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Meet Our Board
Committed to Lane County's Small Woodland Owners
Kate McMichael
President
Kate is a relative newcomer to the forest sector. With only 18 months of woodland ownership under their belts, she and wife, Theresa (on the left), embarked on a crash course in post-fire restoration after their 39-acre property burned in the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire. In addition to the LCSWA Board, Kate is a member of the Oregon Tree Farm System Board, state President of Oregon Women in Timber and Treasurer of OWIT's Lane county chapter. She serves as the landowner-at-large on the ODF Committee for Family Forestlands and has recently joined the McKenzie Watershed Stewardship Group. Kate is a huge fan of OSU Extension, OFRI and the Partnership for Forestry Education.
Rick Olson
Vice President
Rick and wife, Becca, have a tree farm near Florence. In addition to growing trees, they also cultivate pollinator habitat and produce honey. Rick is a Master Woodland Manager and has worked as a mentor to new woodland owners.
Gordon Culbertson
Treasurer
Gordon began his forestry career in 1973, working as a logger. He spent 35 years managing timber, logging and forestry operations in western Oregon. For over a decade, he worked as a consultant and advisor in global timber ventures. He became a small woodland owner—and member of OSWA—in 2001. Today, he and his wife, Gail, own and manage three tree farms, totaling 155 acres, in Lane and Douglas counties. With three generations active on the tree farms, it is truly a family venture. Each property is certified by the Oregon and American Tree Farm Systems. In 2019, he and Gail were selected as Oregon Tree Farmer of the Year. In addition to the LCSWA Board, Gordon is President-Elect of OSWA, Vice Chair of Lane Families for Farms & Forest, the small woodlands representative on the Oregon Forest Resources Institute Board, as well as serving on the boards of Keep Oregon Green and the Oregon Logging Conference. He is also a Master Woodland Manager. Gordon loves to grow trees and considers it an honor to work with fellow small woodland owners.
Wylda Cafferata
Secretary
Wylda has served on the LSCWA Board since 2014. She and husband, Steve, are co-owners of Cafferata Family Forest, LLC, which sustainably manages 350 acres in Lane, Benton and Lincoln Counties. Wylda is a Master Woodland Manager, a member of WOWNet, and has been married to a professional forester for over five decades. She is past Secretary, as well as regular volunteer, for Forests Today and Forever. She and Steve are the current Co-Chairs of the Oregon Tree Farm System.
Gary Jensen
Past President
Upon graduating from Humboldt State University, Gary’s professional career in forestry was deferred by service in the Marine Corps. He served 30 plus years between active and reserve duty as an engineering officer. After returning from active duty in 1972, Gary began his industrial forestry career working for various companies in the Northwest eventually ending up with Lane Plywood Inc. where he spent over 25 years working with forest resources in Lane County. Following his industrial forestry career, Gary expanded his life experiences by teaching high school forestry at Pleasant Hill High School. During this time, he also provided forestry consulting services to landowners in the northwest. Today, he and his wife oversee the stewardship of their family tree farm in Lane County. Along the way Gary has been dedicated to the community by serving on various resource-oriented committees and boards. Currently he represents Zone 3 of the Upper Willamette Soil and Water Conservation District. He also represents the Southern Willamette Valley Small Forestland Owners on the Committee for Family Forestlands under the Oregon Board of Forestry. Through these life experiences Gary has built a strong background in the dynamics of our region’s natural resources and an understanding of the impact of public, government, and industrial activities on forest lands.
Tom Bauman
Board Member
A rock-climber, a logger, a conservationist. Tom is a small woodland owner who defies easy classification. With wife, Lindsay, Tom owns and manages Bauman Tree Farm, 673 acres outside Crow. Tom grew up on the property, part of the third generation of Baumans living and working on the land. Today, part of the tree farm is managed for timber, part is set aside for conservation values and part set up to welcome a range of visitors, from middle school through adults, who want to learn about a sustainably-managed working tree farm through a partnership with Forests Today and Forever. The tree farm is American Tree Farm certified and Tom was honored as Lane County Tree Farmer of the Year in 2010. Tom and Lindsay are frequent hosts to Extension programs, woodland tours, and ODF fire personnel training days.
