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CORVALLIS - The College of Forestry at Oregon State University recently presented several faculty members with Dean's Awards for Outstanding Achievement.

Recipients included Stephen Hobbs, a professor of forest science; Steven Strauss, a professor of forest science, Bart Thielges, associate dean for research; and members of the governor's team for landslide, salmon and fish habitat.

Hobbs was recognized for his leadership of the Coastal Oregon Productivity Enhancement, or COPE Program from 1986-99. COPE has been a 12-year research effort, the results of which are already being incorporated into the management of Oregon's coastal forests and streams.

Strauss is an international leader in the field of forest genetics and genetic engineering. He has received almost $3 million in research grants, began a research cooperative in genetic engineering which now includes 14 members from all over the United States and other countries, and helped make OSU a world focus of activity on the use of genetic engineering in forestry.

Thielges served as college coordinator and liaison officer for the construction of Richardson Hall from 1994-99, including planning and construction coordination with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, OSU planners, architects and contractors, college faculty and department heads. The building is scheduled to be completed in April, 1999.

The governor's teams for landslide, salmon and fish habitat helped provide Oregon policy makers with sound, objective science-based information. It includes Paul Adams, Bob Beschta, Marv Pyles and Arne Skaugset from the Department of Forest Engineering, who completed a white paper for the governor on landslides and forest practices; Dave Hibbs, a professor of forest science, who worked with them as science advisers to the Oregon Board of Forestry and National Marine Fisheries on forest practices to protect salmon habitat; and Logan Norris, professor and head of the Department of Forest Science, and Katy Kavanagh, assistant professor of forestry Extension, who continue to serve on the governor's independent, multidisciplinary science team that provides scientific oversight to the implementation of the Oregon plan for the restoration of salmon and steelhead.

In a separate award, John Bell, emeritus professor of forest resources, was recognized for his special contributions to the college's extended education program. He has led more than 50 variable probability sampling workshops from 1957-1998.