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Remembering a Pioneer ~ W. Jane Westenberger
Museum Director 1995-2011

W. Jane Westenberger, a pioneer of environmental education, served as a Director of the National Museum of Forest Service History (Museum) for 16 years.  Jane joined the Board of Directors in 1995 at a meeting hosted by the Museum as part of the Forest Service Retirees Reunion held in Portland, Oregon.

A resident of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Jane served as a tireless leader of the Museum working with members of the Board, Regional Directors and Representatives, Forest Service retirees, volunteers, friends and her colleagues in environmental education. Jane served as a leader of the Museum’s Education Committee where her understanding and passion for conservation education helped to guide the Museum’s plans for the development of the National Conservation Legacy and Education Center (Center). 

As the Board’s voice for conservation education, she advocated for the development of a landscape plan at the Center’s 36-acre campus to incorporate trail and water features so that visiting students would have direct access to the outdoors for experiential learning.  These features are now incorporated into the site plan. They will complement the Center’s interactive exhibits and will bring to life the classroom lessons offered to students inside the Center.

She highly valued the Museum’s partnership with the U. S. Forest Service and held a vision, like a torch, that when the Center was completed the Museum’s education programs would serve as a resource for Forest Service educators and interpreters as they connect teachers and students to the conservation legacy of our nation’s forests and grasslands.

Jane brought this same insight to the concept planning of the Museum’s virtual museum and on-line educational and interpretive programs. She was a champion for instituting the Museum’s web site as a significant channel for conservation education. With her considerable nonprofit board and leadership experience, she worked consistently to support the development of the Museum as a nonprofit institution, advancing the membership program and keenly supporting the development of the Museum’s Business and Capital Campaign Plan for the Center. 

“Jane’s vision and many years of volunteer service helped guide the Museum as the plan for the National Conservation Legacy and Education Center progressed,” said Gray Reynolds, president.  “Her leadership in conservation education took root during her career with the Forest Service and following her retirement, it branched out to elevate the work of many nonprofit organizations.  As we mourn Jane’s passing, we renew the Museum’s commitment to the build the Center and further distinguish the Museum as a vital institution in conservation education.”

Jane was a recipient of the Howard Bell Award for Continuing Contributions to Outdoor Education and the John Aston Warder Forestry Award for her pioneering work to develop new environmental education teaching materials for schools and conservation organizations, and organizing and administering a teaching-team approach for the Forest Service to use with educators stressing conservation and resource management. Jane served as a Visiting Lecturer, Yale Graduate School of Forestry as part of the Champion International Lectureship Series.  She served as President and member of the Board of Directors of Smokey Bear Balloon, Inc., the California Association for Outdoor Education and the National Conservation Education Association.

She also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Forestry Association (now American Forests) and member of the New Mexico State Forester Urban Forest Advisory Council.  She recently assisted in production of a handbook on urban forestry for officials, citizens and teachers in New Mexico.  Jane’s passion for preservation was expressed in her service as a member and volunteer of the National New Deal Preservation Association.  Their activities include finding, restoring and conserving a substantial quantity of paintings and other art produced by the WPA program during the Depression.  Special attention is also given to the many buildings and other facilities constructed in National Forests and Parks by the CCC during that time. Jane also served as a Vice President of the Amigos, the Southwest Forest Service Retirees Association.

Jane was born April 2, 1921 in Buhl, Idaho and grew up to graduate high school in 1937 in Long Beach, CA. She enlisted in the Women's Army Corp. in 1942, which included postings to North Africa and Italy toward the end of the war.

Jane earned a Bachelor’s Degree with Honors with a Major in Social Studies and a Minor in Biological Science Minor, Long Beach State College (now California State University, Long Beach).  In 1956 she was the first candidate to complete a Master’s Degree Thesis in Geography from Long Beach State College and earned a Master’s Degree with Great Distinction in Cultural Geography with emphasis on man’s relationship to and uses of the land. Jane held life credentials in elementary and secondary teaching and school administration.

Jane initially taught high school for one year and then transferred to a new Southern California public school conservation education project.  The program involved taking students, primarily 6th graders, to a residential facility in the mountains for a week.  It was believed that the learning experience this provided would add a major dimension to the student’s understanding of the natural world and the environments we live in.

After one year on the teaching staff, Jane was assigned to the position of principal of the Idyllwild Outdoor School in the San Jacinto mountains, serving five Southern California school districts.  Since the program was new, there were no curriculum requirements or materials yet in existence.  Jane oversaw the development of these and established the teaching philosophy suitable to the special circumstance.

There were four principal guidelines:

1. Teaching activities would emphasize hands-on direct experiences for students that helped their observational and concept development skills as well as acquiring new knowledge about the environment, not lecture or “book” approaches.

2. The inter-relatedness and inter-dependence of elements in the environment, including man, would be emphasized, utilizing the forest environment in which the schools existe

3. Activities would also build on what knowledge students had acquired from their classroom experiences especially in the science areas.

4. Special attention would be paid to helping students understand the Outdoor School experience was not an isolated unconnected event but was relevant to their everyday life.

Jane worked with State Senator Fred Farr to provide stronger legislation and funding for these programs, and served on the California State Superintendent of Schools Environmental Education Advisory Committee.

In 1964, Jane conducted a statewide evaluation of Forest Service educational materials, especially of those designed for children, under a grant from the Pacific Southwest Forest Service Regional office.  The study, plus a growing sense that the Forest Service was not communicating with the public effectively, led to the establishment of a conservation education position.

Jane joined the Pacific Southwest (California) Region of the Forest Service as a Conservation Education Specialist from 1967 to1971.  She was responsible for designing and implementing a conservation education program with the goal of teaching Forest Service personnel, particularly in field units, to work more effectively with teachers and children.  Teaching approaches and materials used in the Outdoor School program were adapted and refined for this purpose.  She cooperated with personnel in the Pacific Northwest Region with a similar project to expand the program.

Other cooperative activities included organizing an inter-agency conservation education council.  Representatives of resource management agencies, both Federal and State, worked to promote a better public understanding of forests, range lands, parks and other natural resources.

In 1971, Jane was transferred to the National Forest Service Headquarters in Washington D.C., where she was chief of the Environmental Education Branch with the responsibility of further refining the program and implementing it nationally.  The same non-lecture, direct experience techniques that had been successful elsewhere continued to be a core element.

Teams with members chosen from each Region were given special training to conduct conservation education workshops with Forest Service personnel.  At one point four teams were working at the same time, and sessions were held in every Region.  Special teaching plans and related materials were published to help Forest Service personnel utilize their training and which could be passed on to the teachers.  During this period the Forest Service was cited by the U.S. Office of Education as having one of the two best conservation education programs in the country.

In 1974, Jane returned to the Pacific Southwest Region as Regional Director of Public Affairs.  Promoting conservation education was part of the Division responsibilities. Jane retired in 1988 as director of the Forest Service's Office of Information, Pacific Southwest Region.

The National Museum of Forest Service History Board of Directors is creating a memorial fund in Jane’s honor. Gifts made in memory of Jane will support the development of conservation education programming at the National Conservation Legacy and Education Center.

Conservation Education In Jane's Words: Read Jane's speech "How Many of You Drive Whales?" presented at the 1970 North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Washington, DC.