The magazine of the SUNY

COLLEGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & FORESTRY

INSIDE E◆S◆FINSIDE E◆S◆FSpring 1998Spring 1998

In This IssueINSIDE ESF is published fourtimes each year for alumniand friends of the SUNYCollege of EnvironmentalScience and Forestry.

SUNY College of EnvironmentalScience and Forestry

1 Forestry DriveSyracuse, NY 13210-2778

President: Ross S. Whaley

Vice President for Administration:

Connie S. Webb

Editor and Designer: Jeri Lynn Smith,

Director of News and Publications

Photo Credits: page 3, Ben Dall; page

5, Ben Dall (Black), Amersham

Pharmacia Biotech (Brownell);

page 6, Ben Dall (Hassett, Sanford);

page 7, Julie Rawls; pages 8-9,

Donald Leopold; page 10, George

Curry, Donald Leopold; page 11,

Ben Dall (Stribley), Peter Black;

page 12, Scott Shannon; page 13,

Ben Dall; page 15, colorist: Jessica

M. Johnson ‘99

Additional Assistance: Kathleen A.

Ciereck, Geraldine C. Trendell

Office of News & Publications122 Bray Hall315-470-6644

Campus Update 5James Brownell ‘85 Wins International AwardPeter E. Black Honored By SUNYDEC To Open Environmental Education CampAt WarrensburgHassett, Sanford PromotedJahn Lab Gifts Near GoalAir Quality Conference Draws 170New Focus On AdmissionsPataki Appoints Three Trustees115 Earn December Degrees

Earthly Delights 8In spring, everyone’s fancy turns to…gardening.Paula Meseroll looks at ESF staffers and theiravocation.

‘Vacations For The Mind’ 11Why do people garden?

Campus Profile: Ron Giegerich 13Ron Giegerich’s work as curator of the RooseveltWildlife Collection is less a job than a life style.

On The CoverWith waterfalls, arbors, rock and herb gardens—and a greenhouse filled with orchids—PeterBlack, Distinguished Teaching Professor and ourcover photographer, and his wife, Lida, havecreated their personal paradise on a slopingSyracuse city lot.

The State University of New York College of Environmental Science andForestry offers a diverse range of accredited programs and degree options inchemistry, construction management and wood products engineering, envi-ronmental and forest biology, environmental resources and forest engineer-ing, environmental studies, forest resources management, forest technology,landscape architecture, and paper science and engineering.

The college’s mission is to be a world leader in instruction, research, andpublic service related to: understanding the structure and function of theworld’s ecosystems; developing, managing, and use of renewable naturalresources, improving outdoor environments ranging from wilderness, tomanaged forests, to urban landscapes; and maintaining and enhancing bio-logical diversity, environmental quality, and resource options. As such, ESF hasmaintained its unique status within SUNY’s 64-school system as only one offour specialized colleges and one of only eight doctoral-granting institutions.

ESF takes affirmative action to provide equal opportunity for all peopleand to build a campus community that reflects a wealth of diversity.

Printed on recycled paper.

1998 Spring INSIDE ESF 3

Campus Views

by Dudley J. Raynal

Higher education in America, both public and pri-vate, is the target of frequent attacks by governmentalofficials, politicians, citizens, and even some withinacademe. Harsh critiques in books such as Imposters inthe Temple, Profscam, the Closing of the AmericanMind, Illiberal Education, and Killing the Spirit havefueled public discontent with universities. Among manycriticisms, pundits charge that college and universityeducational standards are too low, curricula lack suffi-cient rigor, research is overemphasized, teaching isneglected, and that faculty are not as productive oraccountable as they should be. Critics argue that highereducation in general and faculty in particular are notmeeting important responsibilities.

Much is expected of university faculty. Jan Sinnottand Lynn Johnson in their book Reinventing the Uni-versity characterized multiple demands placed on fac-ulty this way:

As a professor, I am asked by my students,my discipline, my colleagues, and my nation toteach much and well; discover and dissemi-nate new information to colleagues, students,the public, and fellow professionals in the field;to be an expert consultant for the public need-ing my information; provide my expert ser-vices, possibly free; bring money into my insti-tution; govern my institution, department, andprofession; prepare students for jobs; advisestudents about life and careers; trade ideasoften with my colleagues; justify my existenceto whomever pays my salary; accept diminish-ing wages cheerfully; and to look prosperousto business and policy makers, intellectual toprofessionals, and administratively practical tograntors. Multiple demands are interesting,hard, and challenging. I won’t meet them all,and someone will be angry. Yet it is impossibleto meet them all well. We university profes-sionals are set up to fail. We can’t be all thingsto all users.

This acerbic description of faculty expectations andconsequent outcomes provides some insight into whyhigher education is being criticized. Satisfying simulta-neous multiple demands is indeed challenging, even forthe most gifted, industrious, and committed faculty.

But there is more underlying the deep dissatisfactionof the critics of higher education. Donald Kennedy,president emeritus of Stanford University, in his bookAcademic Duty seesit this way: there is a“dissonance betweenthe purposes our soci-ety foresees for theuniversity and theway the universitysees itself.” Kennedyobserves that whileacademic freedomnecessary for teach-ing and scholarship isunderstood and ac-cepted, the attendantresponsibilities of fac-ulty are vague andthere is considerableconfusion about whatthe university owes to society and faculty to students.Faculty, says Kennedy, are perceived by many judgesof higher education to have too much freedom but toolittle accountability. In Faculty Work and Public Trust,Restoring the Value of Teaching and Public Servicein American Academic Life, James Fairweather, ofThe Pennsylvania State University, argues that facultyshould seek to restore a balance in activities that con-tribute to societal needs and those that satisfy profes-sional demands and personal rewards.

Concern about the value of college education inrelation to increasing costs is also vehemently expressed.Because tuition and living expenses have risen fasterthan the disposable income of many, citizens are angryabout the cost of higher education in relation to per-ceived value.

