Jack Walker 2023 Surveyor of the Year Wrapping Up the 2024 Conference... pg 6 2023 Award Winners Recognized...pg 12 The Oregon January/February 2024 A publication of the Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon
Editorials From the PLSO Chair, by Scott Freshwaters, PLS Chair of the Board 2 From the PLSO Office, by Aimee McAuliffe, PLSO Executive Secretary 4 Featured Articles Wrapping Up the 2024 Conference, by Jered McGrath, PLSO Conference Committee Chair 6 2023 Award Winners Recognized, by Dan Nelson, Award Committee Chair and PLSO Chair-Elect, Branch Engineering 12 Surveyor of the Year, by Vanessa Salvia 16 Columns Surveyors in the News, by Pat Gaylord, PLS 22 On the Cover 2023 Surveyor of the Year Jack Walker on a personal backpacking trip in the Belvidere Creek drainage in Idaho. The Oregon Surveyor is a publication of the Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon (PLSO). It is provided as a medium for the expression of individual opinions concerning topics relating to the Land Surveying profession. Address changes & business All notifications for changes of address, membership inquiries, and PLSO business correspondence should be directed to Aimee McAuliffe, PO Box 230548, Tigard, OR 97281; 503-303-1472; execdirector@plso.org. Editorial matters & contributions of material The Oregon Surveyor welcomes your articles, comments, and photos for publication. PLSO assumes no responsibility for statements expressed in this publication. Editorial matters should be directed to Vanessa Salvia, vsalvia@gmail.com. Advertising policy Advertising content and materials are subject to approval of the PLSO Board and LLM Publications. The publisher reserves the right to reject any advertising that simulates copy; material must be clearly marked as “Advertisement.” For advertising, contact: Ronnie Jacko, ronnie@llmpubs.com; 503-445-2234 A publication of the Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon Executive Secretary Aimee McAuliffe PO Box 230548 Tigard, OR 97281 503-303-1472 Toll-free: 844-284-5496 execdirector@plso.org www.plso.org Published by LLM Publications 503-445-2220 www.llmpubs.com Advertising Ronnie Jacko, ronnie@llmpubs.com Design Hope Sudol © 2024 LLM Publications Editor Vanessa Salvia Publications Committee Tim Kent, Interim Chair Pat Gaylord Contents Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon @ORLandSurveyors The Oregon Vol. 47, No. 1 January/February 2024
2 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 47, No. 1 From the PLSO Chair MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR Scott Freshwaters, PLS Chair of the Board Back in September I witnessed the start of my 69th orbit around the sun. As I look back upon all those years, I am grateful to those who encouraged me and helped me become a Professional Land Surveyor. I didn’t have any family who were land surveyors. My dad was a civil engineer who had also studied mining engineering at the University of Arizona School of Mining. His dad was an electrical engineer who reportedly knew Thomas A. Edison. My granddad also had a cousin who was a mechanical engineer. An event that may have been a portent of my land surveying career happened while we lived on the grounds of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Boise, Idaho. It was during “show and tell” when I must have been in the third or fourth grade. My dad had either suggested I take the transit that he used or I had asked if I could take it. It was in a wooden box with a leather strap handle, and as I recall I said something like “This is called a transit and my dad uses it for engineering.” Also while in Boise, I developed an interest in electricity and electronics and had a small crystal AM radio in the shape of John Glenn’s space capsule that had a screw to tune it while you listened through an earpiece. I would listen to Wolfman Jack and other AM stations at night. To leave room in this article for the Strategic Plan, I’ll spare you the details of my personal history between Boise and Bend and go right to Central Oregon Community College where I graduated with an AS degree in electronics technology in June 1976. Dee Anna and I were married in January 1976, and soon after my graduation we moved to Sunnyvale, California, where I worked in the microwave communications industry. We lived in a large apartment complex to the south of Moffett Field Naval Air Station. After living there for nine months, we decided this wasn’t the place for us so we moved back to Bend. While looking for a career I was able to get a temporary job with the Deschutes National Forest working with maps and aerial photographs and really enjoyed it. While perusing the Bend Bulletin newspaper one day, a help wanted ad caught my attention—they were advertising an Engineering Assistant I position with Deschutes County Road Department. I applied, and a few days after the interview with Charlie Plummer, I learned that I was hired. I started on Monday, March 13, 1978, with $677 per month wages. The county was very good about sending employees to seminars, classes, etc. Bill Kauffman even took Roy Easter and myself to an OACES conference at the Inn of the Seventh Mountain. Oh, I almost forgot one very important item—the reason I joined PLSO. Dave Hoerning, who was both a PE and PLS and This plan, entitled Strategic Planning Meeting Report, is available on the PLSO website in the Members area listed under Strategic Planning Meeting. I encourage all of you to read it. Let’s talk about some of the accomplishments made during the last five years since the report was adopted.
