Ron Eber - Pacific Northwest Environmental History
Ronald Eber has served since 1992 – present [2022] as the Sierra Club Oregon Chapter Historian. He was one of the founding ExCom members of the Oregon Chapter in 1978, when the old Pacific Northwest Chapter divided into Oregon and Washington Chapters. Ron served as Oregon Chapter Chair and Wilderness Coordinator 1980-1985. He previously served as the Sierra Club’s National Staff Campus Coordinator, 1970-71, after the first Earth Day. He has been a Sierra Club member since 1966 and is now Life Member. Professionally, he was the Rural Lands Policy Specialist for the Oregon Department of Land Conservation Development from 1976 to 2008. He worked with state and local officials on local codes, state rules and legislation to protect farmland from urban expansion and rural development. He was honored as the Oregon Professional Planner of the Year in (2008) by the American Planning Association (APA).
Chapters in Books
“John Muir and the Pioneer Conservationists of the Pacific Northwest, (PDF) Chapter 10 in “John Muir in Historical Perspective”, edited by Sally M. Miller, Peter Lang Publisher, 1999 (183-215).
“Wealth and Beauty: John Muir and Forest Conservation,” Chapter 5 in “John Muir: Family, Friends and Adventures,” edited by Sally Miller and Daryl Morrison, University of Nee Mexico Press, (2005) (pp. 105 – 119). (Borrow this book from archive.org for 1 hour.)
The Origin of the Preservation Movement in the United States in “The Atlas of U.S. and Canadian Environmental History” edited by Char Miller, Routledge Press, 2003 (pp. 114-115). (Borrow this Atlas from archive.org for 1 hour.)
Articles & Presentations
The Long and Winding Road: Farmland Protection in Oregon 1961 – 2009, Edward Sullivan & Ronald Eber, San Joaquin Agricultural Law Journal, Volume 18, Number 1, 2008 – 2009), (pp. 1 – 69) https://www.jeffco.net/sites/default/files/fileattachments/community_development/page/5748/farmland_protection_in_oregon_1961-2009.pdf
Campaign for Rock Mesa: How Faith, Hope & Charity Saved the Three Sisters Wilderness, unpublished manuscript (March 2021 – Updated December 2021) and posted on the Forest History website: https://foresthistory.org/research-explore/us-forest-service-history/u-s-forest-service-publications/region-6-pacific-northwest/
“John Muir and Oregon,” John Muir Newsletter, Fall 1993, reprinted in “John Muir in Oregon” posted online at the Oregon Encyclopedia – A Project of the Oregon Historical Society (2019) https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/muir_john_in_oregon/#.XnfW6UBFzIU and reprinted on the Sierra Club John Muir Exhibit website: John Muir and the Pioneer Conservationists of the Pacific Northwest – presentation by Ronald Eber.
Philemon Van Trump – People Influential in John Muir’s Life – entry in Sierra Club John Muir Exhibit website – major contributor
John Muir’s Mount Hood: The Ruling Spirit of the Landscape – essay in Sierra Club Club John Muir Exhibit website, via archive.org.
Earth Day – A Year Later, Sierra Club Bulletin, March 1971, (pp.8-9).
Redwood – Here Today – Here Tomorrow – Debunking Madison Avenue, Environmental Action, November 1971, (pp.8-9)
Handbook for Ecology Action, Sierra Club Campus Program, Sierra Club, 1971, revised 1972;
The Sinai – Egypt Learns to Care for Its Historic Desert Wilderness, Patricia Scharlin & Ronald Eber, Sierra Club Bulletin, November/December 1980, (pp. 9-11) including inset Israel and the Sinai.
The Oregon Wilderness Act: Myths & Realities, Oregon Conifer, Journal of the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club, August 1984.
Cascades a Testament to Vigilance, Guest Opinion in Statesman Journal, Salem, Oregon, October 6, 1993.
Conservation Chronicles – a brief series of essays in the Oregon Conifer, Journal of the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club between 1992 and 1995:
– John Muir and Oregon,, May/June 1992
– Oregon’s Forest Reserves, September/October 1992
–What is Conservation, November/December 1992
– Senate Bill 100: An Oregon Land Ethic, January/February 1993
– John Waldo: Pioneer Conservationist of Oregon, XXXX
– Earth Day: Yesterday – Today – Tomorrow, May/June 1993
– “A Few Zealots, Harvard Professors, Sentimentalists and Impractical Dreamers” January/February 1995- The Ruling Spirit of the Landscape is John Muir’s Mt. Hood, Oregon Conifer, Journal of the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club, November/December 1999.