In New York, SUNY has not been immune to criticism.In 1995 the SUNY board of trustees was charged by thestate Legislature to develop a multi-year comprehen-sive statewide plan to increase cost effectiveness ofthe university while ensuring the highest quality andbroadest access across the SUNY campuses. Included inthe charge was a directive to increase faculty produc-tivity. In response, the SUNY Trustees produced a docu-ment, Rethinking SUNY <http://www.suny.edu/

Productivity And Accountability:A Faculty Voice

continued

Dudley J. Raynal

4 INSIDE ESF Spring 1998

rethink.html> that formulated implementation plans torestructure administration, grant greater autonomy tolocal campuses, adjust the method by which state-appropriated funds are allocated to campuses, andappoint a task force to recommend budget allocationsbased on performance and campus productivity.

Recently the Faculty Senate of the State Universityof New York and the Faculty Union of the CaliforniaState University system joined forces to produce areport, Public Higher Education and Productivity:A Facu l ty Voice < h t t p : / / w w w . s u n y . e d u /vocfac3w.pdf>. The report acknowledges that whilepublic colleges and universities are “demonstrably pro-ductive,” faculty must recognize that what we teachand research, and how we create knowledge mustcontinually change in light of new social needs, newknowledge, new perspectives on teaching and learn-ing, and new standards.

At ESF, faculty and administration are in continuousdialogue to seek ways to fulfill the college’s charter,mission and vision <http://www.esf.edu/acadlife/mission.htm>. Through both administrative and gover-nance channels, those charged with stewardship of theacademic program strive to assess the effectiveness ofour teaching, scholarship, and service to others withgood reason. For unless progress in meeting statedobjectives can be measured, evaluated, and improved,the institutional mission and vision statements serve aslittle more than statements of lofty intent. Further, iffaculty and staff are not in constant pursuit of increas-ing productivity and efficiency of our programs, ESFwill be vulnerable to the attacks leveled so relentlesslyby critics who question the commitment of universitiesto educational quality and effectiveness.

A sampling of ongoing activities at ESF that repre-sent the strong commitment of faculty to excellence infulfilling the college mission and vision includes thefollowing:

1. periodic campuswide faculty symposia on teach-ing, learning, and technology focusing on innovationsin instructional approaches and methods,

2. yearly colloquia introducing new graduate assis-tants to the instructional environment at ESF,

3. annual research symposia highlighting under-graduate and graduate student scholarship,

4. integration of public service activities in the in-structional arena to facilitate outreach to clients and toprovide “real world” learning activities for students,

5. facilitation of science education in public highschools by establishing links with high school scienceteachers, providing instructional modules, and offeringan introductory course in environmental science,

6. instruction to off-campus students through vari-ous distance-learning programs, employing the SUNYLearning Network, ENGINET, and the I-81 Consortium ofSUNY campuses,

7. ongoing assessment and revision of courses andcurricula to ensure that our academic programs are ofthe highest caliber,

8. instituting an undergraduate honors program tochallenge and better educate our very brightest stu-dents, and

9. establishing a mentoring program that introducesnew faculty to the culture of the ESF campus andprovides perspectives of senior faculty about the schol-arship of teaching, application, integration, and servicein our disciplines.

The essence of faculty duty and service—productiv-ity and accountability—is found in the common experi-ences of professors: teaching, mentoring, writing, do-ing scholarly work, obtaining grants and contracts,pursuing collegial relations, and offering professionalexpertise to others. At ESF, faculty pursue activities ineach of these domains as a matter of commitment toour clients, professions, and institution.

Dudley J. Raynal is a Distinguished Teaching Profes-sor at ESF.

Campus Views, continued

1998 Spring INSIDE ESF 5

Campus Update

Alum WinsInternational Award

A 1985 graduate of ESF who com-pleted his doctorate at Syracuse Uni-versity was one of five young scien-tists worldwide honored with the 1997Amersham Pharmacia Biotech & Sci-ence Prize.

James E. Brownell received theaward December 9 in Uppsala, Swe-den, in ceremonies that coincided withNobel Prize festivities. Brownell wasthe North American regional winnerfor his essay, “The Identification ofGCN5-Related Proteins as HistoneAcetyltransferases Links ChromatinAcetylation and Gene Activation,”based on his work with Dr. David Allisat SU.

Brownell earned his doctorate in1996; he also received a master’s de-gree from ESF in 1989. Brownell is em-ployed by Genentech in San Francisco.The prize carries a $5,000 award.

Peter E. BlackHonored By SUNY

Dr. Peter E. Black, professor of For-estry, was named a DistinguishedTeaching Professor by the SUNY boardof trustees.

Black, a national expert in water-shed hydrology, has been a facultymember at ESF for 32 years. He haswritten more than 70 articles, bookchapters, books, and instructional films.

Black is a chartermember of the Ameri-can Water ResourcesAssociation and servedas its president. In 1996,he received the U.S.Army Corps of Engi-neers Commander’sAward for Public Ser-vice. He served with theOnondaga Lake Man-agement Conferenceand several other pro-fessional organizations,including the AmericanAssociation for the Ad-vancement of Science,

the Association of Environmental Pro-fessionals, and the National Society ofProfessional Consultants.

The Distinguished Teaching Profes-sorship is a prestigious tenured rankabove full professor.

DEC To OpenFourth Camp AtPack Forest

New York’s Department ofEnvironmental Conservation(DEC) will open a fourth site forits popular summer camp pro-gram for teens at ESF’s CharlesLathrop Pack DemonstrationForest in Warrensburg.

About 300 teens aged 15 to17 are expected to attend thecamp for hands-on study ofconservation and natural re-sources topics.

“Pack Forest campers will work withmany of the tools and techniques usedby today’s environmental profession-als and, in doing so, will better under-stand the challenges facing New York-ers,” said Governor George E. Pataki inannouncing the camp’s opening.

President Ross S. Whaley called thearrangement “another example of thecollaborative efforts between ESF andthe DEC…[to sustain] the renewablenatural resources of the state.”

The 52-year-old DEC Summer Envi-ronmental Education Camp program

continued

Peter E. Black

James E. Brownell ‘85

ESF’s WarrensburgCampus.

6 INSIDE ESF Spring 1998

Campus Update,continued

provides week-long opportunities inJuly and August for young people toexplore the outdoors. Some 1,250 camp-ers participate in the program eachyear, and there is a waiting list.

