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.