3 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org From the PLSO Chair Deschutes County Surveyor from 1980 through 1988, said something to me when he learned that I had passed the LSIT exam. He said, “It’s time for you to become a PLSO member,” and handed me the application form. As they say, the rest is history. Now, I would be remiss if I did not mention that our oldest son Luke is a 2005 graduate of Oregon Institute of Technology, with one of his professors being none other than the 2023 PLSO Surveyor of the Year, Jack Walker! Luke worked for W&H Pacific in Klamath Falls during the summers while a student and for a while after graduation there until transferring to the Bend office. Unfortunately, in 2008, when the economy tanked, he was laid off and had to find work since he had a baby on the way. After some months, he was able to get a job with BNSF railroad and is there to this day, although still available to help me survey on an occasional weekend. Moving on to the Strategic Plan. The current plan was conceived and formulated in September 2019 when 15 PLSO members met for a day. This plan, entitled Strategic Planning Meeting Report, is available on the PLSO website in the Members area listed under Strategic Planning Meeting. I encourage all of you to read it. Let’s talk about some of the accomplishments made during the last five years since the report was adopted. In the area of Improving Leadership, Jeremy Sherer and others developed the Emerging Leaders program that kicked off at this year’s conference with eight students (mentees) participating. This is very encouraging! To promote the profession, one major step was unveiled at the annual meeting— the professionally produced video designed to appeal to young people. Also, last year the BOD approved our first ever sponsorship of the Oregon Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) held in April in Bend that had some 500 in attendance. Three Central Chapter members (Mike Berry, Russell Dodge, and myself) were there for two and a half days staffing the table to answer questions, hand out literature, pens, etc. We also gave a presentation about surveying that included a slide show prepared by Russ Dodge showing a drone mapping project of a power line corridor. This sponsorship resulted in AKS and DEA hosting some Portland-area educators at their places of business for one-half day each to show them what we do and how we do it. There were also ride along requests, mostly in southern Oregon. The BOD voted at this January’s meeting to sponsor the 2024 ACTE meeting, which will be held April 10–12 at the Portland DoubleTree by Hilton. A couple of suggestions I have that we could do along these lines is to add another bullet point on the website where presentation slides, complete slideshows, etc. can be posted for use by all along with any tips, ideas, and what works and what doesn’t work to reach young people. We could and probably should have at least one “Paladin” (a leading champion of a cause) in each Chapter who would coordinate efforts and also report to Aimee the activities in those regards. Finally, under the Plan for Membership, more can and should be done to increase membership in PLSO by publicizing our meetings to non-members and having existing members, Presidents, and President-Elects meet one on one with non-members over coffee or a beer to explain the myriad of benefits inherent in PLSO membership. There is much more that could be said about this and the other two agenda topics, so once again I encourage everyone to read the 2019 report and please let your Chapter Presidents know if you have any other thoughts. I would like to thank in advance all who will be participating in these endeavors. How to Send Us Your Work Please email the editor Vanessa Salvia with submissions: vsalvia@gmail.com. Your submission should be in .doc format. Please send images separately (not embedded in the document) and at the highest file size available (MB size range versus KB size range—larger sizes are encouraged). Please include the author’s name and email address or phone number for contact.
4 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 47, No. 1 From the PLSO Office Aimee McAuliffe, PLSO Exec. Secretary Surveyors Are a Hardy Bunch D espite the wind and ice our area experienced the week of the 2024 PLSO Conference in Salem this year, we still had a great showing. For those who were not able to thaw their car out or get down the driveway, they were able to watch the seminar room sessions that were streamed live all day. If anyone lost power and didn’t get to finish watching the sessions, registered conference attendees can watch recordings of the streamed sessions for the next couple months. Once upon a time, before I knew so many of our members personally, I would have worried about the weather affecting attendance, but then came the year we were in Portland’s Shilo Inn during an ice storm. The weather had turned the night before, the gorge was only open for a short window of time, our ODOT folks were hard at work, and I was convinced nobody would show up. Day one that year, you all made your way in trucks and parked like little ducks in a row in that iced-over parking lot that wasn’t really big enough to begin with, and hunkered down in the seminar rooms and the hotel bar. By day three, the ice had melted, and the yellow lines had appeared again. It became very apparent that everyone had parked absolutely anywhere there was room, as long as it was at the same angle as the truck next to it. We had to find people in seminars on Friday to move trucks to let people out. To someone simply driving by, it probably looked like chaos. But you know what I saw? I saw a group of people with keen situational awareness who aren’t afraid of something getting a little hard. I saw problem-solving at work. Visualization skills were required for that new and better-functioning parking lot to work. Communication was happening. I saw ambitious and enthusiastic people ready to be part of their professional community. I don’t know about you, but to me that sounds like there were a bunch of crazy good land surveyors in the house and they were all in Salem again, taking up space under the entryway porte cochère if their truck was too tall to fit into the parking garage. I consider myself lucky to represent the Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon and work with volunteers who care so deeply about their profession. I would be remiss if I did not make sure to thank Jeremy Sherer, who has officially stepped down from the Executive Committee, and Tim Fassbender, who is our only five-time Chairman of the Board in PLSO history. The passion that both men share for their professional community has been inspiring and beneficial to us all. Scott Freshwaters, our 2024 Chairman of the Board, and Dan Nelson, the Chair-Elect, have big shoes to fill. As of the end of January 2024, PLSO has a total of 565 members, broken out as follows: • 336 Corporate Members or Licensed Surveyors • 121 Associate Members • 27 Special Members • 25 Student Members • 26 Life Members • 13 Retired Members • 17 Sustaining Members spread among eight different companies Financials for PLSO remain solvent. End of year financials had PLSO covering all expenses from income largely received through membership dues and 2023 conference attendance, netting $17,738.25 by December 31, 2023. Net profits get voted on by the Board to be moved to the Reserve Fund Policy (may be found at www.plso.org/mbrresources) or rolled over to the next operational year. This past year, PLSO has had some successes. We sponsored the Oregon Association for Career and Technical Education where we made valuable contacts. This led to requests for drive alongs, as well as helping create a field trip for teachers