Pack Forest, former home of therequired summer session in field for-estry for ESF students, boasts 2,500acres of forest lands, an 85-acre lake,and miles of trails. ESF scientists con-duct research and demonstration pro-grams at the site.

Hassett, SanfordNamed To New Posts

Dr. John P. Hassett, a biochemist spe-cializing in environmental chemistry,was named chair of the Faculty ofChemistry and Susan H. Sanford waspromoted to director of Admissions.

H a s s e t tjoined thecollege fac-ulty in 1980.He succeedsA n a t o l eSarko, whoretired in No-vember. Hisresearch hasfocused onidentifyingnatural andsynthetic or-ganic compounds in aquatic environ-ments and determining their impacts.He holds two patents for samplingmethods and apparatus to measurethe compounds.

He has taught courses in organic,environmental, and aquatic organicchemistry; chromatography; and envi-ronmental analysis.

Hassett has written numerous ar-ticles on his research in the Great Lakes,Onondaga Lake, and the St. Lawrenceand Hudson rivers. He is on the editorialboard of the Journal of Environmen-tal Toxicology and Chemistry.

Before joining ESF, he conductedresearch and taught at Drexel Univer-sity and the University of Florida atGainesville.

Sanford’s appointment was effec-tive December 30, upon the retirementof Dennis O. Stratton, who served asdirector since 1985. Sanford was asso-ciate director during those years.

Sanford previously worked at theSUNY Agricultural and Technical Col-lege at Morrisville, where she held thepositions ofadmiss ionsc o u n s e l o r ,assistant di-rector of ad-missions, anddirector ofadmissions.She alsoworked atC h a p m a nCollege Aca-demic Centerat HancockField.

Sanford has served as president andvice president of the State Universityof New York College Admissions Pro-fessionals. In 1991, she received theorganization’s service award.

A certified emergency medical tech-nician, Sanford serves with theCazenovia Area Volunteer AmbulanceCorps and the National Ski Patrol atLabrador Mountain.

Alumni Gifts FuelJahn Lab Appeal’sSuccess

The ESF College Foundation has re-ceived more than $830,000 in gifts andpledges for the Edwin C. Jahn Labora-tory Appeal, reported Dr. Gary A. Wa-ters, director of Development.

Dr. Edwin C. Jahn, for whom thebuilding is named, will honor five of hiscolleagues with a $100,000 endow-ment. The gift will establish fellow-ships named for Dr. Conrad Schuerch,Dr. Robert M. Silverstein, Dr. MichaelSzwarc, Dr. Tore Timell, and the late Dr.Ernest Sondheimer, all internationally-

renowned scientists who served onthe Faculty of Chemistry.

Other gifts and pledges are intendedto help equip the new building withcutting-edge research instrumentationand studentc l a s s r o o mand labora-tory work-s t a t i o n s .Among themajor con-tributors are:

• EdwardK. Mullen ‘47,chairman andchief execu-tive officer ofThe NewarkGroup, Inc.,who pledged a total of $125,000. Mullen,a Paper Science and Engineering gradu-ate, also is an active supporter of theSyracuse Pulp and Paper Foundation.

• The Niagara Mohawk Foundation,a college supporter and research part-ner, which will contribute $100,000.

• Christine Wendel ‘76, a ResourcesManagement graduate, who pledged$25,000. Wendel, from Santa Fe, NM, isthe daughter of former board of trust-ees chairman William Wendel.

• The Marsellus family and theMarsellus Casket Company. John D.Marsellus, a long-time member of theESF College Foundation board of di-rectors, pledged $20,000.

ESF is seeking a total of $1.1 million toequip the new building and fund stu-dent scholarships.

170 Gather For AirQuality Conference

Some 170 scientists, policy makers,and others interested in air quality is-sues met in Saratoga Springs Novem-ber 11-12, for a conference coordinatedby ESF’s Randolph G. Pack Environmen-tal Institute.

The conference—Adirondacks andBeyond: Understanding Air Quality andEcosystems Relationships—used theAdirondack region to examine the long-range transport of particulates, effects

John P. Hassett

Susan H. Sanford

Edwin C. Jahn

1998 Spring INSIDE ESF 7

on ecosystems, and transboundaryregulation, said Dr. Richard C. Smardon,conference general chair. “Our goalwas to achieve a dialogue among sci-entists, policy makers, and stakehold-ers, as well as to synthesize existingand future air quality science and policyoptions.”

The Pack Institute will publish con-ference proceedings in conjunctionwith Environmental Science: The In-ternational Journal of Research andPolicy. Interested individuals can visitthe conference home page at <http://www.esf.edu/Adirondacks> or callthe Pack Institute at 315-470-6636.

‘Changing Context’Focuses On Admissions

President Ross S. Whaley released anew planning document, A ChangingContext for ESF: A Planning Sum-mary for 1997-2002, that outlines anincrease in the college’s enrollment to2,150 students by the year 2002.

The document presents broadthemes in academic programs, studentsand student life, faculty and academicstaff, college relations, space and fa-cilities, and funding intended to shapeESF’s programs and services.

New thrusts in enrollment manage-ment and academic programs highlightthe planning document. Whaleycharges college staff to increase bothgraduate and undergraduate popula-tions by 400 students from today’s en-rollment. The increase responds toSUNY enrollment planning initiativesand accommodates additional studentsseeking ESF degrees.

In academic programs, Whaley pro-poses a series of interdisciplinary fo-cuses that, he says, “builds on currentfaculty strengths, is consistent withemerging societal needs, and is attrac-tive to increasing numbers of prospec-tive students.” The focuses are urbanenvironments, water quality and quan-tity, renewable materials, environmen-tal chemistry, environmental commu-nications and policy, and remote sens-ing and geospatial modeling.

The document also cites ESF’s needto broaden our revenue base throughdevelopment efforts. Much neededscholarship funds will attract and sup-port the best and brightest studentswho enroll at the college, said Whaley.

