Sense of Place: After Pinchot with Rand Schenck

HOOD RIVER — The third installment of Mt. Adams Institute’s Sense of Place Season 16 will arrive at Columbia Center for the Arts on Dec. 10. Titled “After Gifford Pinchot: Ancient Forests, Timber Wars, and a Century of Change,” the evening will welcome writer Rand Schenck for a deep dive into the past century of Pacific Northwest forest management.

Sense of Place is a comprehensive series of lectures intended to deepen our understanding of the Columbia River Gorge and strengthen our connection to the landscape. Featured voices often include scientists, tribal members, authors, farmers and other diverse individuals across the Pacific Northwest.

As a boy, Schenck hiked and backpacked in the same mountains and woods where Gifford Pinchot first worked as a forester and developed a love of the outdoors. He holds a BA in History from the University of Colorado, as well as an MA in Recreation Administration and a Master’s of Social Work from the University of North Carolina. Schenck served in various leadership roles with the Sierra Club for 15 years and has owned a small 1920s cabin surrounded by a “backyard” of 1.3 million acres of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest for 25 years.

His lecture will explore how the ideals of Pinchot, the founding chief of the U.S. Forest Service, were shaped and often misunderstood. Pinchot first visited the Cascades in the 1890s and was awed by the immense old-growth forests. He saw them as a “social good” meant to be stewarded for future generations. Once blanketing nearly 70% of the area, less than 5% of these ancient ecosystems remain today.

Through Schenck’s stories, the audience will travel from the early days of stewardship to the height of the Timber Wars and into today’s efforts to restore old growth in the Pacific Northwest. The presentation will probe how society’s shifting values have reshaped forests and explore what the future may hold.

“Rand brings both historical knowledge and personal connection to these forests, inviting us to consider what it means to care for the land across generations,” said Sarah Fox, host of Sense of Place.

You can catch Schenck’s lecture from 7-8:30 p.m. at 215 Cascade Ave. in downtown Hood River. For more information and tickets, visit senseofplace.org.