Transitions.

Honoring: James Gibson, a logger with the Huntsville, Texas-based Steely Lumber Company, with STIHL's National Forestry Heroism Award. Gibson spent 12 hours carefully dismantling and removing logs from last November's tragic bonfire collapse at Texas A&M University as officials searched for survivors.

Jeff Kirwan, Extension specialist, and John Seiler, forestry professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute's College of Natural Resources, with the Association of Natural Resource Professionals' Sliver Award for "outstanding Extension natural resources educational material." They launched a "forestry outreach" website at www.fw.vt.edu/dendro, which teaches middle-school students how to identify and measure trees at their schools.

Ellis B. Cowling, North Carolina State University forestry biologist, with the Society of American Foresters' Barrington Moore Memorial Award. Cowling is honored for his research into the impacts of airborne pollutants on plants, water, and wildlife. A prolific author, Cowling also serves as director of the Southern Oxidants Study, a group of more than 250 scientists, universities, and organizations studying ozone and particulate matter pollution and their effects on forests and ecosystems in the Southeast.

Moving up: Kristiina A. Vagt, professor at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, to dean of the University of Washington's College of Forest Resources. Vogt is co-chair of the Yale Forest Forum, a group that seeks to improve how Americans create forest policy, and will be the country's first woman to hold a forestry dean position, according to the National Association of Professional Forestry Schools and Colleges.

Don Barry, assistant secretary of Interior for fish and wildlife and parks, to executive vice president of The Wilderness Society. A 26-year veteran of federal environmental agencies, Barry has served as an attorney for the Interior Department and chief counsel for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Moving on: John Mumma, director of Colorado Division of Wildlife, to retirement. A former Forest Service manager in Montana, Mumma sought to reduce logging in national forests and to reintroduce wolf and lynx.

Mourning: Nature Conservancy president and former deputy energy secretary John C. Sawhill, 63, of diabetes. An economist, administrator, college president, and business consultant, Sawhill protected more than 7 million acres of land during his tenure at TNC.

World War II veteran and Reverend George E. Dainty, 75, of Chamblee, Georgia, from hydrocephalus. A graduate of Michigan State University, Dainty worked in forestry for 25 years and emphasized the importance of planting trees to replace those removed for paper products.

National Arboretum Research Geneticist Dr. Frank Santamour, a highly respected tree geneticist and friend of AMERICAN FORESTS. in the late 1980s Dr. Santamour provided technical expertise to pollinate and grow seed from a tulip poplar planted by George Washington, whose offspring became part of our Historic Trees collection. Frank was a friend and an excellent tree geneticist.