First Annual Forest Resources
Cross-Cascade Faculty Retreat

August 16-17, 2006

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The First Annual Forest Resources Cross-Cascade Faculty Retreat was a blast! On August 16 a band of intrepid Corvallis faculty climbed over the Cascades to become better acquainted with our Cascade Campus brethren. Highlights of the trip include:

• Visiting the fully restored Elk Lake Guard station - the cabin we all dreamed of when we first wanted to become foresters;
• Canoeing across Elk Lake to reach the picnic grounds for steak, libations, and Kreg Lindberg's (aka "The Waffle Man") famous Norwegian Waffles;
• Touring the Breedlove Guitar factory in Tumalo - an amazing example of value-added forest products manufacturing;
• Visiting the Deschutes Basin Land Trust's Metolius Preserve and learning about the proposed Skyline Community Forest;
• Discussing the challenges facing recreation managers in the high-use Three Sisters Wilderness.

The Corvallis contingent included John Bailey, John Bliss, Temesgen Hailemariam, Ed Jensen, Mark Needham, Jo Tynon and Jack Walstad. In Bend we teamed up with Kreg Lindberg, Ron Reuter, Les Joslin, Ron Boldenow and Matt Shinderman.

A special THANK YOU to Kreg and Ron for dreaming up the agenda, pulling together all the logistics, and keeping us happy and fed! THANK YOU also to Ron Boldenow, Mark Christiansen, Brad Chalfont, Amanda Egertson and the folks at Breedlove Guitars who served as gracious hosts and tour guides. And a big THANKS to Jack, who bankrolled the adventure.

Based upon the reactions of all participants, it's safe to say that we'll be looking to build a tradition of this kind of cross-Cascades collaboration. We learned about each others' work, made some key contacts for future collaboration and, most importantly, built some wonderful friendships.