Swanson, F.; Schmieding, S. 2019. Oral history transcripts from the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest Program, 1996 to 2018 Long-Term Ecological Research Andrews Forest LTER Site. [Database]. Available: https://andrewsforest-stage.forestry.oregonstate.edu/data/fsdb-data-catalog/SS009 Accessed 2026-05-10.

Oral history interviews have been conducted over the last two decades with members of the Andrews Forest community who provided valuable historical information about the program and related issues. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the experimental forest (1998), history professor Max Geier (Western Oregon University) conducted 33 interviews with individuals (or pairs of people) and five research groups from 1996-1998. About 20 years later (2013-2018) historian Sam Schmieding (Oregon State University) conducted an additional 10 oral histories, including some with people who had been interviewed by Geier 20 years earlier. Several additional relevant oral histories with people who have been important in the history of the Andrews Forest have been conducted and are also included in this collection. This data package includes an inventory and transcripts of these oral history interviews including brief biosketches of interviewees.

Temporal coverage: 1991-11-22 to 2018-02-17

Geographic coverage: The primary geographic focus of the oral histories is the Andrews Experimental Forest LTER site but also references satellite research areas including Research Natural Areas, the forest vegetation plot network extending across the region, programmatically-related experimental watershed sites at Coyote Creek/South Umpqua Experimental Forest and Fox Creek / Bull Run Experimental Watersheds (East of Portland). Materials concerning the LTER network, NADP, and other research and monitoring programs have national applications, and the International LTER Network and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Network have global outreach.

Spatial coverage:

Bounds: W -122.26172200, E -122.10084700, N 44.28196400, S 44.19770400

• The oral history collections are part of the Andrews Forest History Project undertaken in 2013 to locate, organize, inventory, and archive the program records for the purposes of supporting site and research administration, and also to support future history scholarship concerning program and site administration, education, science-management partnership activities, and other matters.

Title: Long-Term Ecological Research

• Frederick J. Swanson
  Role: Principal Investigator
  USDA Forest Service;Pacific NW Research Station;3200 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA
  Phone: (541) 750-7355
  Email: fred.swanson@oregonstate.edu
• Max G. Geier
  Role: Other Researcher
  Western Oregon University;Dept. of History, Monmouth, OR, 97361, USA
  Phone: (541)753-2336, (503) 838-8369
  Email: geierm@wou.edu
• Michael P. Nelson
  Role: Other Researcher
  Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society; 201K Richarson Hall; College of Forestry; Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331
  Phone: 541-737-9221
  Email: mpnelson@oregonstate.edu
  URL: http://www.michaelpnelson.com
• Samuel Schmieding
  Role: Method Contact
  Email: historiador_ambiental@yahoo.com
• Frederick J. Swanson
  Role: Creator
  USDA Forest Service;Pacific NW Research Station;3200 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA
  Phone: (541) 750-7355
  Email: fred.swanson@oregonstate.edu
• Samuel Schmieding
  Role: Creator
  Email: historiador_ambiental@yahoo.com

• Information Manager
  Andrews Forest LTER Program, US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, 3200 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, OR, 97331
  Email: hjaweb@fsl.orst.edu
  URL: http://andrewsforest.oregonstate.edu/

• Andrews Forest LTER Site
  Role: Publisher
  Forest Ecosystems and Society Department in Forestry, Oregon State University, 201K Richardson Hall, Corvallis, OR, 97331-5752
  Phone: (541) 737-8480
  Email: lterweb@fsl.orst.edu
  URL: http://andrewsforest.oregonstate.edu/

Oral history interviews have been conducted over the last two decades with members of the Andrews Forest community who provided valuable historical information about the program and related issues. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the experimental forest (1998), history professor Max Geier (Western Oregon University) conducted 33 interviews with individuals (or pairs of people) and five research groups from 1996-1998. About 20 years later (2013-2018) historian Sam Schmieding (Oregon State University) conducted an additional 10 oral histories, including some with people who had been interviewed by Geier 20 years earlier. Several additional relevant oral histories with people who have been important in the history of the Andrews Forest have been conducted and are also included in this collection. This data package includes an inventory and transcripts of these oral history interviews including brief biosketches of interviewees. The oral history collections are part of the Andrews Forest History Project undertaken in 2013 to locate, organize, inventory, and archive the program records for the purposes of supporting site and research administration, and also to support future history scholarship concerning program and site administration, education, science-management partnership activities, and other matters. Field Methods - SS009

Purpose: The oral history collections are part of the Andrews Forest History Project undertaken in 2013 to locate, organize, inventory, and archive the program records for the purposes of supporting site and research administration, and also to support future history scholarship concerning program and site administration, education, science-management partnership activities, and other matters.

