The High Desert Museum has named Jane O’Keeffe of Adel, Oregon the recipient of the 2008 Donald M. Kerr Award for her role in bringing together Lake County’s timber industry, residents, environmentalists, scientists and U.S. Forest Service officials in creating sustainable forest ecosystem management as well as area jobs. 
The Museum will present the $5,000 award to O’Keeffe on Sept. 12, at its annual meeting of the membership.
O’Keeffe was instrumental in creating the Lakeview Stewardship Group in 1998.

“By learning together about the ecosystem of the forest, going out into the forest and looking at things, and talking about what we each saw when we went out there, we could come together to agree on the way we wanted the forest managed,” said O’Keeffe, a fourth-generation cattle rancher. 
“The most rewarding thing to me was to see that people who had been actually in the courtroom suing each other were sitting down together, cognizant of each other’s issues. They could start to work through problems to get to actual long-term solutions. It’s so satisfying how everyone has come to understand and respect the other’s point of view.”

This group’s efforts were played a key role in a planned biomass plant for the area, which will creating jobs, energy and healthy forest management.

Museum President Janeanne A. Upp said the award, named for the founder of the High Desert Museum, is part of how the Museum inspires stewardship of High Desert natural and cultural resources. 
“This award for Jane O’Keeffe’s work goes right to the heart of community volunteerism, and continues to be effective in rewarding the values that Don Kerr held so dear,” Upp said.
 O'Keeffe is a consultant for the National Forest Counties and Schools Coalition, which is working to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000.

She is a former Lake County Commissioner, a former president of the Association of Oregon Counties, and a former co-chair of the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board. 
Governor Ted Kulongoski appointed O'Keeffe to the Environmental Quality Commission in June. She is the chair of the board of Sustainable Northwest, and a board member of Lake County Resources. She has been a partner in the O’Keeffe Ranch in Adel for more than 25 years and she is a partner in Campbell Crossing Ranch in Kimberly. 
O'Keeffe is pursuing a master’s degree in creative writing from Antioch University. She and her husband, John, have two sons, Henry, 22, and Patrick, 20.


The Donald M. Kerr Award is funded through a grant from the Chiles Foundation of Portland.