5 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org From the PLSO Office Ronnie Jacko ronnie@llmpubs.com | 503-445-2234 during the summer, which was hosted by David Evans & Associates and AKS Engineering & Forestry. We also recognize difficulties you’ve had filling enough positions to keep up with your workloads and liabilities taken on from equipment theft. Like most things in life, these are all interwoven together to create a complex tapestry of our profession and PLSO’s role in it. One such thread we’ve been pulling at is something I’ve spoken to you all about before, which is being better at marketing online to our younger generations. The topic also came up when Pat Gaylord participated in the recent task force whose report we published in this magazine last year. And just like a surveyor, I start most projects by research and a budget, of course. We raise money each year at the auction for scholarship and outreach and through our sales of the “Eat. Sleep. Survey.” t-shirts. I made sure to follow a mix of influencers that I thought made sense to partner with. Obvious connections we made were with Arizona’s very own Lady Land Surveyor on Instagram (@ladyland_surveyor), who has mentioned us a few times. If anyone here knows Farrah Etcheverry, you know what an enthusiastic personality she is, and as a working mother, part-time student, and small business owner along with her dad, she is a wonderful role model to promote women in the profession. Our newest partner that we worked with this year is a man named Aaron King, who is an expert in storytelling marketing and runs an account called DeepSnap on multiple platforms. Throughout history, storytelling has been about creating emotion and connection through culture. Storytelling marketing is about having the viewer find an emotional connection with your brand without directly “selling” or “promoting” to them. In our case, the feeling we want our audience to leave with is aspirational. Our demographic is Gen Z, the most diverse generation in history, who wants a career I saw a group of people with keen situational awareness who aren’t afraid of something getting a little hard. I saw problem-solving at work. that fits their lifestyle and to work for a company that has strong company values. As you know, there are different pathways to work in our profession, whether you go to college or go straight to work. The profession needs both and we know you need technicians now, so we decided to tell Antonio’s story, who is a party chief for Branch Engineering in Eugene. At the annual meeting, I showed the full length video, which is three minutes and 29 seconds long. But we will be working with Aaron on creating bite-size clips for TikTok and Instagram. The intent of this video is to whet their appetite to want to know more. The Careers and Education page of our website provides more in-depth details about education, Scholarships, the CST program, and other organizational videos, such as those from NSPS. To see the clip, you may see it on our Facebook (facebook.com/Professional LandSurveyorsOfOregon) or Instagram page (@plso_1959). This new year is starting off with promise. The Pioneer Chapter will be talking to students at the NW Youth Careers Expo and the Rogue River folks will be answering questions at the Careers in Gear Fair. PLSO will once again sponsor the ACTE Conference and continue to build relationships with teachers throughout the state. I’m looking forward to it already. We have a story to tell.
6 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 47, No. 1 Featured Article Just like that, the annual PLSO conference has come and gone. Thank you to all the attendees, the conference committee, our Executive Director Aimee, and Lori Servin of Action Registration for making this year a great success for so many. I’d like to especially thank you, the attendees, for your participation and commitment to PLSO. Whether you were an online participant or an in-person (determined individual willing to brave all of the elements the Pacific Northwest had to throw), every one of you chose to take the time to reinvest in yourself, your firm, and your network of peers. I am not sure about how each surveyor or member of this industry feels about the current times and trends in the industry, but it seems we are pushing, flying, and/ or being dragged into a changing time of fast-paced technological advances and a changing landscape of practitioners and workflows. From a conference standpoint, I have to thank the Covid year for pushing us toward the virtual hybrid model, allowing for an online content platform. This platform has allowed us to host additional content from speakers who had last-minute schedule changes and/or life events that prevented their in-person attendance. Additionally, it allows the in-person attendee additional options to see classes at a later date and provides additional hours of continuing education. I feel that our changing industry landscape over the past decade, but more so in the past five years, pushes us on the Conference Committee to not only provide PDH classes to attendees but to provide ample opportunities to learn many of the tips and tricks needed for surveying in the now but also content to remind us about where we came from. Both in-person and virtual attendees were provided the opportunity to go over some of the following recorded content: Railroad Surveying 101 with AREMA Specialist Charlie Tucker, Water Rights and Boundary Ambiguities with Evan Page, and Flood Elevation Certificate Changes and Resources with Deanna Wright. Trent Kennan, a return guest speaker for PLSO and founder of MentoringMondays. xyz, went over Keys to Running a Successful Surveying Business. There was Easements from a Title Perspective from Justin Carter, and a bit about UAVs with Jon Ellinger and Josh Kowalski. You will also find content from speakers on ALTA surveys, CAD workflows, and more UAV-related instructions. If you haven’t had a chance to check out these class recordings, make sure you do in the Whova app or browser, available through April. An easy way to see which ones were recorded is to login to Whova, go to the Agenda, up top (where it says Filter By Tracks), and make sure to only have the Recorded box checked. I hope that you were able to benefit in some way, either at the conference or continuing now with the available online content. From all of us on the Conference Committee, we thank you again for making this year's conference a great memorable experience and we look forward to building upon this in the future. Wrapping Up the 2024 Conference By Jered McGrath, PLSO Conference Committee Chair Attendees enjoying lunch and networking Wednesday at the conference.