Pataki AppointsThree New Trustees

Governor George E. Pataki has ap-pointed Edward J. Heinrich of Marcellus,Heidi J. Busa ‘80 of Skaneateles, andGregory Harden of McConnellsville tothe ESF board of trustees.

Heinrich is director of the Syracusecampus of Bryant & Stratton BusinessInstitute and is president of OnCenter’sboard of directors. Heinrich serves onseveral other boards and is co-founderof the Greater James Street BusinessAssociation.

ESF’s 13th midyear convocation De-cember 5 honored 115 students whocompleted their degree requirementsand left campus for jobs or to pursueadvanced degrees.

Dr. Peter E. Black, DistinguishedTeaching Professor, delivered the key-note address at the convocation, whichawarded degrees to 75 bachelor ofscience or bachelor of landscape archi-

Busa chairs the science departmentat Marcellus High School. In 1996, shewas advisor to a group of studentswho won a $10,000 award in a nationalcontest sponsored by the U.S. Environ-mental Protection Agency for whichthe students devised a plan to converta local quarry into a wildlife habitat.Busa serves on the statewide steeringcommittee for Project Learning Tree,and was named as one of five NationalOutstanding Educators for the projectin 1995.

Harden is president and chief ex-ecutive officer of Harden Furniture Co.of McConnellsville.

He has headed the family businesssince 1991. He oversees the company’stwo manufacturing facilities, 500 em-ployees, and annual sales of approxi-mately $40 million. The company main-tains its own sawmills and thousandsof acres of forested lands in New York.

tecture students, and 40 master’s anddoctoral candidates.

A reception in the Alumni Lounge inMarshall Hall immediately followed theceremonies.

Later that evening, students, fac-ulty, and staff attended the traditionalDecember Soiree dinner-dance, thisyear held at the OnCenter in Syracuse.

115 Students Earn December Degrees

At the Soiree: Rebecca Wilkins and Shannon Watchorn, both class of2000, and Samantha Callender ‘99.

Earthly

Delightsby Paula Meseroll

A rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but if itdoesn’t smell at all, it isn’t in Sally Webster’s new landscap-ing plan.

Webster, associate professor of computer applicationsin the Faculty of Environmental Studies, has lived in the samehouse in the University area for 34 years. For most of thattime, she did little to alter the landscape, which consisted ofseveral trees, a few flowering shrubs, and a front yardcovered with pachysandra. There were also several areasof grass, which Webster termed “pathetic.”

“At one point, I hired a lawn service to come in and killthings like veronica and dandelion, which were threateningto choke me in my sleep,” she said. “I did that for a few yearsand my lawn looked wonderful but I began to worry aboutwhat was happening to the water table. Then, when I cameto ESF in 1990, I became environmentally aware and justcouldn’t put those chemicals on the lawn anymore.”

A new landscaping plan was in order and to achieve it,Webster hired ESF Landscape Architecture grad Mary AnnCorrigan ‘96 to redesign her yard. At the top of Webster’swish list was a yard that not only looked good, but one thatwas fragrant, as well.

“In the back of my mind was always the thought that ifyou have flowers and they don’t smell, what good arethey?” said Webster, who confesses to a passion for honey-suckle. “To me, the smell is more important than what theylook like.”

Corrigan’s plan is framed and hangs in Webster’s diningroom, serving as both a road map to the garden of herdreams and an inspiration for those times when it seems itmay never be more than wishful thinking.

“I asked Mary Ann what it would cost and she told me Ididn’t want to know,” Webster said. “She said to just dowhat I can when I can and don’t add it up because I’d havea heart attack. She advised me to do all the heavy work first.”

That included a wooden retaining wall along the drive-way to create a planting bed and a redwood fence at theedge of the driveway. The fence does double duty as abackdrop for new shrubbery and a screen to hide the viewof the house next door, where the neighbors have a pen-chant for parking cars on their lawn.

Still on the drawing board are raised flower beds edgingthe backyard, and stepping stones interspersed with low-growing herbs that release their scent when walked upon.

“The landscaping will be heaven for my nose when it’sfinished,” Webster said.

Webster is just one of many ESF employees for whom agarden is a source of pleasure, pride, and relaxation. ManyESF staffers garden as a hobby, spending uncounted hoursdigging in the dirt with the goal of enjoying the freshestfruits and vegetables, or for the senses-pleasing beauty,color, and aroma of a flower garden.

Don Leopold, professor of Environmental and ForestBiology, devotes a small area of his double lot in the city ofSyracuse to vegetables for the table, but his real focus is on

1998 Spring INSIDE ESF 9

perennials, including wildflowers and plants not native toCentral New York. He isespecially interested inday lilies and has producedseveral hundred new hy-brids in a rainbow of col-ors with the help of hischildren, Kay, 11, andMark, 9.

“Gardening is the mostserene time for me,”Leopold said. “It takes yourmind away from anythingelse and erases all the bag-gage you bring home.”

Linda Stubbs, a secretary at Moon Library, lives in UnionSprings, a small village on the shores of Cayuga Lake. Acreek bubbles through her property, which is shaded bywalnut trees.

A gardener from the early part of this century would feelright at home in Stubbs’ large perennial garden.

“I like things like bleeding hearts,” said Stubbs, who hasbeen gardening for more than 30 years. “I have an olderhome, and the yard is terraced with stone walls from an oldsluiceway that ran through the property. A lotof the bleeding hearts have self-seeded intothe stone walls so they drape over the wallsin a cascade of color.”

Old-time favorites like foxglove and col-umbine also have found a home in Stubbs’garden, which has evolved over the yearswithout any particular plan.

“I don’t have it mapped out,” she said. “Imove things around a lot. In the spring, some-times I forget what I have where, so I takethings up. I have quite a few lilies, but I don’tput them all in one area; I like them throughoutthe garden.”

The garden has inspired her to capturesome of its beauty on paper.

“I love the color in the garden, the differenttextures,” she said. “I’ve taken a lot of photosof the garden and now I’ve gotten into wa-tercolors, painting some of the flowers ongreeting cards.”

Stubbs used to be out in her garden every afternoonduring the growing season, but now that she works fulltime, that isn’t possible. She still spends about five hours aweek among her plants, pulling weeds, distributing mulch,and simply enjoying the view.

