Biographical headnote
Dr. Bob Zybach is the Reference Librarian of America’s School Trust Library. He is a forest and wildfire historian who has spent decades researching Pacific Northwest forest history. His research also covers wildfire history and Indigenous burning practices.
Education
Zybach holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from Oregon State University (2003). His dissertation is titled The Great Fires: Indian Burning and Catastrophic Forest Fire Patterns of the Oregon Coast Range, 1491–1951.
It examines how Native American burning before European contact related to later large forest fires in the Oregon Coast Range. The Oregon Websites and Watersheds Project (ORWW) uses this dissertation as the basis for its work on western Oregon fire history.
Research and publications
He co-authored the two-volume Coquelle Trails project report with Coquille Chief Don Ivy. The project’s website launched in 2013. He also co-wrote a history of the Coos Bay Wagon Road Lands with George Wasson for the Coquille Indian Tribe. That report has not been publicly released.
In 2020, he wrote an article about ORWW’s Osbornes fire-lookout photo project in Oregon Fish & Wildlife Journal.
Zybach accepted the 2009 Oregon Heritage Excellence Award on behalf of ORWW and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. The Oregon Heritage Commission gave the award for the 2008 Owl Ridge Trails report.
ORWW
Zybach maintains the ORWW archive, which keeps Jerry Phillips’s Elliott book online and free. ORWW helps Oregon students, teachers, residents and resource managers document and understand the region’s forest landscape.
Reference Librarian of the Library
He built Parcel Chronicle with Dave Sullivan. Its research desk follows his published research method. The project is planned to become the Library’s Land History Room, curated by Zybach as reference librarian.
Where these facts come from
Education and dissertation details come from Oregon State University. ORWW documents the reports, article and award. The Oregon Advocates for School Trust Lands profile describes his research and archive work. Parcel Chronicle describes the project and plans for the Land History Room. Dave Sullivan supplied the Library appointment information.
- Oregon State University — dissertation record · dissertation PDF
- ORWW — publications and fire history
- ORWW — reports and award
- Oregon Advocates for School Trust Lands — coalition profile
- Parcel Chronicle — project background and Library plans
- Parcel Chronicle Reference Desk — research method and Library plans
