Sightings | Alumni Profile
A Tale of Two Foresters
Graduating 53 Years Apart, Randy Boggess and Paul Trianosky are Sterling Representatives of Their Classes at Duke p.4
His forestry background has served him well at The Nature Conservancy."Paul is very well respected by the forest industry," says Scott Davis, director of TNC's Tennessee chapter."He is a good bridge between traditional industrial foresters and conservationists."
That is why Trianosky was part of the team assembled to negotiate one of The Nature Conservancy's most complex deals ever. When International Paper announced in July 2005 that it would sell its 6 million acres of timber holdings, TNC requested the opportunity to bid on some of the property—about 220,000 acres in 10 states."This flew against our normal approach," says Trianosky. Normally the state chapters work relatively independently in negotiating land transactions, but in this case, he says, they needed to join together. Internal negotiations were just as complex as negotiations between TNC and the various state agencies and nonprofit organizations they proposed to partner with in the land purchase, which was completed in August.
Randy
Boggess
Making a name in water resources
The agricultural library at the University of Illinois, completed in
2001, features a mural called"Ag Time." In the bottom left corner, not
too far from Abraham Lincoln (who signed the bill establishing land grant
colleges) and Big Al (the first transgenic pig), is Randy Boggess.
According to Boggess, it was his work on the environmental factors affecting tree growth in southern Illinois that earned him a spot on the mural. But more satisfying to him was his research into precipitation-runoff relationships on a forested watershed in the Shawnee National Forest, also in southern Illinois.
He served a number of roles in the American Water Resources Association, including president in 1969 and editor of the association's journal, a position he held three times for a total of 10 years. As editor, he impressed a freshly minted PhD named Kenneth Reckhow, now professor of water resources and chair of the division of Environmental Sciences and Policy at the Nicholas School."He listened to me when I complained about manuscript reviewers for the journal, and he gave me conversation time at AWRA national conferences. For a young faculty member, fresh from graduate school, that was extremely meaningful and important to me," says Reckhow.
A sabbatical in 1967–68 led to a long-term relationship with Dr.Charles Stockton at the University of Arizona's Laboratory of Tree Ring Research in 1968. In 1978, five years after retiring from the University of Illinois, Boggess joined Stockton for an 18-year period of fruitful research and consulting. Complete retirement came in 1993, when, as he puts it,"the money ran out." Now 93, he lives in Austin,Texas.
Paul
Trianosky
Challenges ahead for forest conservation
Trianosky,who received his MEM degree the year that Boggess"completely
retired," has seen the completion of a story that began not too long after
Boggess completed his forestry degree. In the 1940s, companies like International
Paper expanded their holdings, and during the last half of the century,
numerous graduates of forestry schools found careers managing the company's
timber holdings and those of other paper companies. IP's decision in 2005
to sell its land is part of the shifting landscape that Trianosky believes
will create complex new challenges for the forest conservation community.
"Under industry ownership, there was stability," he says. The investment organizations that are buying up the lands will evaluate their"highest and best use," and many of the lands will be sold for development. A shorter ownership window and a fragmentation of vast holdings could adversely affect the overarching goals of managing these lands for biodiversity, says Trianosky.
Trianosky is charged with collaborating with various state chapters to address this challenge. He thinks a great deal about applying the concept of ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration and watershed protection, to attract investment dollars.
A Shared Love for Duke Forest
In April, Randy Boggess attended the Nicholas School's annual Field Day,
which was also a celebration of Duke Forest's 75th anniversary. When he
was presented with a T-shirt whose historical photo showed a vintage truck
crossing New Hope Bridge, he told current students and staff that he remembered
driving that very truck during his time working at Duke Forest. He has
other memories of the Forest, fond ones, like the exceptional Loblolly
Pine stand behind gate 7, and not-so-fond ones, like the chiggers he hosted
during his Forest Surveying class exercises in the New Hope division.
Some 53 years later, Paul Trianosky took a course at the School of the Environment in which teams were assigned to assess a proposal to site a landfill in a part of Duke Forest in Orange County. Working in teams, they visited the site to learn about its geology and topography, but it wasn't a field course, and much of their work involved reading and research."We came to the conclusion that Duke Forest, with its history of research, was too rich a resource for this use," he says.
Lisa M. Dellwo is a freelance writer in Durham.
photo captions: Randy Boggess; Duke Forest historical photo; Paul Trianosky