“There’s something therapeutic about digging in the dirtand being out in the sunshine,” she said.

Steve Darrow, senior offset printing machine operator inthe Copy Center, grows mainly vegetables in his Chittenango

garden. Three types of tomatoes flourish in his raised-bed,8-by-20-foot garden, as do zucchini and onions.

“What I like best about gardening is getting the crop atthe end of the growing season,” Darrow said. “You know it’sreally fresh.”

Novice gardener Chuck Spuches, director of Instruc-tional Development, Evaluation, and Services, started hisgardening hobby with a compost pile and has since branchedout into the “square-foot” method of horticulture. So far, hehas constructed three raised-bed boxes, some with trellissystems for vertical growth of plants, at his Liverpool home.

“This is only my third year of doing this,” Spuches said.“We grow the regular stuff, like tomatoes, cucumbers, redonions, romaine lettuce, spinach. We grew beans, whichthe rabbits came and ate.”

The garden has been a learning experience for Spuches,who admits to having had a few failures along with thesuccesses.

“Not everything grew well,” he said. “I burned up somepepper plants the first year by using too much compostedduck poop. But it’s been fun, because I’ve had a lot of helpfrom people here at ESF who give me tips on gardening.”

Definitely not the regular fare found in local gardens,kiwi fruit may seem too exotic to grow in Central New York.

But Brian Underwood, unit leader of the National ParkService’s Cooperative Park Studies Unit at ESF, doesn’t thinkso. He has planted a hardy, hairless variety of the luscious,green-fleshed fruit on his property in Borodino, on theeastern side of Skaneateles Lake.

“It’s going to take about seven years before we get ourfirst fruit,” Underwood said. “But once it starts producing, it’ssupposed to bear heavily throughout the rest of its life. I’mpretty excited about it.”

A garden sampler from Don Leopold: far left, a salmon poppy surroundedby lupines; top of page, a tiger swallowtail butterfly rests on a rhododen-dron; above: red poppies stand tall.

continuned on next page

10 INSIDE ESF Spring 1998

Fifty feet of grapevines have just started supplying theUnderwoods with table grapes. Three large gardens yieldcrops of tomatoes, peppers, garlic, corn, and beans, pluscabbage, broccoli, and potatoes. Gardening at an 1,100-footelevation in heavy, clay soil isn’t easy, but Underwoodcredits his wife, Susan, with having a green thumb, while hedoes “the grunt work.” To help with pollination and toimprove yields, Susan Underwood plans to start a beehivethis year.

Underwood enjoys working the land withhis wife and two young sons and finds thatgrowing things not only feeds the body, butrefreshes the mind.

“Most people who garden do it for therapy,”he said.

‘Refreshing’ is a word that also can be ap-plied to George Curry’s garden. Curry, a Land-scape Architecture professor, describes hisSyracuse city property as an oasis in the middleof a parking lot, since it is surrounded on threesides by properties with yards devoted toparking spaces for cars. Within the fencedborders of his garden, Curry has created asylvan glade where parking lots seem to existonly on some other, less fortunate, planet.

The garden has developed in stages, ac-cording to a plan Curry designed when hebought the house 30 years ago. Built on the side of a drumlin,the backyard has two levels and includes such landscapingamenities as a bluestone terrace and a fish pond. Becausethe yard receives very little sunlight, the plantings wereselected by Curry for their tolerance of deep shade.

“It certainly does limit the number of plants you have tochoose from,” Curry said. “I grow mainly perennials. I try not

to put annuals in, but in the summertime I do have big pots of impatiensfor color.”

Curry spends a good deal of timein his yard, which was featured lastsummer in a segment about localgardens broadcast by Syracuse-areatelevision station, WTVH Channel 5.

“Some people would say it is la-bor intensive, but I enjoy it,” Currysaid. “Just keeping the potted plantswatered takes time. But I find that italso serves as an experimental area.I try new plants and bulbs, whichhelps in some of the design studios Iteach.”

Japanese maple trees and shrubsare Jim Williamson’s specialty andthey reward him for his work eachfall with a brilliant show of blazingcolor.

“This past fall was really quite good,” said Williamson, anassociate librarian at Moon Library. “I had everything fromclear yellow to almost a fluorescent red. I tell people youreally have to see them in the fall because they’ll knock yoursocks off.”

Japanese maples aren’t native to Central New York andare something of a challenge to grow, according toWilliamson.

“It is a bit risky to grow Japanese mapleshere in the Syracuse area,” he said. “They are asensitive tree, and we’re just on the fringe ofwhere they won’t grow. But I’m always push-ing the envelope, and when I bought my house,I was looking for something exotic to growoutdoors. Japanese maples just filled the bill.”

Although he has lost several trees to the coldSyracuse winters, Williamson credits the loca-tion of his property with his success in growingthe delicate trees.

“I’ve had a fair amount of luck because themicroclimate of my property seems to providethem with a place to grow and thrive,” he said.“I live in the city, just on the border with DeWittand it’s relatively high elevation. That’s one ofthe reasons why I’ve done so well, because thefrost doesn’t hit quite so early in the fall and weusually get a good snow cover.”

Williamson acquired many of his trees from a grower inWashington state who didn’t start his business of sellinggrafted Japanese maples until he was 76 years old. He was86 when Williamson first ordered stock from him.

“They had an early spring that year in Washington,”Williamson recalled. “He sent them here and it was still

Above: George Curry carved an oasis out of ‘a parking lot,’ he says of his heavily-trafficked University neighborhood.

The Leopolds’ colorfulyard abloom.

continued on page 12

1998 Spring INSIDE ESF 11

Why do so many people find gardening so enjoyable?Can it help combat the stresses of modern day life?

Kathleen A. Stribley, associate professor of LandscapeArchitecture, teaches a course, “Behavioral Aspects of De-sign and Planning,” which addresses those questions. In thecourse, she quotes research on perception and preferencedone by University of Michigan professors Rachel andStephen Kaplan over a 20-year period, beginning in the1970s. Originators of research centering on the psychologi-cal role of nature, the Kaplans explore the benefits ofgardening and of nature in general, according to Stribley.

