Leon Liegel

Leon Liegel is Courtesy Faculty in the Department of Forest Ecosystems & Society, College of Forestry, Oregon State University, where he teaches and conducts research focused on soil science, tropical forestry, and sustainable natural-resource management. Off-campus by appointment, he remains actively engaged through distance education and collaborative research networks.

Education

• B.S. Forestry, University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, 1970
• M.S. World Forestry, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, 1973
• Ph.D. Forestry/Soil Science Co-Majors, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, 1981

Research & Teaching Interests

Liegel’s scholarship integrates the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum with social-science dimensions of natural-resource policy. His work spans:

• Soil–site relationships for fast-growing exotic and native tropical tree species
• Forest-health monitoring and disturbance ecology
• Non-timber forest products (especially mushrooms) and their socioeconomic valuation
• Interdisciplinary methods merging biological, sociocultural, and managerial sciences
• Design of effective scientific posters for diverse audiences

These themes are delivered to graduate students worldwide through OSU Ecampus, emphasizing sustainable resource management across temperate and tropical ecosystems.

Publication Patterns

Across more than four decades, Liegel’s publications reveal sustained emphasis on forest productivity, soil-site interactions, and socio-ecological dimensions of forest use. Early work quantified growth of Caribbean pines in Puerto Rican trials and hurricane impacts, while later studies expanded into non-timber forest products, integrative monitoring protocols, and science-communication tools. The corpus reflects increasing interdisciplinarity, moving from silvicultural experiments to coupled human–natural-system analyses.

Awards & Honors

No specific awards, fellowships, or medals are listed in the provided materials.

Teaching, Grants & Student Mentoring

Liegel co-developed and teaches the graduate online course SOIL 511 Soil: A Natural and Societal Resource (offered Winters 2019–2020, Summer 2021) and previously co-taught SNR 533 Nontimber Forest Products within the Sustainable Natural Resources Graduate Certificate Program (2007–2016). While no individual graduate advisees are named, his courses reach a global audience of natural-resource professionals.

Laboratories & Collaborative Networks

Though physically off-campus, Liegel collaborates closely with faculty in OSU’s Crop and Soil Science Department and with colleagues at North Carolina State University’s Crop and Soil Sciences Department. Joint course development and long-term research projects in Puerto Rico, California, and the Pacific Northwest constitute his distributed scholarly network.