Meet the Authors
John F. Bell
John Bell was raised on a ranch in the hills south of Ashland, Oregon, during the Great Depression. He served in the 10th Mountain Division in WWII, training with the ski troops in Colorado. He returned from war to become a professional forester for more than 70 years. He completed his B.S. in Forest Management at Oregon State University (1949), an M.S. from Duke University (1951), and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan (1971). His first professional forestry job was cruising timber for the U.S. Forest Service in southwest Oregon. He worked for the Oregon Department of Forestry for ten years where he received statewide recognition for improving timber cruising efficiency on state lands. He started teaching mensuration at OSU in 1959 and became a full professor. In addition, he researched and published in mensuration and young-growth management.
John consulted with industry and governments and presented workshops in forest inventory, 3-P sampling, and variable-plot cruising. For many decades he conducted an annual Variable Probability Sampling short course at OSU for working professionals. He improved inventory procedures within the forestry industry and assisted the Internal Revenue Service in analyzing forestry data. He is co-author, with J. R. Dilworth, of Log Scaling and Timber Cruising. He was also a life-long member and leader of the Society of American Foresters and was designated as a Fellow.
John received numerous awards, including Outstanding Alumnus from the College of Forestry, Lifetime Achievement Award from Oregon Society of American Foresters, and the Aufderheide Award as the professor of the year at OSU College of Forestry. He was also designated as a Pioneer of Agricultural Achievement by OSU’s College of Agriculture. He was active in Blue Key and thoroughly enjoyed working with students and helping them develop forestry careers.
John was a global traveler both professionally and personally. His forestry assignments took him across the United States and to many foreign locations. He always wanted to “see over the next mountain”–whether that was the next stand of trees or another country. He loved to have his wife, Myrna, go with him. He was an active volunteer and leader in his church, an avid racquetball player, and a great outdoorsman. He said he grew taller by walking with the trees and he was happiest when in a forest. He died in 2019.
Edward C. Jensen
Ed Jensen was raised amidst the rich farmlands and wooded hills of northwestern Illinois. His love of forests began with a summer job in Olympic National Park during his college years. There he found inspiration in both the awesome majesty and subtle beauty of old-growth Douglas-fir/western hemlock forests. His life was forever changed.
Ed’s degrees include a B.S. in Forest Science from the University of Illinois (1973), an M.S. in Forest Ecology and Silviculture from the University of Washington (1976), and a Ph.D. in Forest Science from Oregon State University (1989).
Ed spent nearly 40 years teaching students at Oregon State University about forests and the trees and shrubs that comprise them. Over that span, he taught nearly 10,000 students in Dendrology, Forest Ecology, International Forestry, and Natural Resources Education. During the same period, Ed served for 26 years as Director of the Forestry Media Center and 10 years as Director of both The Silviculture Institute and The Natural Resources Institute, continuing education programs for foresters and natural resource specialists. He also developed and led a graduate program in Natural Resources Education and Extension for 21 years. For the last decade of his career, he served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Forestry.
Ed’s enthusiasm for teaching and mentoring has been recognized with numerous awards at the college, university, and national levels including the Aufderheide Award for Outstanding Teaching from the College of Forestry (1992, 1995, 2001), the Elizabeth P. Ritchie Distinguished Professor Award from OSU (1999), the Carl Alwin Scheck National Award for Outstanding Teaching from the Society of American Foresters (1997), and NASULG’s Regional Award for Outstanding Teaching (1997). Ed’s devotion to teaching about trees and shrubs is reflected in several award-winning books in addition to Manual of Oregon Trees and Shrubs, including Trees to Know in Oregon and Washington (2020) and Shrubs to Know in Pacific Northwest Forests (2023), both published by the Oregon State University Extension Service, and Woody Plants in North America (2015), a web-based interactive textbook published by Kendall-Hunt Publishing Company and co-authored with colleagues from Virginia Tech University, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Georgia.
In retirement, Ed gardens, plays golf, offers local workshops and webinars related to trees and shrubs, and travels as much of the world as he can with his wife of 50+ years, Linda.
James D. Kiser
Jim was born in Naples, Italy. His family moved to Southern California where he received an Associates of Architecture, only because forestry was not a degree option there. Soon after, he had his epiphany and moved north to attend Humboldt State University, receiving his B.S. in Forest Management (1982).
From 1979 to 1982 he worked summers for the U.S. Forest Service as a surveying technician and after graduation he continued full-time until 1984 when he started a master’s degree at Oregon State University. He was on the faculty at OSU, teaching Forest Measurements and Photogrammetry until 1992.
In 1992, he accepted a corporate position with Weyerhaeuser Company in charge of field and forestry operations support for Oregon and Washington timberlands. In 1997, he returned to the OSU faculty and to work on his Ph.D. in Forest Science. While there he taught Forest Surveying, Forest Route Surveying, and Advanced Surveying.
About this same time he met his wife, Ann, and together they started a successful company, doing some of the earliest work with mapping from GPS and aerial photography They mapped over 4.5 million acres throughout Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. He was also the co-author on a remote sensing book. In 2010, Jim took an extended sabbatical to pursue a new career managing ranches in Colorado and Florida for one of the largest natural horsemanship programs in the world.
However, the call to teach was still strong and he returned to the faculty at OSU in 2013, teaching Forest Surveying, Route Surveying, and other forest engineering courses. One of his pet projects has been the development of the new Professional Forestry Field School, a two-week intensive field-based program, covering sampling and mensurational aspects of both westside and eastside Oregon forests.
From 1985 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2009, Jim ran a small business to put himself through graduate school. He focused on timber cruising and appraisal, but also worked with log buyers and timberland owners, negotiating timber sales. He is currently the director of the Variable Probability Sampling short course.
Jim and his wife have a 25-acre farm in Lacomb, Oregon. They grow grapes and produce Pinot noir under the Surfing Horse Wine label. They also grow hay and train horses on the property. In his spare time, Jim enjoys reading classic Greek and Roman history and philosophy.