CORVALLIS, Ore. — The annual Starker Lecture Series at Oregon State University will this year focus on tribal forestry with a film, three lectures and a capstone field trip.
Topics include indigenous forest and subsistence practices, the history and future of tribal forestry in Oregon, and how “first foods” such as fish, berries and big game drive forest management.
All events are free and open to the public.
The series kicks off at Jan. 24 with a 7 p.m. screening of “Teachings of the Tree People: The Work of Bruce Miller,” at the Whiteside Theater in Corvallis.
Lectures follow on Feb. 13, March 6 and April 10; all start at 3:30 in the Construction & Engineering Hall at the LaSells Stewart Center on the OSU campus, located among the traditional homelands of the Kalapuya Tribe.
A reception will follow each of the three lectures, and day tours of Starker Forests will be hosted by Starker staff before the lectures.
The first lecture is “History of Tribal Forestry in Oregon: Reservation-Termination-Restoration-Transformation,” by Don Motanic of the Intertribal Timber Council.
The second is “First Foods Management Approach of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation,” by Eric Quaempts, director of the Department of Natural Resources at the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
The final lecture is “Coquille Tribal Forestry: Seeing the Forest through a Cultural Lens,” by Don Ivy, tribal council chief of the Coquille Indian Tribe, and Darin Jarnaghan, the tribe’s natural resources director.
The Starker Lecture Series culminates May 30 with a field trip to the Siletz Indian Reservation, where participants will receive a first-hand look at active forest management for a variety of cultural and economic benefits.
The lecture series is sponsored by the Starker family in memory of T.J. and Bruce Starker, prominent leaders in the development of the Oregon forest products industry.
The series is also supported by the OSU College of Forestry and the Oregon Forest Resources Institute.
More information is available at http://starkerlectures.forestry.oregonstate.edu.
About the OSU College of Forestry: For a century, the College of Forestry has been a world class center of teaching, learning and research. It offers graduate and undergraduate degree programs in sustaining ecosystems, managing forests and manufacturing wood products; conducts basic and applied research on the nature and use of forests; and operates 14,000 acres of college forests.