In the studies, outlined in their book, The Experience ofNature, the Kaplans showed people black and white pho-tographs of different subjects and determined their level ofpreference. Photos focused on nature subjects had a highlevel of preference, the Kaplans found.

“When nature content was very high in a photo, it wasmuch preferred over anything else,” Stribley said. “Whennature content went down, usually the preference wentdown. So the Kaplans started to look at why people prefernature.”

They discovered that most people’s hectic lifestyles leadto what the Kaplans call “mental fatigue,” which is also afactor in the high rate of conflict in modern society.

“People mentally fatigued are less likely to help otherpeople,” Stribley said. “They may be more aggressive, ormore unhappy and depressed. There’s a cost to mentalfatigue. The more fatigued we are, the worse it is.”

Consequently, people need restorative experiences—vacations for the mind. There are four different aspects toa restorative experience,Stribley noted.

“One aspect is beingaway from everyday, nor-mal things, such as distrac-tions and worries,” she said.“Then there’s the conceptof a relationship to otherworlds. When you’re gar-dening, you’re workingwith a plant and it can bringback memories of otherplaces, or you can be relat-ing to the history of the siteyou’re working on.

“There’s also the con-cept of extent, whichmeans (the garden) doesn’tneed to be large to repre-sent other things. A window box can have all the aspects ofnature and represent memories, history, ties to other timesand places. Another principle is fascination, which means it’s

interesting and keeps you going.”As an antidote to mental fa-

tigue, gardening can be especiallytherapeutic.

“Gardening meets all the re-quirements of a restorative expe-rience,” Stribley said. “It allows youto get away and, to a large extent,think about other worlds. You canemploy your imagination, which isan important component. And, it’sfascinating.”

People in all stages of life, fromthe very young to the elderly, ben-efit from interaction with growingthings.

“We need nature to be healthy,”Stribley said. “We need it morenowadays because of the de-mands of modern life. If you spendeight hours a day in front of acomputer screen, perhaps in abuilding where you can’t even seenature, your fatigue level will be

very high. People are now recognizing that nature is soimportant to life. We need it on a daily basis.”

—Paula Meseroll

‘Vacations For The Mind’

Kathleen A. Stribley

Peter and Lida Black have worked for years creating different landscape views intheir yard.

12 INSIDE ESF Spring 1998

frozen ground, so I got a friend to bring them on for a fewweeks in one of his greenhouses so they wouldn’t die.”

Japanese maples breed true only from grafts, but just tofind out what he can come up with, Williamson experi-ments with collecting and planting seeds from his trees.

“You get outrageous variety from seeds,” he said. “Youcan’t believe that the plants came from seeds from the sametree. I’ve given most of the seedlings away and have hadthem planted as far away as Virginia and Colorado.”

Seeing what fascinating mutations result from nurturinga handful of seeds is only part of the fun Williamson derivesfrom his endeavors.

“I get more pleasure out of seeing a beautiful tree than Ido possessing something in my house,” he said. “Everyseason of the year, the trees have something to offer you—branch structure in the winter, some of them flower in thespring, and the foliage color in the fall. Of course, all summerlong you have the different shapes, colors, and structures offoliage. The trees are simply beautiful.”

As a child, Norm Richards planted his first flower gardenon his grandmother’s farm and the emeritus professor ofForestry has been gardening ever since.

When working in his garden, which consists of amix of annuals and perennials, Richards draws onmore than 50 years of experience. He has learned togarden successfully in widely diverse weather condi-tions, from the short, cool Central New York growingseason to the long, scorching summers of Sea Island,SC, where he lived for a time.

“I was very excited there, getting out on the first ofMarch to get a wonderful garden growing,” he re-called. “It dried up and died by the first of June becauseit was so hot. It was a very disappointing experience.I had to learn that the whole agriculture of that area istuned to that natural rhythm. As an outsider, I didn’tunderstand that at all. I found out the hard way.”

His latest horticultural challenge is the moist, foggyclimate of the Maine coast, where he plans to live inretirement from May to October every year.

“It’s a climate that’s a little rugged on people, butreally quite favorable for plants, if you provide themwith some fertilizer,” he said. “I’m looking forward togardening in a new environment.”

Richards doesn’t believe that working in a gardenshould actually be, well, work.

“Enjoy it, that’s the key,” he said. “People are fools towork in a garden. If it’s work for them, for gosh sakes,don’t do it. Do it only if it is fun and enjoyable and if itadds some enrichment to your life.”

“There is no hassle associated with gardening,” he added.“If you don’t get done what you hope to—that’s no problem.You can start and stop when you want. If you’re annoyedwith something, go out to the garden and pull weeds twiceas fast. To me, it’s relaxing.”

He offers gardeners—both beginners and those moreexperienced—several choice nuggets of advice, gleanedfrom decades of working with plants of all kinds.

“Everybody learns by doing,” he said. “There’s no big crisisif you mess up; in fact, you’re likely to learn more. I alsowould encourage people to realize that the process is moreimportant than the product. Don’t worry so much about theproduct. Start with a seed, if you can, or a small plant insteadof spending a lot of money on a large plant, where someoneelse has put all their skill into creating a high-value plant.Learn and understand the process by which little seeds mayor may not become magnificent plants. Also remember that,in nature, most seeds and individual plants fail.

“That’s part of the process, but you’d like to think thatmaybe you can do something to improve their odds alongthe way.”

Paula Meseroll is a freelance writer based in Syracuse.

Scott Shannon’s front yard, in the English cottagegarden style, is—at 6 years old—“right at the pointwhere we want to tear out a few of the ‘unruly’plants and rethink a few things.”

1998 Spring INSIDE ESF 13

Campus Profile

RonGiegerich:

We Can AllLearn

Something

by Claire B. Dunn

Ron Giegerich

When Ron Giegerich works, manyeyes watch.

Two bald eagles stare imperiously,their talons grasping sturdy branches.Two ospreys perch a few feet awayand a rare whooping crane standsnearby on spindly legs.

