PSU Magazine Spring 1994

Professor Trygve Steen was part of a floating expedition that recorded and studied forest ecology in B.C. By Stuart Wasserman North Star, a triple-masted arctic schooner, served as the scientists' and photographers' base of operation. Seeing the forest, not the trees the triple-masted chooner sa iled into o lumbia's coast, the cientists, naturalists, and photogra– pher on board were awed by the cenic beauty. They looked fo rward to reaching land and enj oy ing a bath in a natura l hot springs tu cked in a back pocket of the bay. But as the schooner continued into the in let, rounding a lush ly wooded bend, its pa senge rs came face- to-face with the heavy cranes, loaders, mobile hotels, and floa ting barge of a logging operation. The barge was already partially loaded with trees, and off to the left was a denuded hillside. "How do you protect 50 valleys that the public doesn 't rea lly know exi ts?" Peter McA ll i ter, th e trip 's o rgani zer, wondered aloud. La t summer, McA!lister assembled a talented group, including P U professor T rygve teen , to ail the inlets, sounds, and Norwegian-like fj ords of Briti h Columbia' central coast. Their objecti ve wa to record , study, and pub lici:e the pri tine rain forest valleys in th at region. A Po rtland-based environmental group called Eco-T rust had ident ifi ed the waterways and fo rested wate rsheds from sa tellite space imagery. "We were told the area wa fund amentall y an intact wilderness," recalls teen. "We did the ground -truthing, which was part of th e mis ion of the trip ." Eucott Bay was an exception to the usual untouched wi lderness th e scholars and photograph ers found . teen , a biology profes or, went with the expedition as a fo rest ecology expert. For the past 23 years, he has taught fo re ·t ecology, environmental studie , embryo logy, histology, and photograph classes at Po rtland rate University. His true love, however, i fo rest eco logy. " I've studied ra in fo rest in Northern alifo rnia, Oregon, and Washington, and this trip was an opportunity to explore an extensive geographic area farther north." Stee n had seen the heav ily logged condition of Vancouver l land , so when the offer came to ee untouched areas of B. . with the Raincoast Conserva tion oc iety's Expediti on '93, he took it. "There are whole fj ords and sound that nobody knows about, " say McAlli ter, expedition o rganizer and a PR! G 1994 5