Acorns, cones, and wood from various trees fill Lecturer Justin Waskiewicz’s office. Dried leaves adorn the walls. During the four years that Justin taught in the University of Vermont (UVM) Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, he instructed many of the courses in the Forestry program.

Displayed on his window sill, a row of student thank you notes – one written on birch bark – is testament to his tireless dedication for teaching and his influence on hundreds of Rubenstein School students.

“I like having the leeway to be creative – to think about the facts I know and come up with instructional material and multiple ways of getting students who don’t yet know the material to learn it,” said Justin. He was inspired by the knowledge and dedication of individuals whose careers involved both forest stewardship and teaching at a Society of American Foresters’ (SAF) silviculture instructors’ field tour in the Adirondack Mountains in 2003.

“My favorite course to teach is Dendrology, taken by 70 to 80 students a year in both Forestry and other majors,” said Justin, who, in his youth, learned to identify trees from his father, a forester with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry. “I think students respond to my honest enthusiasm for the subject.”

“Justin’s infectious passion for forestry and dendrology inspired us to be better students and better foresters, said Diana Gurvich, a senior Forestry major, “and we will all miss him very much.”

This summer, Justin leaves the University of Vermont. He will take his talents for teaching to Paul Smith’s College in the Adirondacks of northern New York state.

With forest stewardship a fundamental part of his life while growing up, Justin went on to earn both his B.S. and M.S. degrees in forestry at Northern Arizona University and his Ph.D. in forest resources at the University of Maine. For his doctoral research, he studied silviculture, in particular the influence of competition among neighboring trees on growth of northern red oak – eastern white pine forests.

He also began his teaching career. As a National Science Foundation Graduate Teaching Fellow, he was a teaching assistant in UMaine’s forestry courses and taught general science topics in local elementary and high schools. Later, he taught forestry courses at UMaine, Beal College, and the College of the Atlantic.

Justin arrived at the Rubenstein School in 2013, just prior to the start of the fall semester. He immediately jumped in to teach the silviculture course that fall. For the next four years, his portfolio of courses included Dendrology, Natural Resource Ecology and Assessment 1 and 2, Management of Forested Woodlots, forest ecology, forestry summer camp, and a core course for all Rubenstein School undergraduates, NR 103 Ecology, Ecosystems and Environment. His courses frequently got students out into Vermont’s forest ecosystems.

“I like being outside engaging with students in hands-on learning activities in small groups or one-on-one in my office,” said Justin, who makes a point of keeping his office door open. “I believe in being accessible to students and they appreciate that. I spend time learning student faces and names, but that can be hard with ninety students in a lecture hall. The ones in the back are always hard to see!”

Justin served as a faculty advisor to both the UVM Student Chapter of SAF (Forestry Club), with Associate Professor Tony D’Amato, and the UVM Woodsmen Team. He was instrumental, along with Tony, in helping the UVM Forestry student team prepare for and win the SAF Student Quiz Bowl Tournament at annual New England SAF meetings in both 2015 and 2017.

“As advisor for the Forestry Club, Justin constantly went above and beyond to ensure the success of the club,” said Diana, who serves as co-president of the student SAF chapter. “He spent weekends at Jericho Research Forest with us, doing everything from sharpening the club's chainsaw skills to reviewing stand sampling methods, and his door was always open to lend an ear to those that needed it.”

Justin assisted Professor Bill Keeton to write the materials needed for the Rubenstein School Forestry program application for Society of American Forester accreditation. With candidacy status, the School looks forward to learning if the program receives full accreditation during the SAF national meeting held in Albuquerque, New Mexico in November 2017.

As part of a McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry Research-funded project in the School, Justin worked with other faculty members to revitalize the School’s forest properties for research and teaching. Justin brought many of his own field classes to Jericho Research Forest, as well as to the School’s Talcott and Washington Forests.

This summer, Justin taught his final forestry field camp session at Jericho Research Forest and other properties. He heads to Paul Smith’s College in the Adirondack Mountain region where he first found his passion for pairing forest stewardship and teaching. As an assistant professor, he will teach many of the same courses he taught in the Rubenstein School and advise the student SAF chapter.

“I will miss the incredible and enthusiastic students in the Rubenstein School and have mixed feelings about leaving,” said Justin, who, at the same time, looks forward to the smaller scale of Paul Smith’s and its surrounding community, as well as the hands-on courses that include chainsaw training and forest operations.

He and his wife Marlyse will live near Saranac Lake, where Justin can bike to work and Marlyse, a pastry chef, now works at a cafe.