7 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org Featured Article The 2023 Outgoing Members of the Board of Directors were honored for their time. From left to right are Chapter Presidents Dan Saily (Umpqua Chapter), Daren Cone (Rogue River Chapter), Dan Burton (Central Chapter), Derek Windham (Southwest Chapter), Dan Nelson (Midwest Chapter), Brenton Griffin (Blue Mountain Chapter), Brady McGarry stepping in for John Putnam (Pioneer Chapter), and Executive Secretary Aimee McAuliffe.
Robert Hamman laughs while talking with Bill Lullay. Robert and Bill worked together for three years at North Santiam Paving. Scholarship Committee Chairman Daren Cone congratulates Freedom Martinmass from Oregon Department of Forestry for owning the winning ticket for the 2024 Scholarship Raffle prize. Josh Kowalski and Jon Ellinger of S&F Land Services with gear for their seminar on “Acquisition, Processing and Applications of sUAS Lidar.” Charlie Tucker gave a day-long workshop for the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association (AREMA) on “Railroad Surveying 101” which was streamed live and recorded for conference attendees. Designed by Kirk Reichling out of Twin Falls, Idaho, and donated by Mike Magyar, the cornhole game was the big-ticket item of the evening. Here, Oregon Tech student volunteer Jeff Maloney walks the cornhole board around the room for people to see. When the bidding war reached $6,000, Paul Kowalczyk offered to donate an additional $1,000 to the Education and Outreach Committee if someone bid, so Ted Baker stepped up to secure the donation. 8 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 47, No. 1 Featured Article
Jeremy Sherer leads the first session of the pilot Emerging Leaders program with participants and mentors on the second day of the conference. The auction is over and someone added an extra zero! Veteran licensed surveyors Chuck Whitten and Ron Quimby talk equipment with associate member Abbey Achziger from PBS Engineering and Environmental Inc. Attendees headed across the street to Magoo’s for post-seminar socializing. Bob Green from Frontier Precision speaking on GNSS Modernization “New Signals in Space—Revisited.” Jason Foose, Dave Malone, and Remi Fritz in the Silent Auction room. 9 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org Featured Article
10 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 47, No. 1 All signage brought to you by: 2024 Annual Conference Your Place for Continuing Education and Professional Networking THANK YOU to the following companies for supporting our community. 2024 Annual Conference Sponsors
Ronnie Jacko ronnie@llmpubs.com 503-445-2234 11 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org ADVERTISING RATES STARTING AT $380! Advertise in The Oregon Surveyor! The Oregon Surveyor is the official magazine for the Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon. It reaches every member of the association and offers a great opportunity to target surveyors with your marketing efforts.
12 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 47, No. 1 2023 Awards Team Player Award Marcus Helm EGR & Associates John Wise QZ Land Surveying 2023 Award Winners Recognized By Dan Nelson, Award Committee Chair and PLSO Chair-Elect, Branch Engineering As the Awards Committee Chair, I get to have the privilege of honoring the recipients of this year’s awards. I want to thank everyone who submitted nominations this year. I’m sure everyone is busy, so thank you for taking the time to circulate and send in the nomination forms. Without you, I don’t get to do this. That said, it takes exceptional people worth recognizing, and this year we had no shortage of deserving nominees. The health of an organization comes from the quality of its members. Each year I’m pleased to read the good things our members have done for our organization, our profession, and our communities. Please remember that a list of categories, the nomination forms, and eligibility criteria are on the PLSO website under the Members Only section. Congratulations to all our award winners this year! And on behalf of everyone at PLSO, thank you for stepping up and being an important part of our professional community. Marcus Helm The Team Player is given to someone who demonstrates how cooperation and teamwork create stronger engagement. This year we recognized a pair of team players. In 2022, the Willamette Chapter was struggling with participation and excitement and could not find volunteers who wanted to serve as Chapter Officers. Not only did Marcus Helm and John Wise step up as officers, they also revived participation and ran a successful solar workshop. Chapter activity is an important part of feeling a local connection to the membership, and both have served as important board members at the state level as well. John Wise
13 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org continues Hidden Talent Award Rob Keene Cascade Timber Consulting Rob Keene It’s no secret that land surveyors are known to have talents they don’t talk a lot about. But having a talent for teaching is something we all appreciate. Not only do they help shape our future workforce, but our geomatics programs have struggled to fill full-time teaching positions. For the last three years, Rob Keene has served as an adjunct professor at Oregon Institute of Technology, making sure students understand complex subjects like least squares while also working a full-time job. Rob, thank you for your dedication of time to the Oregon surveying community by using your hidden talent of teaching to inspire and mentor the next generation of surveyors. Community Service Award Josh Herzberg Polk County Josh Herzberg We’re all busy. Everyone has things going on that compete for what little free time is left at the end of the day. When someone finds a way to give back to their community, they deserve to be recognized by our Community Service Award. This year’s recipient was nominated by the Klamath County Surveyor's office for assisting them in revamping their corner restoration program. “Josh Herzberg has been nothing but amazing to work with and his dedication to get the OIT students involved with the project,” said Jon Red from Klamath County Public Works. “He has shown his commitment to growing our industry at the ground level. Through his volunteered time, he has made certain that the students will learn the importance of the history behind corner restoration programs and give them the hands-on experience that they will carry with them for the rest of their careers.” Article of the Year Dick Bryant Richard Bryant Surveying Approach to the toll road at the east end of the McKenzie Pass Wagon Road mentioned in Dick Bryant’s award-winning article. One of the perks of this membership is getting the Oregon Surveyor every couple months, which wouldn’t be what it is without the articles submitted by our peers. I’ve always appreciated those people who can confidently articulate their thoughts and experiences for others to enjoy. One such article is Dick Bryant’s very concise and engaging article “The McKenzie Pass Wagon Road—1862 to the Present,” which appeared in the July/ August 2023 issue [Find it online here: https://www.associationpublications. com/flipbook/plso/2023/JulAug/6]. Renee Clough of Branch Engineering explained that the article stuck with her especially when she was recently hiking in the Hand Lake area mentioned in the article and encountered people looking for old wagon road evidence. 2023 Awards
