Clint Trammel inducted into Missouri Conservation Hall of Fame

SALEM, Mo. – The Missouri Conservation Commission and Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) recently honored Pioneer Forest’s longtime forest manager Clint Trammel posthumously by inducting him into the Missouri Conservation Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony was held during Pioneer Forest’s annual community barbecue in Salem on April 25.

Trammel was also honored during the ceremony with a second plaque presented by the Missouri Consulting Foresters Association and the L-A-D Foundation. The L-A-D Foundation now owns Pioneer Forest after founders Leo and Kay Drey donated the property to the organization in 2004. The privately-owned, 143,000-acre Pioneer Forest is located in the heart of the Missouri Ozarks.

Trammel died June 21, 2018, at the age of 78 following a lifelong passion for and career in forestry. He joined the staff of Pioneer Forest in 1970 after several years working for MDC. He served as forest manager for 28 of his 35 years at Pioneer Forest and is that organization’s longest-serving forest manager. He held a master’s degree in Forestry from the University of Missouri in Columbia. He was co-founder and first president of the Missouri Consulting Foresters Association and a founding member of the Forest Stewards Guild. In 2005, he was named Missouri Forest Conservationist of the Year by the Conservation Federation of Missouri.

MDC Director Sara Pauley praised Trammel for his “superb management” of Pioneer Forest and for refining the forestry technique known as single-tree selection, which is a type of uneven-aged forest management. Single-tree selection and uneven-aged management had been a common practice prior to World War II, but as even-aged forestry practices gained favor, it was “against the odds” that Trammel and staff at Pioneer Forest “adhered to tradition” and improved the technique, Pauley said.

“He did this at a time when professional foresters and forestry institutions, including forestry schools, federal and state agencies, industrial and other private forests had shifted almost entirely to even-aged methods,” Pauley said. The even-aged method removes most trees during harvest.

“In time,” Pauley added, “He would have the satisfaction of seeing academic research confirm, and public and private foresters increasingly adopt, the techniques of uneven-aged management that he and his staff perfected and so openly demonstrated for decades on Pioneer Forest.”

Conservation Commission Chair Marilynn Bradford, MDC Deputy Director Mike Hubbard, and State Forester Lisa Allen joined Pauley in presenting a plaque to Trammel’s family. Accepting the award were: son Mike Trammel and wife Jennifer of Atlanta, Georgia; son Brad Trammel of Salt Lake City, Utah; and brother Gene Trammel of Heber Springs, Arkansas.

With the addition of Trammel, the Conservation Hall of Fame honors 44 Missourians posthumously who have made substantial and lasting contributions to forestry, fisheries, and wildlife conservation efforts in the state. Learn more at mdc.mo.gov/about-us/awards-and-honors/hall-fame.