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About Applegater. (Jacksonville, OR) 2008-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 2012)
8 Fall 2012 Applegater TRENDS AND OBSERVATIONS LADY LOST her. With her sense of reckless daring, she volunteered to teach me to ski. I soon learned that she had additional noble attributes—patience and the ability to laugh with me, not at me. After many spills and much frustration (vocal by me and thankfully not vocal by her), she proclaimed me able to ski. In starting as an adult, I was adequate, but never graceful. She effortlessly streaked down the mountainside, with me trailing and doing my best to keep up. The fact that her ex- ski team friends would visit, and we would all go skiing, greatly improved my ability. They, of course, disdained the gentle slopes and dived onto the black diamond runs and ungroomed mountainsides. To avoid embarrassment, and out of vanity, I had to follow and try to keep up. When we moved back to Oregon, Jan and I agreed to alternate ski vacations (her preference) with warm water vacations (my preference). However, I had developed a secret weapon. Our kids were growing older. I would ask them, “Which would you rather do, go skiing in the cold, icy mountains, or go play on a sunny beach with warm water?” I still feel a bit guilty that we spent many more vacations on warm beaches. Because I could earn more money, and because she could spend more time as a loving and involved mother, we mostly moved where my work took us. Together, we lived in Hillsboro, Denver, Tigard, Hillsboro (again), Spokane, Salt Lake City and Coos Bay (I’m probably forgetting a place or two) before finally settling in the Applegate 25 years ago. We had checked many places for good schools, good climate, and a good living environment, and the Applegate rose to the top of our choices. We never regretted our decision. At times, Jan was able to accompany me in my work. A couple of the companies I worked for paid her travel expenses, figuring they were getting a second geologist for free. At times, she had her own work. She worked in Portland for a foundation engineering company cOnTinueD frOm pAge 1 that a confrontational that had her traveling approach to the to exotic places like controlling agencies Ne w Yo r k C i t y’s would not be nearly underground sewers as effective as an (pre-functional). In educational approach Salt Lake City, she b a c k e d by s t ro n g became the state’s community support. nuclear waste She printed and repositor y exper t. distributed pamphlets, She was assigned the and organized and held task of keeping the countless meetings repository out of Utah. in an ultimately Wherever successful attempt to we were, Jan was modify the planned always involved in logging, and helped her community, and Jan Perttu 1950 - 2012 to include community the Applegate was no exception. As our young children input and science into forest-management entered Ruch School, she volunteered as a decisions. In the course of her meetings and classroom assistant, and volunteered us for numerous school-related tasks. She joined discussions, she became aware of other groups and individuals the PTO, served for a concerned over the same time as PTO president, issues. In her meetings and accomplished with these various playground expansions factions, she became and additions. In the a key founder of the When she read of Applegate, Applegate Partnership, plans for very extensive which strived to form a clear-cutting of Bureau my name middle ground between of Land Management was “Jan’s the various interests and U.S. Forest Service and a broader forum lands in our area, husband,” that where all the diverse s h e re c o g n i ze d t h e strange guy… ideas could be heard in potentially harmful a tolerant environment. consequences. She The Applegate understood that while Watershed Council was clear-cutting may be formed as the working effective in wetter, organization associated cloudier forests to the north, with our dry, sunny conditions, thin with the Partnership. She became the soils and steep slopes, selective logging was first Applegate Watershed coordinator, more effective and much less damaging. a position she held for nine years. She She approached the agencies and got to helped raise substantial funding for a know the key decision-makers. She met wide variety of watershed projects, and at with representatives of groups on all sides one point managed the efforts of a dozen of the clear-cutting issue. She recognized employees, several of them professionals. the need for a much better dialogue One of the projects she helped start was between the various agencies and interest the Applegater newspaper—not only as a groups, including those opposed to logging means of sharing information important to and those in favor. She also recognized watershed residents but also to help build Long-time forest service hotshot (also a former forest service employee); son Ross Leslie (wife Tracie, three children) of Rogue River; daughter Tricia Deller (husband John, one child) of Jacksonville; stepson Steve Straube (wife Donna) of Upper Applegate; stepdaughter Sue Snavely (husband Cliff Snavely, Siskiyou Mountains Ranger District employee) of Applegate; stepdaughter Debbie McGuire (Medford District Bureau of Land Management employee, husband Del) of Ruch; and stepdaughter Audra Feeback (husband Mark) of Redding, California. Virginia Gibbons 541-618-2113 Public Affairs & Partnerships Staff Officer Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest Rauno Perttu 541-899-8036 jrperttu@charter.net Excerpt from Jim Labbe tribute to Jan Perttu Hugh Leslie dies The Siskiyou Mountains Ranger District and the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest are deeply saddened by the loss of former forest service employee Hugh Leslie. Hugh started his career as a hotshot (specially trained wildlands firefighter) at Star Gulch in the Applegate Valley in the mid 60s. In addition to his firefighting duties, he spent his entire career as a timber sale administrator for the Star Ranger District. Hugh was a close friend to a number of forest service employees and retirees and he will be missed by all. At the time of his death, he was picking up a radio and keys to volunteer at the historic Dutchman Lookout, something he was very excited about. Hugh is survived by his wife, Kay a feeling of community. The Partnership, largely because of the work of the Watershed Council, gained national recognition for its efforts, including visits by national political figures, and was used as a role model for many other watersheds nationally and even internationally. Jan received recognition and awards for her leadership. One she was fond of was the 1998 Salmon Enhancement Award from the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. I suspect she especially liked it because it was engraved on an interesting piece of slate, which seemed fitting for a geologist. In the Applegate, my name was “Jan’s husband,” that strange guy she allowed to follow her around. Soon after we moved to the Applegate, Jan’s mother followed, buying a farm three miles downstream of us. When Jan’s mother developed Alzheimer’s, Jan, with periodic help from her sister, and with my support, helped her mother through some difficult declining years with the disease. When her mother died, doctors reassured Jan that she had a low chance (statistically about 20 percent) of coming down with the disease. We agreed that in many ways it was worse than cancer, and she expressed her horror at the thought of contracting the illness. Eight years ago, we received the confirmation of Jan’s worst fears. I admired her strength in facing the future with humor and resolution. During the years of the disease’s progression, she remained strong and kept her sense of humor to the end. I will always love her for those qualities, which I’m unsure if I would be able to maintain if facing the same situation. She will be fondly remembered by those of us who knew her. Others, who never met her, will nevertheless see an Applegate Valley today that is different and better than it would have been without her. Jan was someone with an inherent sense of her own significance and ability to make positive change in the world. Yet she simultaneously embodied the C.S. Lewis definition of humility, a state of “not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less.” Hugh Leslie, retired firefighter and timber sales administrator for Star Ranger District. Photo courtesy of Barb Mumblo. Read the complete tribute online at www.applegater.org.