Richard D. Taber: 1920-2016

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We were incredibly sad to learn that Professor Emeritus Richard “Dick” Taber, a long-time faculty member at SEFS, passed away on January 25, 2016, in Missoula, Mont. He was 95 years old.

Dick Taber was a California native who studied zoology as an undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his bachelor’s in 1942, and at the outbreak of World War II he joined the Marine Corps and served with distinction in the Pacific as an officer in artillery. Among other deployments, he commanded a detachment of Marines to get the Japanese to the surrender on the USS. Missouri on September 2, 1945. He also served briefly in the occupation forces in Japan. Following his discharge, he applied to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin and was eventually accepted by Aldo Leopold as a master’s student. Following Leopold’s passing, Dr. Joseph Hickey assumed responsibility for advising Dick through his thesis research.

2016_01_Dick TaberAfter completing his master’s, Dick entered a doctoral program at Berkeley, where he worked under the guidance of A. Starker Leopold, Aldo Leopold’s son. His doctoral work resulted in a classic study on the black-tailed deer of the chaparral, and Dick later joined the faculty at the University of Montana in 1955. When he came to the University of Washington in 1968, he was instrumental in helping develop the original undergraduate and graduate programs in wildlife science at the College of Forest Resources (now SEFS). His primary research interests were in ungulate ecology, though he advised graduate students in a variety of vertebrate ecology and conservation areas.

Dick was known for his inquisitive nature and quick wit, and he was an excellent writer. He was also a strong believer in interdisciplinary approaches to science, and he encouraged the formation of a group of faculty from the College of Forest Resources and the College of Fisheries to form a committee to develop the first wildlife curriculum.

During his time on the SEFS faculty from 1968 to 1985, he advised 23 master’s and 16 doctoral students. He often asked penetrating questions at oral exams and usually asked more questions of guest speakers than anyone else present. He made a lasting contribution to not only the wildlife program, but also to the College of Forest Resources, and he received numerous awards throughout his career—including in 2008, when The Wildlife Society presented Dick with its highest honor, the Aldo Leopold Award.

He was well-respected by all of his colleagues, and his valuable lessons live on through his many graduate students—and now their graduate students, as well. Some of his former students, in fact, went on to become his professional colleagues at SEFS years later, including Professor Emeritus Dave Manuwal, who earned his master’s with Dick at the University of Montana, and Ken Raedeke, who earned his Ph.D. with Dick at SEFS.

If you wish to make a donation in his memory, you can make a gift to the Richard D. Taber Wildlife Student Award Fund, which was established to provide annual awards to meritorious SEFS students who are involved in the study and research of wildlife science.

Director’s Message: Autumn 2013

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Paul BunyanAs a kid growing up in Wisconsin, I had a pretty romantic view of forests, mountains, park rangers and foresters. I was too young to recognize some of the depleted woodlands to the north, but I definitely saw burly, 30-foot Paul Bunyan statues proudly displayed in towns across the state, and I equated the life of a forester with being outdoors and being a conservationist. And why not? Some of the greatest minds in conservation were initially foresters, including Aldo Leopold and John Muir, who both have deep connections in Wisconsin and in forest management—even though today these icons of land conservation are rarely described as foresters.

Muir was born in Scotland but grew up in Wisconsin. After he completed degrees in botany at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, he went to work as a forester and as a sawyer at a lumber mill in Indiana before heading west to ultimately promote land preservation. Leopold was born in Iowa but worked much of his life as a forester. He eventually joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin, and through his observations in the woods created the notion of practical conservation and described the land ethic that lives on in many of us today.

So as I look out at our students in the halls this fall, I wonder about their connection to the land, and how they reflect on terms such as wilderness, conservation, forests, forestry and foresters. I wonder if they grew up in neighborhoods where they could escape to stroll through the woods and peacefully observe natural ecosystems at work. I also wonder, in this age of reality television and social media, if the concept of sustainable forest management can even compete with their screens—or if all that breaks through the stream of split-second updates are visions of clear-cutting, or an ESPN highlight of lumberjacks sawing for sport.

A Sand County Almanac
A Sand County Almanac, published in 1949, is the collection of essays in which Aldo Leopold described his “land ethic.”

After all, our population in the United States is increasingly urban, with current estimates that 80 percent of us now live in or around cities. That figure is growing by 1.2 percent every year, and the burgeoning Greater Puget Sound area alone could absorb 60 percent growth in the next 50 years. With this increasing urbanization often comes a dwindling understanding of both natural and working landscapes, and the role these lands play in our overall wellbeing.

That’s why we have such an important responsibility with conservation and forestry education here in this urban setting of Seattle. We are uniquely positioned to strengthen environmental values our students bring with them, and to cultivate new ties to the land. As professors and researchers and mentors, our mission is to teach our students about the value of forests and forest products in creating a sustainable society. Most importantly, it’s our job to train a workforce that can effectively manage these lands in a manner that simultaneously protects biodiversity and clean water and delivers an enduring supply of renewable building materials and other alternative forest products.

During the next 10 years, I hope to see forestry once again broadly equated with conservation and a strong ethic for the land. Developing that relationship, of course, is a lifelong process, and we now have programs in place at Pack Forest and the UW Botanic Gardens with the specific goal of getting kids out into the woods, and to initiate a relationship with the natural world at an early age. I’m excited to see that education nourished from preschool through high school, and to capture those budding foresters and conservationists in our undergraduate and graduate programs. With each class we reach, I can’t help but feel optimistic about the future of forestry—and our role in making sure forests and forest products play in central role in building a sustainable future for generations to come.