Jane Claire Dirks-Edmunds
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Jane Claire Dirks-Edmunds (Born June 9, 1912 in Arkansas) was an American ecologist, biologist and author of Not Just Trees. Notable for her study of the Sattleback Mountain research site from 1938-19__
Early Life
Dirks was born in the Ozarks of Arkansas in 1912, the youngest of ten children. In the prologue of her book Not Just Trees: The Legacy of a Douglas-fir Forest, she notes an early love of the Northwest’s forests; this admiration carried her through her academic years.. Dr. Dirks-Edmunds attended Linfield College from 1932-1937, where she received her B.S. in Biology. After graduating from Linfield, Dirks-Edmunds immediately left for the University of Illinois, where she was a graduate teaching assistant in Zoology. In 1941, she earned her PhD. Her thesis, “A Comparison of Biotic Communities of the Cedar-Hemlock and Oak-Hickory Associations.”
Professional Career
After earning her PhD., Dr. Dirks-Edmunds returned to Linfield College as an instructor of Biology and assistant to the registrar; she was the first female PhD hired by the institution. In 1944, she took a brief leave of absence from Linfield and spent three semesters at Whitworth College, serving as the head of the Biology department. She returned to Linfield in 1946 and taught a diverse course load until her retirement in 1974.
Saddleback
This mountain in Oregon state, Lincoln County (commonly confused with the Saddle Mountain of Astoria.[1]
Authorship
Following the death of her husband in 1983, Dirks-Edmunds revisited her Saddleback Mountain research and began to write Not Just Trees. She visited her old research site on the mountain for the first time in ten years and found her forest entirely clear cut, her life’s project ruined. Not Just Trees was published in 1999 and is an important text for the Northwest because it allows a glimpse into an ecological community of Saddleback that was forever destroyed. Dr. Dirks-Edmunds passed away in 2003.
References
- "Not Just Trees"