Forester commits $2 million for faculty chair in silviculture research

University Park, Pa.--Penn State alumnus and pioneer forester Joseph E. Ibberson has committed $2 million to endow a new faculty chair in the School of Forest Resources, part of the College of Agricultural Sciences.

Ibberson, of Harrisburg, is a 1947 Penn State graduate in forestry and retired chief of the division of forest advisory services of Pennsylvania's Department of Forests and Waters (now the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources).

The gift, part of the donor's estate plans, will create the Joseph E. Ibberson Chair in Silviculture Research for Pennsylvania. The chair will focus on the challenges of forest management under changing conditions and the evolving needs of society. The chair holder's research program will aim to improve the silviculture within the state's forests to produce the highest quality and quantity of products and services. Silviculture organizes the treatment of forests toward their establishment, composition, growth and harvest. Forest products and services include timber, wildlife, aesthetics, watershed protection, recreation and fisheries.

"I consider this chair an investment that will help protect and improve our state's forest resources," said Ibberson. "But I also hope to inspire others to be philanthropic in areas that are of the most interest to them."

The University invests endowed gifts and uses a portion of the annual income for purposes designated by the donor. The remaining income is added to the principal to protect it from inflation and ensure its growth. Income from faculty endowments are directed to such purposes as research-related expenses, graduate assistantships, support services, travel expenses and salary supplements.

This chair joins two others in the School of Forest Resources to which Ibberson has committed support: the Joseph E. Ibberson Chair in Forest Resources Management, currently held by Professor of Forestry Harry V. Wiant Jr., and the Joseph E. Ibberson Chair in Urban and Community Forestry.

"We're overwhelmed by Joe's generosity to the School of Forest Resources," said College of Agricultural Sciences Dean Robert D. Steele, "and we applaud his foresight in creating this new chair to address critical forestry issues in Pennsylvania and nationwide. We hope our students will follow in his footsteps-through his thoughts, words and deeds, Joe Ibberson personifies the highest ideals of the forestry profession."

In 1948, Ibberson was recruited by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry to develop the first forest management plans for two million acres of state forest land. He also initiated several innovative programs that targeted forest inventory, pest control, tree improvement, nursery development, and service to private forest landowners. In 1962, he began buying his own land to create a tree farm on which he practiced various forms of forest management, eventually accumulating more than 2,000 acres. In 1999, Ibberson gave 350 acres of this land, located in Dauphin County, to the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. It became the Joseph E. Ibberson Conservation Area, the first of its kind in the state.

Ibberson received the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the School of Forest Resources in 2003, and in 2007 he was inducted into the Henry P. Armsby Honor Society, named in recognition of the College of Agricultural Science's first dean, for his commitments to the college.

Ibberson has received numerous conservation awards, including the 2001 Conservation Landowner of the Year award from the Pennsylvania Wildlife Federation and Audubon Pennsylvania, which was presented to him by then-Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge. In 1999 he received the American Forest Foundation's Outstanding Management of Resources award for all the northeastern states.