14 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 47, No. 1 Life Member Oran D. Abbott Oran D. Abbott PLSO is an organization that we have chosen to be a part of and help sustain through our annual membership fees. There are those among us who have given to this organization time and time again, so much that it only makes sense that PLSO give back to them for a change. One such mechanism for recognizing the contributions of tenured members is through awarding of Life Membership status. Life membership status shall be granted only in recognition of distinguished service to this corporation and to the profession. Nominations are submitted to the Board and voted on in December of each year. Oran Abbott has a long record of service to the PLSO and surveying community. Oran began his surveying career in 1971 after graduating from Oregon State University and a short stint in the Army. Oran joined the PLSO in 1975 and by 1976 was a licensed Professional Land Surveyor in the state of Oregon. Oran spent three decades with Wilsey & Ham/ WH Pacific and then nearly a decade at Chase Jones & Associates. As a young LSIT fresh out of university, Oran was a trove of helpful knowledge in field techniques and boundary resolution. Oran encouraged the young survey staff at W&H to get involved with the PLSO. In the mid ‘90s, Oran guided an intrepid group of surveyors to the top of Mt. Hood to settle the issue of its height with use of GPS observations. From 2002 to 2012, Oran was the editor of The Oregon Surveyor. Even in his long-deserved retirement, Oran stays involved with the PLSO as a regular attendee of the annual conference and the occasional chapter meeting. Life Member Dan Cummings CK3, LLC Dan Cummings Dan Cummings began his surveying career in 1972 while in high school. He moved to Ontario, Oregon, and attended Trinity Valley Community College’s surveying program while working for G&W Engineering, where he eventually became a partner and which led to the company name Gaschler & Cummings. Dan became a Licensed Surveyor in January 1988 and joined the PLSO. Dan has worked on projects across Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. He completed an amazing project in Alaska with enough stories about bears, islands, boats, helicopters, avalanches, and powerlines to fill a movie. If you have time, ask him about the project sometime. Dan continued his surveying journey through several business partners and company name changes. He partially retired from CK3 in 2010 but still consults and provides support on complex boundary projects. In 2010, Dan became the City of Ontario’s Planner, Community Development Director, and City Surveyor, and most recently their City Manager (quite the retirement). Dan has always been very active in the PLSO and has pushed all his surveyors, drafters, and survey helpers to become members. He has always taken his staff to the annual conference and chapter meeting. Dan held officer positions with the Blue Mountain Chapter between 2018–2020. 2023 Awards
15 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org Surveyor of the Year Jack Walker Member since 1984 Surveyor of the Year is a special award meant to honor someone who has represented PLSO and our community well. Only written nominations endorsed by five members in good standing were considered for the Board of Directors to vote on the recipient. Minimum requirements include: • Be a Corporate Member of PLSO for five or more years. • Have a demonstrated history of high competence, integrity, and professionalism. • Assisted qualified and interested people in advancement within the profession. • Career-long service to the profession. Professor Jack Walker earned a master of science in geodesy from Purdue University in 1981. His long career in geomatics spans a wide range of technologies. He specializes in various high-precision positioning applications and is a commercial UAS pilot following the development of this new technology. Jack obtained his license in 1990, has been a PLSO member since 1984, and has supported PLSO in his involvement with the students at Oregon Institute of Technology. He has coordinated with the PLSO annual conference and the OIT students in helping with conference activities over the years. Jack has also given his time in presenting sessions at the PLSO conference, which has helped the PLSO members stay up to date with current technology. Jack’s devotion to the profession and to PLSO has aided all PLSO members in many ways. In addition to these direct contributions, each graduating student is an indirect contribution by Professor Walker. Upon graduation, the students have a broad yet detailed understanding of survey types, legal framework, technologies, and the underlying mathematics. This gives the graduates the ability to interact with other professions (engineers, contractors, attorneys, etc.) and the general public in a way that is perceived as highly professional. And, without having actual data, it is believed these graduates join PLSO at a higher rate than new licensees with other backgrounds. We are proud to nominate Jack Walker for the PLSO Surveyor of the Year and look forward to the PLSO Board of Directors selecting Jack Walker as the Surveyor of the Year. Nominating Group: Tim Fassbender, PLS, CWRE Renee Clough, PLS, PE Rhonda Dodge, PLS Brent Corning, PLS Daryl Anderson, PLS, PE Jack Walker 2023 Awards
16 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 47, No. 1 2023 Surveyor of the Year The Surveyor of the Year award is the opportunity to recognize a member of the professional community that stood out among the crowd for their contribution to PLSO and the profession. OF THE YEAR 2022 Surveyor Jack Walker 2023 The PLSO team had selected Professor Jack Walker, Professor and Chair in the Geomatics Department of Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls, to be featured in a Member Spotlight as we normally do within the pages of each issue. Then we got the news that there were some significant changes coming up within the Geomatics Department at Oregon Institute of Technology, where he has been a professor for 39 years. Then we got the news that he announced his retirement to take place in 2024. Then he was nominated, and ultimately selected, as Surveyor of the Year! There was obviously a lot to talk to Dr. Walker about. We talked to him, let him answer some questions here, and we highlighted some of the important changes taking place within OIT on page 20. Congratulations to Jack Walker as Surveyor of the Year! Jack Walker is a first-generation college student, so he started off in life not really having any idea of what a college career could look like. He knew he liked math and science, which led him to think that a civil engineering job would be good. But he quickly realized that wasn’t right for him. “I did enjoy that,” he says, “but I came to realize that civil engineers live in a cubicle. And I always liked to get outdoors and do things so I wasn’t really looking forward to cubicle life for a whole career.” All civil students take a surveying course, so that was how he learned that surveyors got to go out onto the land to collect data. Surveyors get to work with high-tech equipment and software, which was interesting to him. He’s also always liked maps. “My wife makes me hang them in the garage,” he says with a laugh. “And surveyors get paid to make maps, so I switched majors.” Even more exciting was when Walker found out that surveyors deal with non-Euclidean geometry. “I became really interested in the mathematics of the curved Earth, which is the field of geodesy,” he says. A young Jack Walker at his desk.