Behind glass doors, an assortmentof creatures, long dead but mounted inlifelike poses, gazes through unblink-ing glass eyes: snakes, a porcupine, ared fox, and a varying hare.

There are roughly 10,000 pairs ofeyes—or cotton-stuffed sockets, atleast—in the specimens that line theshelves, drawers, and cabinet tops inthis unadorned room. Tucked behindIllick Hall’s narrow windows, this spacecontains one of the state’s most exten-sive collections of wildlife specimens.

Some pieces are mounted and posi-tioned to mimic the animal’sactions in the wild. Many othersare skins stuffed with cottonand lined up neatly in shallowdrawers. Others are skeletons,in whole or part. Still others arepreserved in jars.

The unassuming Giegerich isin charge of it all.

He is the curator of thecollege’s Roosevelt WildlifeCollection, the enduring legacyof the Roosevelt Wild Life For-est Experiment Station, whichflourished at ESF for more than30 years after it was establishedin 1919.

“We treasure the collection;it’s very valuable,” said Profes-sor Emeritus Maurice M.Alexander, the previous cura-tor. “There wouldn’t be anyother organization in the statethat would have what we have.”

Giegerich has tended thecollection since 1977. He pre-pares new specimens and over-

sees the use of artifacts by ESF stu-dents and faculty members who usethe items in class. He also teaches aclass in vertebrate museum techniquesand lectures regularly in courses taughtby members of the Faculty of Environ-mental and Forest Biology.

Giegerich’s career is rooted in a boy-hood spent exploring the woods andsalt marshes near his Long Island home.When he was growing up in the 1960s,birds that had not been seen there foryears—glossy ibises, snowy egrets, andgreat black-backed herons—were re-sponding to protective measures bythe federal government. They werereturning to areas that had escapedthe island’s suburban sprawl. Songbirdswere returning, too. There were mock-ingbirds and cardinals in his backyard.

“I actually started out collecting natu-ral history artifacts and chasing insectsaround with a butterfly net. I would pinup insects and mount butterflies. I hadthem squished in picture frames,”Giegerich said.

He still does the same thing, on amore sophisticated scale. One day thiswinter, Giegerich spent the morningpreparing a screech owl, the newestaddition to the Roosevelt collection.

“It feels healthy,” he said. “It wasprobably a healthy little bird. It just hada mishap.”

He knows the habits of screechowls. This one was found along Route48 near Three Rivers Wildlife Manage-ment Area in northeastern OnondagaCounty. It was probably hunting smallmammals when it was hit by a car.

Watching Giegerich work is a crossbetween observing a how-to taxi-dermy demonstration and attending aclass in animal behavior.

He weighed the bird and measuredits length and wing span. His fingerssearched out an area along the midlineof the breast, where there are no feath-ers, and made a quick incision.

He tells his students not to workslowly, even if they’re new at prepar-ing skins. Their technique will improvefaster if they work quickly and risk afew mistakes.

“I tell them, ‘Don’t get crazy about it.We’re not putting a patch on a jacket,we’re sewing up a bird specimen.’”

He never felt squeamish about cut-ting into the body of a dead animal.

“I don’t think it’s ever bothered me.It’s just part of the job,” he said. “Every-

continued on next page

14 INSIDE ESF Spring 1998

Profile: Ron Giegerichcontinued

body thinks this is a really messy occu-pation. It doesn’t have to be.”

Most of the blood in an animal’sbody is in the muscle mass and it staysthere when Giegerich works. When heneatly scraped the meat off the owl’sleg bones, it looked like he was clean-ing tiny chicken drumsticks.

The only mess was the Boraxsprinkled on the table, the floor, andGiegerich’s black jeans. He dusted thebird liberally with 20 Mule Team Boraxto absorb fluids, making the owl easierto hold. Sawdust or corn meal wouldwork, but Borax has the advantage ofkilling bacteria.

Giegerich’s work is less a job than itis a lifestyle.

His interest in wildlife takes him intothe fields to hunt and trap near thehome he built on 39 acres in rural east-ern Onondaga County. He lives therewith his wife, Anne, whom he marrieda year ago, and their two Labradorretrievers, Kate, and her year-old pup,Lucy. He has a shop in his home, wherehe does projects for the college andtaxidermy for sporting organizations.

He knows his work is the type thatraises protests from animal-rights ac-tivists. There are college employeeswho don’t want to set foot in theRoosevelt collection headquarters.Giegerich respects their opinion. Healso expects them to respect his.

The animals all died before they gotto the lab, he notes, and their skins andskeletons are being used to educatethe next generation of scientists.

“We’re not desecrating wildlife uphere. If anything, we’re immortalizingit,” he said. “There are obviously somepeople who don’t agree with what Ido but I’ve never had a problem withthat here.”

Even when the animal-rights group,People for the Ethical Treatment ofAnimals, participated in an Earth Weekactivity on the ESF quad, Giegerich feltno repercussions. But that might be

because the Roosevelt collection islargely unknown to the general public.

“A lot of people don’t know we’reup here,” he said, “They don’t knowwhat we do.”

As he worked on the owl, Giegerichreferred to the bird as “he,” not “it.”When he talks about screech owls ingeneral, he called them “these littleguys.” But beyond that, he does not getinvolved with the animals that comethrough his lab.

“With certain birds, when you seethem in Central New York, you won-der why they were here. You wonderwhat brought on their demise. But youdon’t get too personal with them. Theydon’t get names,” he said.

“But there’s a lot of information wecan get from these specimens. We canlearn something from them.”

He can see what constituted ananimal’s last meal and whether theanimal was healthy. The last thing thescreech owl munched on was a smallmammal, perhaps a young mouse, judg-ing by the remains in the owl’s gizzard.

Dr. Neil H. Ringler, chair of the Fac-ulty of Environmental and Forest Biol-ogy, said Giegerich’s specimens are tre-mendously useful in the classroom.

Ringler uses pieces from theRoosevelt collection to teach compara-tive anatomy. He shows his studentsvarious skeletons and asks the studentsto figure out how the animals lived.