Dan Kintigh
Board Member
Dan is a fairly new member of the Board, but a long-time tree farmer! He grew up on Kintigh's Mountain Home Ranch, learning by doing. Today he and his son continue to run the nursery and 170 tree farm above Cedar Flats, east of Springfield. He is an Elle pot specialist. The Kintigh Nursery provides seedlings for reforestation as well as growing Christmas trees. Dan has hosted LCSWA members for tours of both the nursery and tree farm, sharing both his passion for trees and his years of boots-on-the-ground experience.
Tim Gurton
Board Member
Tim moved to Oregon from Minnesota and started first grade at Bailey Hill Grade School in 1948. He lived on a 146 acre dairy in Crow, where he helped his father plant around 50,000 trees (primarily Douglas-fir and Sierra Redwood) between1956-1958; most have been harvested, but some are still growing on the property. In 1966, he graduated from OSU College of Forestry with a BS in Forest Management. His forest sector career has been varied: 8 years as a forester and logging manager with two large local timber industry companies; 7 years as a Management Unit Forester with the Oregon Department of Forestry in Astoria and Veneta; 8 years as an instructor and Department Chair at Umpqua Community College; 6 years teaching Forest Technology and 2 years teaching Business and Computer Technology. He owned a logging company from 1975 to 2017, which used all types of logging systems including partial cuts and regeneration harvests both ground based and cable. He was also was a pioneer in using Scandanavian “cut-to-length” harvest systems starting in 1991. His woodland owning experience is varied as well: prior owner of an 800 acre cattle and forest land ranch in British Columbia as well as 7 parcels in Lane, Columbia, and Douglas Counties totaling 97 acres. Presently, he is co-owner of 65 acres of forest land managed for fish and wildlife habitat in the Oregon Coast Range. Recently, he purchased a 5 acre parcel on the Willamette Valley floor which is part of an 1874 Homestead and presently in the 5th successional stage with Douglas-fir ranging from 80 to 159 years of age. This property is managed for the eventual 6th stage of Old-Growth as well as wildlife habitat. Lastly, Tim has worked for 11 years as an Oregon Licensed Real Estate Broker specializing in forest land and buildable rural properties and is Principal Broker and owner of TreeWishes Company.
Lauren Grand
OSU Lane County Extension Forester
Lauren has served as the OSU Extension representative to the LCSWA Board since 2016. She is the Lane County Extension forestry agent, with experience in fire research and amphibian conservation. In addition to teaching forestry education classes, hosting events, and helping lead tree farm tours, Lauren is also a regular host of the In the Woods podcast, serves on the Oregon Community Trees Board, and is secretary to the Oregon Tree Farm System Board. Although she doesn't own a woodland now, she hopes to one day. In the meantime, she loves teaching about forestry and finding amphibians!
Dan Menck
ODF Stewardship Forester
Dan is a Stewardship Forester based in the South Cascades District office in Springfield. He is a knowlegable and empathetic advocate for small woodland owners seeking to navigate the highs and the lows of woodland management, as well as providing a connecting link to Oregon forest regulations and best practices.
Dick Beers
Emeritus | stepped down Feb 2023 Gone but not Forgotten!
Dick has served on the LCSWA Board since the early 1990s. With two years of forestry study under his belt, Dick has spent much of his life crunching numbers: logs, timber, taxes. He graduated from the second Master Woodland Manager class offered in Lane County in the mid-1980s. He still shares ownership and active management of R&R Beers Tree Farm, a hundred-plus acres in the upper Indian Creek drainage that had been his great uncle's property, originally homesteaded in 1895. In 1998, he and his brother, Robert, were named Lane County Tree Farmers of the Year. Over the years, they have thinned and replanted around 20,000 seedlings. Dick has served as treasurer for many organizations, including the Oregon Tree Farm System. He has also served on the Siuslaw Watershed Council and the Cal Young Neighborhood Committee.
Chuck Volz
stepped down February 2024 thank you, Chuck, for your years of service!
Chuck graduated for OSU in 1966 with a degree in forest engineering. He spent the next 40 years of his forestry career working for Weyerhaeuser. When he retired, in 2006, he joined the LCSWA Board and hasn’t looked back! He and his wife purchased their 65-acre tree farm on Upper Camp Creek Road in 1992. When they purchased the property there were no drivable roads. Since then, in addition to improving access, they have worked at regenerating patches of understocked areas and eradicating invasive species.