17 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org 2023 Surveyor of the Year After starting his undergraduate at Oregon Institute of Technology in 1976, he went on to complete a graduate degree in geodesy at Purdue University in Indiana. He recalls that remote sensing was really interesting to him in those days, which obviously didn’t involve the computing ability we have now. “Aerial imagery was put on 9-by-9-inch film,” he says. “And you could capture a square mile of the Earth’s surface on one image. And then you can extract the centimeter-level data off the imagery. I found that fascinating that you can condense the Earth onto a teeny image, but yet, you can go back and extract precise data from it in the office.” Walker studied photogrammetry and was also interested in data adjustments, so he minored in statistics. “When I graduated, I probably was thinking I’d go to work for a government agency doing some of the larger projects but there happened to be a faculty position at Oregon Tech,” he applied thinking he would teach for three to five years and move on. That ended up becoming a 39-year career. Walker announced his retirement recently, but not exactly with the timing he had hoped for. OIT recently underwent some major restructuring and, of course, the pandemic affected timelines and processes for many things. Major changes to university policies and procedures in a short period of time created much turmoil at the university. OIT experienced the first faculty strike in the history of the Oregon University System, formation of a faculty union, and resulting collective bargaining agreement. “It all added up that we lost a lot of faculty,” explains Walker. Professor Mason Marker was one of them who left and went back into private industry. While it has been a challenging period, Walker notes that the university is emerging from it. But that means some things have had to change. Marker resigned in spring 2021. The university only considers faculty position requests once a year in the fall, and the department gets word sometime in the middle of the year whether they can search for faculty members or not. “We had to get through the next year, which would have been the 2021–22 academic year without Mason. So I asked a lot of our alumni who are licensed surveyors, if they could step up and help fill in and graciously, they did, and they’ve done a wonderful job.” The department was authorized to search for new faculty in the 2022–23 academic year, and had a couple of good candidates, but it just didn’t work out. Faculty positions don’t just automatically roll over, they have to be requested again. Walker requested a position in fall of 2022, and the position was put on hold, which meant teaching another year with adjuncts. Authorization came through again to search to fill Marker’s position this year. “I wanted to stay until that position could be filled and try to find individuals interested in my position to make a smooth transition,” Walker says. However, Walker’s father passed away this summer, which altered that trajectory for him. Other family obligations also came up with his sister’s husband also passing. “It was an incredibly difficult decision to make, but I had to submit my resignation for this year,” says Walker, “and my position is in the final approval process.” Hopefully, by the time this issue is printed, that will be finalized, and the search for Marker’s position is ongoing. “If we can get some good individuals to fill those positions, the program will be in good shape,” he says. In the past, a doctorate degree had been preferred, but not required, for faculty positions like Marker, who has a master’s degree, professional licensure, and many years of industry experience. Changes the university has implemented require that all tenure-track faculty have a PhD, which is rare among professional surveyors. “Most of your PhDs are at research universities or with government agencies, not teaching at an undergraduate university,” explains Walker. “As we move forward, Mason’s position will be an instructor position, where a master’s degree and professional licensure are appropriate credentials, and so that will allow us to hopefully fill that position with someone who has a credential similar to his. The drawback, of course, is that an instructor position requires an annual contract whereas there is more job security with tenure.” But for a small program like geomatics, Walker explains, tenure is not as important as doing a good job of teaching. But, Walker’s position, which also needs to be filled, is tenure-track, which requires someone with a doctorate and a research interest that they’ll have to pursue. “Hopefully we can find someone who would enjoy that challenge of building and growing a geomatics program and doing a little bit of applied research,” he says. In retirement, Walker hopes to rekindle a long-time interest in flying. “I got my student pilot’s license before I had my driver’s license,” he says. “My mom would drive me to the airport so I could fly. And you know, I’ve always thought there was something wrong with that!” he says with a laugh. “I soloed and was working on my private pilot’s license when I started going to college. And then of course, I couldn’t afford to fly and, then I’ve been busy here. And of course, you got your family obligations, you know, house payments, car payments, kid payments, tuition payments. So, now that all of that is done, I’d like to fly again.” Walker and his family have a cabin in the Idaho backcountry. His father was a pilot, so that’s a place the family has flown into and out of for decades, he says. “I would really enjoy flying back into the many backcountry airstrips where you can fly in and fish and just enjoy the country.” Walker joined PLSO in 1984. He recognizes that the goal of OIT’s surveying program is to prepare students for professional licensure. And as a licensed surveyor, it’s important for them to be involved in their professional organizations. “For that reason, it was not only appropriate but necessary for me to be a PLSO member and understand how PLSO functions in supporting the profession at large,” he says. “Students need to get plugged into PLSO as a way to prepare them to be future professionals. So, by bringing students to the conference each year and having them volunteer, they get to know PLSO members and it instills in them the need to be a member of professional organizations.” When Walker started studying surveying, technology had not advanced very far yet. “We were pulling tape to measure distances, and measuring angles with optical instruments was the state-of-the-art in the industry,” he says. Now, of course, surveying has gone through a technology revolution, using satellites and other very sophisticated software. “I’ve found it very interesting to be able to incorporate all those new technologies into the program. And it turns out it’s beneficial for our graduates to have education in higher technologies and the theory behind them as the industry has adopted all that.”
18 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 47, No. 1 2023 Surveyor of the Year Questions with 2023 Surveyor of the Year: Jack Walker 52 Where did you grow up? I was raised in Eastern Oregon and Idaho. My grandfather received a homestead patent for a ranch in Oregon, and my father worked in heavy construction and mining in Idaho. Who is your role model and why? Individuals who made significant contributions applying mathematics and science to surveying and geomatics. How did you decide on land surveying as a career? I am a first-generation college student, and didn’t really understand what engineering and other careers entailed. I decided that structural engineering and designing buildings and bridges would be interesting, so I started in civil engineering. I came to realize that civil engineers live in a cubicle, which didn’t appeal to me. All the civil students took a surveying class, and I found the mathematics interesting, and the opportunity to make precise observations with sophisticated instruments in the field was enjoyable. I have always liked maps, and surveyors even get paid to make maps, so I changed my major to surveying. Great decision. Did you work in the private or public sector prior to teaching? I completed five internships with BLM, mostly in Alaska. Alternating six month internships with college allowed me to fund my education. Working out of camps in the Alaskan bush, flying in helicopters, and traveling in boats was like a paid vacation. You do have to have a tolerance for bad weather, mosquitoes, black gnats, and bears. I worked a few summers on interesting projects such as the Stanford Linear accelerator/collider, assisting with pioneering applications of new positioning technology to lay out the beamline equipment. Some of the network error ellipses had semi-major axes less than one millimeter. The world of subatomic physics was fascinating, and the SLAC collider proved the existence of the gravitational carrier particle which Einstein had predicted, and the work contributed to the Theory of Everything. I worked for Kiewit on a backscatter radar site, and do some ongoing work for a mineral exploration company in the Idaho backcountry, which is another paid vacation. When and why did you move into teaching? I assisted some of my classmates who were struggling with their assignments and found it rewarding when they “got it.” I found geodesy, the study of non- Euclidean geometry, to be particularly fascinating. The mathematics of least squares adjustment, analytical photogrammetry, and map projections are elegant. I wanted to study more in these areas, and was fortunate to receive a scholarship to Purdue University to continue graduate studies. When I graduated, a faculty position was available, and I thought I would teach for three to five years and move on. Well, that turned out to be 39 years! Why did you first become a member of PLSO? Surveying encompasses the positioning sciences, so it is appropriate to become licensed and a PLSO member. What is your proudest moment in your career? Receiving the Grand Prize in the NCEES Surveying Education Awards program. Recognition that the Oregon Tech Surveying program is one of the best in the nation is extremely gratifying. Do you have a favorite place that you’ve traveled? The Idaho backcountry is one of my favorite places. On the summit of Mt. Thielsen in the Oregon Cascades.
19 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org 2023 Surveyor of the Year Do you have a bucket list? What’s on it? Spending time at our cabin in Idaho and flying into the backcountry airstrips is high on my list. I would like to make a few more mountaineering climbs before my knees get too creaky. If you could have your dream dinner party with any five people in history, who would they be? Meeting mathematicians and scientists such as Karl Gauss, Werner Von Braun, and others who pioneered the positioning and mapping sciences. What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received? I would have to say receiving the PLSO Surveyor of the Year award. Do you have any hidden talents? My wife would say none, however I purchased a plasma cutter and MIG welder and enjoy fabricating and designing trailers and custom accessories. It is another positioning application! You’ve taught a lot of surveyors who are currently PLSO members. Does anyone stick out in your mind that is particularly active in the community? Many of our graduates stand out for different reasons. Jim Elithorp and Rhonda Dodge have an aptitude for mathematics and science and completed graduate degrees in geodesy and remote sensing. Chris Sherby and Matt Faulkner founded S & F Land Services and continue to grow and expand. There really are too many to list. This is a big year for Oregon Tech. Not only are you PLSO’s Surveyor of the Year, but the geomatics program was recently awarded the NCEES Surveying Education Award. Can you talk a little bit about this? For an introverted old geodesist to receive the Surveyor of the Year award was truly surprising and humbling. NCEES recognition of the Oregon Tech Surveying program as one of the best in the nation is extremely gratifying. What are you seeing as trends in the profession right now? Surveying has experienced not just an evolution, but a revolution in technology, which resulted in the umbrella term “geomatics” best describing the scope of the profession. The implementation of new technology appears to be moving at a faster pace. Are these trends affecting geomatics programs in particular or do you think it’s the other way around? The goal of the geomatics program is to offer contemporary surveying education in the areas of legal aspects and land development, and to prepare students with the skills necessary to understand and use new technologies, and the life-long learning skills to adapt with technology changes. How do you see PLSO serving as a bridge for students from volunteering at the conference to becoming an active leader in the organization? At the PLSO conference, students meet industry leaders and mentors who lead by example. From your experience as an educator, how should internships be organized to compliment the education they are receiving so they are fully equipped to enter the workforce at the level the profession needs right now? Faculty have always considered internships an essential part of student learning. Formal education in the classroom, industry experience, and examinations are all required professional components. Currently, there are many internship opportunities for students, and virtually all students complete one or more internships. Where did your original interest in Geomatics come from? I was unaware of geomatics and started in civil engineering. All the students take surveying courses, which is where I became aware of the profession. Surveyors get to leave the cubicle and work outdoors using high-tech instruments, process data using advanced software, and get paid to make maps. I changed majors to surveying, and it started a great career path. Are you an alum of Oregon Tech’s Geomatics program, and did you start working as a faculty member right after graduation? I completed my BS Surveying degree at Oregon Tech. I was particularly interested in geodesy, which includes applications of non-Euclidean geometry to model the earth over larger distances, and project the curved surface of the earth onto a flat plane. Analytical photogrammetry and data adjustments were also fascinating subjects. I completed a MS in Geodesy at Purdue University, and contemplated continuing for a PhD, however concluded that would lead to a cubicle career, so I decided to seek employment where some field work was an option. I worked about three years with BLM and private firms before accepting a faculty position. What do you find most interesting about your field? The mathematics and science in geomatics are fascinating. Applications such as Gaussian surface curvature used in map projections, coordinate systems and transformations, GNSS positioning, and continues Surveying encompasses the positioning sciences, so it is appropriate to become licensed and a PLSO member.
20 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 47, No. 1 2023 Surveyor of the Year analytical photogrammetry and remote sensing are very interesting. After almost 40 years teaching at Oregon Tech, how do you keep your program modern? Geomatics has experienced an incredible technology revolution. Geomatics has been fortunate to remain current with constant changes in geospatial technology. Acquiring hardware and software, mastering it, and introducing it in the classroom to prepare students for a successful career has been demanding but rewarding. I get paid to constantly learn and use the latest technology, not a bad deal! What are your hopes for the future of the study of Geomatics? I hope to perform a limited amount of consulting with fun and interesting projects. You plan on retiring from Oregon Tech in June. Do you have any specific plans? I need to handle my father’s estate, and other family obligations, and want to begin flying again after a long break. I look forward to many activities which there wasn’t time for while working at the university. Do you have a family recipe you can share with us? My wife Diane makes renowned peanut butter bars, and pistachio thumbprint cookies. She was willing to share the recipe for the peanut butter bars. Peanut Butter Crisp Bars Bars: 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup light corn syrup 1 cup peanut butter 2 cups Rice Krispies Frosting: 4 T. margarine 1/4 cup brown sugar 1 T. milk 1/2 tsp. vanilla 1 1.4 cups powdered sugar (double if using 9x13 pan) Combine sugar and corn syrup on stove top until sugar is dissolved. Take off stove; blend in peanut butter and cereal. Pat evenly into 8x9 pan or if recipe is doubled, 9x13 pan. For the frosting, melt butter and brown sugar in microwave or stovetop. Stir in rest of ingredients and beat until smooth. Spread on bars. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve. Enjoy! Walker Shares the OIT Geomatics Department Status Creation of a Geomatics Department has provided flexibility and freedom not possible under a combined engineering department. The addition of a BS GIS degree to compliment the BS Surveying degree has strengthened the department. Many professions use geospatial data, and GIS is one of the most effective technology tools for analyzing this data. The department now has a service role at the university which supports other programs listed below. Demand to support geospatial data needs at the university continues to grow, with geomatics increasingly asked to collect and process UAS data for other programs. This creates a greater need for the Geomatics Department at the university and does not leave the surveying program standing alone. Under the ongoing NCEES Surveying Education Award program, Oregon Tech has received an award each of the seven years of this program. This year, OIT was graciously awarded the Grand Prize of $25,000. This funding has greatly benefited the department. The biggest achievement for Geomatics was formal authorization to offer the BS Surveying and BS GIS degrees fully online beginning fall 2022. This required a three year approval process. Given the department taught courses fully online during the pandemic, online education delivery is challenging but feasible. The department started advertising in the NSPS Surveying Newsletter in the fall, and to date has received about 30 program inquiries, and about 15 applications. There is potential for significant enrollment increases in the surveying program, which has always been a challenge for surveying programs. Some areas where PLSO can assist the OIT Geomatics Department • Recruiting efforts. Given there are surveyors located around the state, any support with recruiting is greatly appreciated, as it is difficult for faculty to cancel classes and travel outside of the local area. OIT does need to select individuals who make good recruiters, and provide them with quality recruiting materials. • The PLSO student scholarship support is incredible, and greatly appreciated. Some level of funding support for geomatics would be useful, given the short life span of today’s technology. The university now has two Giving Days each year, where external donations are matched by the university. This would allow PLSO to double any donation to the program. State funding for universities continues to decline, so the NCEES program awards, small applied research grants, and other external funding is necessary moving forward. • Revitalize IAC and resume meetings. The Geomatics Industrial Advisory Committee (IAC) has not been active since the pandemic, and Walker says the membership should be revitalized and resume meetings. The goal is to have members from a wide range of organizations, including PLSO, provide input to the program and demonstrate to administration the broad need for the program and graduates. continued
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