done through a team effort." John H. Beuter, SAF President, recognized the work done by Armitage and his fellow foresters. "Forester practitioners are the true foundation of our profession," he said. "They often operate in complete anonymity, yet their actions are the single most important contribution to the viability and understanding of our profession. This is where forestry truly happens and it is important that we recognize those who perform the art and science of forestry each and every day." Armitage is a recently retired BLM career forester who was stationed in Medford. Since 1974, he played an important part in the region's forest management in concert with a variety of partners and communities. He is most noted for effectively using the Northwest Forest Plan to protect watersheds, communities, and forests in the vicinity of the Squires Peak Fire. Through sheer tenacity and conviction that something had to be done to protect Oregon's ecosystems from excessive fuel buildups, Armitage ushered through the federal land management system an aggressive landscape thinning program to treat and thin over 22,000 acres in the Applegate Adaptive Management Area. The result of his management work was an area literally tested by fire in 2002. The consequences of his work not being done would have been a much more devastating fire, consuming many more acres of forestland and certainly many more homes. Armitage said his retirement came at the right time, as it has become more difficult to do the job he was trained to do. "It is much more difficult to take a logical approach," he said. "The problem with most of Southern Oregon from Ashland to the Applegate is there is extremely dense forest that needs to be treated on a landscape basis, not a little bit here and there but on a large-scale basis. "It is so controversial, and it brings so many people into the equation that you end up paralyzing the whole system. I am afraid we are going to have to live with that. Twenty years ago, the scrutiny wasn't there and when we took on a management practice, we went at it. Sometimes that created a problem in the sense that everything moved forward. But now there is so much public involvement that it is frustrating for the forester on the inside. That is not a bad thing but there just doesn't seem to be a common ground where we can reach a consensus." Armitage has received several awards during his career that reflect his commitment to the forestry profession, including the Oregon SAF Forester of the Year Award and the Oregon Timber Industry Organization's Tough Tree Award. An active member of the Oregon SAF's Siskiyou Chapter, he served as chapter chair in 2003 and chair of the Oregon SAF's Annual Meeting. Given the regional differences in forestry, 10 Presidential Field Forester Award recipients were selected from various regions of the country. The winners will be recognized at a special ceremony held during a joint meeting between SAF and the Canadian Institute of Forestry. The meeting will be held October 2-6 in Edmonton, Alberta. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams