I appreciate a good story and this one has two themes — Place and Stewardship.

These two topics are ones that many in the PNW should understand well, since as a community many of us have a heightened sense of place and I think for many it is not too much of a leap to assume that you are interested in being a good steward.

My story about place begins in Central Oregon, at Odell Butte.  On a beautiful summer day in 2013 our family traveled to the top of Odell Butte to visit the fire tower lookout.  The view is an expansive one, but also one that – for my family —reaches back in time.

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This picture, taken 50 years earlier is of my Grandfather, John Toomey, on his way to Odell Butte fire tower lookout. The view is surprisingly similar to 2013.

My grandfather’s journey to Odell Butte began during the Great Depression, when he left Hattiesburg, Mississippi along with Frank Gilchrist to work in a new lumber mill in what would eventually become Gilchrist, Oregon.

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In the same year, this picture of my father, also John Toomey, was taken during a visit to Crater Lake.  My father also has a connection to Odell Butte.  For two summers during his high school years, before there was a road to the top, he would backpack into the Odell Butte fire tower, carrying his water and food, and firespot for the summer.

He also recently admitted that he used to sneak down to Chelmut to drink a couple of beers with another firespotter and high school friend.

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That same summer, my Mother took this picture of me standing on the dock at the Gilchrist Log Pond.  From our home in Pennsylvania, we made several trips west when I was young, and from those trips I brought back 3 things.  The first two were an Oregon belt buckle and a good sturdy pair of cowboy boots.  Those boots were the disquiet of my third-grade teacher, because I was particularly proud of the sound they made on wooden floors.  Lastly, the third thing I took home was a sense of place — and that place was Oregon.

To be a Professor at the University of Oregon is an interesting twist of fate.  To be devoting part of my scientific research program to reducing the threats of wildfire in not only Oregon, but throughout the west, is less about fate and more about a personal mission devoted to place

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This is the fourth generation of Toomey’s to call Oregon home.  And the last part of this story is about stewardship.

One morning over breakfast in 2016, I commented to my oldest daughter that I felt like I needed to do more with my life, to make a more direct contribution to society.  I went so far as to suggest I volunteer at Food for Lane County and pack bags.  Not missing a beat, she labelled that a ridiculous idea. Wasn’t there something I could do that was better suited to the skills I had mastered?

Ebba’s direct challenge had an impact on me.  She challenged me, as a professor, a scientist, and a citizen — and yes, as a father — to use my skills to make Oregon better, in effect, to strive to be one of its stewards.  A good portion of my current professional career is a full-throated response to that challenge.

Lastly, I can tell you two things about my children that I think are common to many UO undergrads and the next generation of leaders.  They love the place they are — Oregon — and they too want to contribute to its stewardship.

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The more distant you are from it, the more the implications of what you grew up with start to emerge.  You can’t escape, that’s the whole thing, you can’t.  You finally find yourself in a situation where … that’s the way it is — you can’t get out of it.  But there’s always that impulse toward another kind of world. — Sam Shepard, Introduction to Fool for Love and Other Plays.