Gerald D. Barnes
“Jerry” grew up and attended school in Grants Pass, Oregon. His family came to Southern Oregon as pioneers. He worked for the U.S. Forest Service while attending college as a Biology Major at Southern Oregon College and later at Oregon State University. After marriage in 1959, Jerry returned to the USFS on a permanent basis as the first Forestry Technician in that organization. From his first summer job in 1953 to the present, Jerry has worked at least part-time each year in Forest Genetics Programming in the Pacific Northwest Region. After working in the White Pine Ribes Eradication Program in the 1950s, Jerry became the South Zone (Oregon State) Manager of the White Pine Resistance Program for the Pacific Northwest Region of the U.S. Forest Service. In 1966, Jerry became the first Dorena Tree Improvement Center Manager in Cottage Grove, Oregon when the White Pine Resistance Program was centered there on a Regional basis. In 1978, Jerry left the USFS to establish an Oregon Corporation, Tree Improvement Enterprises, specializing in field implementation services in Forest Tree Improvement. Over the past thirty-plus years Jerry and his family have worked in various phases of Tree Improvement programming as contractors and consultants including cone collection, tree seed processing, tree breeding, seed orchard installation, grafting, progeny measure and white pine resistance programming. In 1998, Jerry established a New Zealand cooperative business specializing in Douglas-fir Tree Improvement and Seed Orchard programming in the New Zealand South Island. Seed from the New Zealand orchards will soon be available for use in that country and elsewhere in the world. Currently, Jerry is President of TIE, Inc. and devotes most of his time to conifer grafting activities. Shawn Barnes, Jerry’s son, is Vice President of TIE, Inc. and Manager of the seed processing and procurement arm of the Corporation.