Specimens are donated to the labfrom ESF students and staff members,state and federal agencies, OnondagaCounty’s Burnet Park Zoo, andoutdoorsmen who know Giegerich.Older artifacts, including a tufted tit-mouse dating back to 1865, were do-nated by museums or well-to-do fami-lies that amassed private collections ofanimal skins when the practice was invogue a century ago.

Once the owl was cleaned,Giegerich fluffed up the feathers,stuffed the body with cotton andstitched up the incisions.

He wanted the bird to look good.Some requirements: stitches that don’tshow, feathers that lie in a natural po-sition, and final measurements that

match those he took when he started.“We like them to look nice. That’s

just pride in the preparation. Skins aresupposed to represent birds and mam-mals in death, but like they just died.”

There are 10,000 artifacts in theRoosevelt collection. Fish represent thesingle biggest portion, followed bybirds, then mammals, and last, reptilesand amphibians. There are 1,500 birdsmore than 100 years old. Many of themammals were collected during stud-ies done in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s byzoologists who worked with theRoosevelt Wild Life Forest ExperimentStation.

The rarest items in the collection arebirds:

• a pair of passenger pigeons. Thespecies has been extinct since 1914,when a bird named Martha died at theCincinnati Zoo.

• a pair of ivory-billed woodpeckers.The species was once found in theSouth but hasn’t been seen since the1950s.

• a pair of heath hens. This type ofprairie chicken once flourished in theEastern United States. In 1916, a firewiped out much of their only remain-ing habitat on the island of Martha’sVineyard. The few surviving birdsstruggled against predators and dis-ease for the next few years and thelast one died in 1932.

“They weren’t too smart and theywere easy game,” Giegerich said.

In his 20 years in the business,Giegerich has seen the nature of thestudents change.

“There’s more soccer kids than thereare hunting and fishing kids. We grewup playing soccer but we also had anappreciation of the outdoors,” he said.“Fathers are taking their sons to soccerpractice now, not out hunting. Andthat’s fine, but something’s being lost.”

Giegerich’s goal is to preserve someof what’s disappearing.

“It’s a way of leaving artifacts forpeople to look at in the future,” he said.“And hopefully, some of what I do willbe around for a while.”Claire B. Dunn is assistant director ofNews and Publications.

It’s A

Very Important Date

The 1997-98 AnnualFund will end June 30,1998. We want to be able toinclude you in our HonorRoll of Donors publicationas a contributor to thecollege’s fund-raisingprogram.

Your gift—right now—stillcan help deserving studentsafford the best educationNew␣ York has to offer inthe natural resources,

Don’t Miss It!

June 30, 1998ESF Annual Fund

“Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it’s getting!” said the White Rabbit.

design, and engineeringfields. The same education,in fact, that helped yousucceed in your career.

Send your check, payableto the ESF College Founda-tion/Annual Fund, to:

Annual Fund CampaignSUNY-ESF1 Forestry DriveSyracuse, NY 13210

It will make a Wonderlandof difference!

On Campus

N O N - P R O F I T O R G .U . S . P O S T A G E

PAIDS Y R A C U S E , N . Y .P E R M I T N O . 2 4 8

I N S I D E E ◆ S ◆ FOffice of News & Publications1 Forestry DriveSyracuse, New York 13210-2778

A D D R E S S S E R V I C E R E Q U E S T E D

Campus Calendar

April 14 Spotlight on Research ‘98: Undergraduate and Graduate Re-search Symposium. 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Alumni Lounge, MarshallHall. Additional information: Russell D. Briggs, Faculty Sub-committee on Research, 315-470-6989.

April 17 Graduate Student Association Annual Conference: ShiftingParadigms. Additional information: GSA, 315-470-6776.

April 25 Spring Open House for prospective students. Additional in-formation: Office of Undergraduate Admissions, 315-470-6600 or 1-800-ESF-7777.

April 28 Last day of classes. Syracuse campus.

April 30 Central New York Alumni Dinner. Additional information:Office of Alumni Services, 315-470-6632.

May 9-10 Syracuse campus commencement weekend.

May, TBA Metropolitan New York Alumni Reception. Additional infor-mation: Office of Alumni Services, 315-470-6632.

May 19-22 108th Conference of the Empire State Paper Research Associ-ates. Syracuse, NY. Additional information: Hannu P. Makkonen,ESPRI, 315-470-6521.

May 23 Ranger School graduation.

June 4-6 Senior Alumni Reunions. Syracuse campus. Additional infor-mation: Office of Alumni Services, 315-470-6632.

June 7-22 NSF Summer Program for Educators: Applied EnvironmentalProblem Solving. Additional information: Great Lakes Re-search Consortium, 315-470-6816.

August 7-8 Ranger School Alumni Reunion. Wanakena, NY. Additionalinformation: Ranger School, 315-848-2566.

September 19-23 Alumni Reception, Society of American Foresters annualmeeting. Traverse City, MI. Additional information: Office ofAlumni Services, 315-470-6632.

October 3-5 Alumni Reception, American Society of Landscape Architectsannual meeting. Portland, OR. Additional information: Officeof Alumni Services, 315-470-6632.

Books and MonographsLeopold, Donald J. , William C.

McComb, and Robert N. Muller, Treesof the Central Hardwood Forests ofNorth America—An Identification andCultivation Guide. Timber Press, Port-land, OR. February, 1998.

Potteiger, Matthew and JamiePurinton ‘88, Landscape Narratives:Design Practices for Telling Stories.John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York.February, 1998.

Awards and HonorsAbrahamson, Lawrence P. 1997

Award for Outstanding Contribu-tions. From the New York ChristmasTree Growers Association, January23, 1998.

Coufal, James E. Elected vice presi-dent (president-elect) Society ofAmerican Foresters.

Daley, Douglas J. Education ServiceAward, Mid-Atlantic States Section,Air & Waste Management Associa-tion. October, 1997.

Johnson ‘98, Carol. 1998 Unsung He-roes and Heroines Award, MartinLuther King, Jr. Commission. January18, 1998.

Luzadis, Valerie A. Young ForesterLeadership Award, Society of Ameri-can Foresters.

Maraviglia, Frank . Nina MitchellAward for Distinguished Service,United University Professions.