Method Steps

Sampling

No software entries listed in this EML file.

• LTER controlled vocabulary: history (theme), historical value (theme), forest ecosystems (theme)
• Andrews Experimental Forest site thesaurus: H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest (AND) (theme), Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) (theme), attitudes and perceptions (theme), public participation (theme), experimental forests (theme)

No taxonomic hierarchy listed in this EML file.

No related dataset codes found in the EML text fields.

• Duncan, Sally. 1999. Openings in the forest: the Andrews story. In: Forest History Today. Durham, NC: Forest History Society ; Fall: 20-28.
• Geier, Max G. 2007. Necessary work: discovering old forests, new outlooks, and community on the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, 1948-2000. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-687. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 357 p.

• Geier oral history transcripts, 1996-1998
  Transcripts from the Max Geier (Western Oregon University) interviews conducted with individuals (or pairs of people) and five research groups from 1996-1998 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Andrews Experimental Forest (1998).
  URL: https://andrewsforest.oregonstate.edu/data/studies/ss009/Geier_pdfs.zip
• Geier oral history project description, notes and biosketches
  Notes on the Geier oral history collection with mention of related collections and including biosketches of the historians and interviewees
  URL: https://andrewsforest.oregonstate.edu/data/studies/ss009/GeierOralHistories_SwansonNotes_biosketches.pdf
• Geier audio files at Oregon State University Libraries
  Max Geier audio files at SCARC (Special Collections and Archives Research Center) with the audio, transcripts, mugshots, biosketches in their Forestry Voices oral history program
  URL: http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/forestryvoices/main

Data Use Agreement:

The re-use of scientific data has the potential to greatly increase communication, collaboration and synthesis within and among disciplines, and thus is fostered, supported and encouraged. This Data Set is released under the Creative Commons license CC BY "Attribution" (see: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Creative Commons license CC BY - Attribution is a license that allows others to distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work (even commercially), as long as you are credited for the original creation. This license accommodates maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.

It is considered professional conduct and an ethical obligation to acknowledge the work of other scientists. The Data User is asked to provide attribution of the original work if this data package is shared in whole or by individual parts or used in the derivation of other products. A recommended citation is provided for each Data Set in the Andrews LTER data catalog (see: http://andlter.forestry.oregonstate.edu/data/catalog/datacatalog.aspx). A generic citation is also provided for this Data Set on the website https://portal.edirepository.org in the summary metadata page. Data Users are thus strongly encouraged to consider consultation, collaboration and/or co-authorship with the Data Set Creator.

While substantial efforts are made to ensure the accuracy of data and associated documentation, complete accuracy of data sets cannot be guaranteed and all data are made available "as is." The Data User should be aware, however, that data are updated periodically and it is the responsibility of the Data User to check for new versions of the data. The data authors and the repository where these data were obtained shall not be liable for damages resulting from any use or misinterpretation of the data.

General acknowledgement: Data were provided by the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest research program, funded by the National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research Program (DEB 2025755), US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, and Oregon State University. Geier oral history interviews are complete and included here. Schmieding oral histories as part of the Andrews History Project and the Northwest Forest Plan are in preparation and will be available at a later date.

License: N/A

Maintenance update frequency: notPlanned

Description

• An update history is logged and maintained with each new version of every dataset.

Change History

• Version1 (2019-09-30)
  Study code and preliminary metadata established
• Version2 (2019-12-30)
  This data set is a catalog of the Geier, Schmieding (HJA), Schmieding (NWFP), and miscellaneous oral histories related to the Andrews Forest History Project. The Geier interview transcripts are complet here with the Schmieding oral histories still in preparation.