Oral history interview with Richard F. Smith

Collection

Identifier: SR9236

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This oral history interview with Richard F. Smith was conducted by Charles Digregorio on September 20, 1978. In this interview, Smith discusses his early interest in forestry work, including serving as assistant forester in the Civilian Conservation Corps and in the Resettlement and Farm Security Administration in Ohio. He talks about his forestry education at Ohio State University. He then talks about working for the Forestry Department in Clark County, Washington, and describes his development of the forestry management technique of individual tree selection. He talks about his agreements and disagreements with environmental activists, his efforts to convince owners of small land tracts to use his forestry management techniques, and about other methods of forest management.

Dates

Creation: 1978 September 20

Creator

Smith, Richard F. (Richard Frederick), 1911-1988 (Interviewee, Person)
Digregorio, Charles (Interviewer, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society. Use is allowed according to the following statement: Creative Commons - BY-NC-SA, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

Biographical note

Richard Frederick Smith was born in Bedford, Pennsylvania, in 1911. In 1918, his family moved to Salem, Ohio. In 1933, he entered the Civilian Conservation Corps, where he developed a love for forestry work. He studied forestry at Ohio State University from 1939 to 1941, then planned to transfer. His education was interrupted while he served in the Navy during World War II. In 1946, he and Ruth Lane Troxel were married; they later had two children. In 1948, he graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in forestry. The next year, he became the county forester for Clark County, Washington. He developed a forestry management technique of individual tree selection, demonstrating his ideas by buying and managing his own tract of timberland near Sandy, Oregon. He died in 1988.

Extent

.1 Cubic Feet (1 audiocassette (1 hr., 4 min., 17 sec.))

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Oral history interview with Richard F. Smith conducted by Charles Digregorio on September 20, 1978. Smith was the county forester for Clark County, Washington.