For more than three decades, the National Museum of Forest Service History has collected and preserved roughly 55,000 artifacts related to the U.S. Forest Service.
They range from photographs to historical documents to objects like broad axes, compasses, and forest guard badges.
Executive Director Lisa Tate says they work with museums all over the country to do curated displays and exhibitions.
“Just like every kind of history, if you don't preserve it and save it and have it available to learn from, the chances of forgetting it are so much greater or possibly distorting it by misremembering maybe what actually happened,” said Tate. “By preserving all of these documents, photographs, objects, we can really show people, through history, the progression of conservation in the United States.”
The National Conservation Legacy Center
Right now, the non-profit is building a state-of-art museum called the National Conservation Legacy Center near its current visitor center in Missoula, Montana.
Tate says the mission of the museum is to share with the public the history of conservation and public lands in the United States.
It builds off of the first Chief of the US Forest Service Gifford Pinchot’s motto: “The greatest good for the greatest number in the long run.”
“Conservation means that the resources on those lands are used, again, ‘for the greatest good for the greatest number of people in the long run,’ meaning they should be self-sustaining,” said Tate. “We never want to deplete them in their entirety. We want to save them for future generations. Things like our forests are all resources that regrow, regenerate, need management, and that is what the legacy of our public lands is all about.”
It’s not just the exhibits that will show that history and what conserving public lands can do.
The building itself is an example of the wood products that can come from healthily managed forests.
The National Museum hired an architect who’s a leader in mass timber architecture.
“Mass timber encompasses a number of different kinds of building products that not only contribute to forest health, but they also contribute to sustainable building practices and green building practices,” said Tate.
The wood for the support columns, which will mimic trees in their design, is being pulled in from all parts of the country—including an American Chestnut from Wisconsin.
“It really is an exhibit in and of itself. Not only the building, but all of the components in the building have their own special story to tell,” said Tate.
One of those stories has its heart in the Northwoods.
The Round Desk
Harv Skjerven screws a plywood sheet to what will be one of the fronts of a circular desk while Bob Paul helps hold it in place.
When finished, the desk will be 34 inches tall and almost a full circle around with enough space for someone to walk into the center, the main two requirements Skjerven was told when he got asked to build the admissions desk for the Legacy Center.
“A friend of mine is on the board out there in Montana. We go back to forestry school and colleges. We've been around together for 50 years,” said Skjerven. “He contacted me, asked me, about a year and a half ago, at Thanksgiving, if I'd be interested in building this.”
At first, Skjerven wasn’t sure about it.
Woodworking had long been a hobby, but lately he’d taken up woodturning and creating wooden bowls.
“I hem and hawed. My wife challenged me to do it, so I took it on,” he said.
Right now, three of the four sections are put together and all still need finishing work.
Skjerven, with the help of friends like Paul, has been working on desk in his woodshop in his garage in Minocqua.
“It's been a fun challenge to figure out. And Bob and I, we scratch our heads sometimes and go, ‘Well, what do we do here?’ Each one has a little bit different construction on the inside, maybe a little bit,” said Skjerven. “But we all know in the end what it's got to be.”
Skjerven is working to incorporate as much of Wisconsin’s wood products as he can.
The black cherry tops are from Kretz Lumber in Antigo. He learned how to shape the curves just right from a sawmill in Fifield.
The plywood was sources from Capital Lumber in Madison.
Once the desk is built, Minocqua Wood Products will be putting on the finish.
“I can't wait to see it finished. I mean, the biggest hurdle I wanted to get to was I wanted to see different stages along the way,” said Skjerven. “I want to see one of them built, and then I want to see them on the ground matching up to see how, because it's hard when you're only dealing with one at a time, just see how they're going to fit together. This has been kind of exciting to get them to this point.”
The cost of supplies is being covered by two donors, Skjerven and his friends are donating their time.
Lifelong Service
This project has been a labor of love for Skjerven who retired eight years ago after a 42-year-long career with the U.S. Forest Service. He worked first as a forester out west, and then later as a district ranger within the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.
“It was a great bunch of people to work with. Always has been, still is. Got to work in some great places,” said Skjerven. “We lived in Montana and Idaho and Utah and Washington in my career. We got to see a lot of the country. My boys grew up moving around and got to see the outdoors from a small-town perspective.”
And with his own history with the U.S. Forest Service, what started out as a favor for a friend has become so much more.
“I realized it was a good thing. I can donate back to a good outfit, and I don't know, I'm proud of it,” said Skjerven.
Skjerven will be driving the desk out to Missoula in July, just in time for the National Conservation Legacy Center’s grand opening July 16th and 17th.
You can learn more about the Legacy Center on the National Museum of Forest Service History website.
