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2008 Forest Service Engineer of the Year Winners

Dick Karsky—2008 Technical Engineer of the Year

Dick Karsky (Richard J. Karsky) heads the GPS (global positioning system), forest health, and watershed, soil, and air programs at the Missoula Technology and Development Center (MTDC) in Missoula, MT.

Dick began learning the practical applications of agricultural engineering when he was growing up on a farm in North Dakota. In 1967, Dick graduated from North Dakota State University with a bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering. He worked on agricultural tillage equipment for Allis Chalmers Mfg. Co. before being drafted into the U.S. Army in 1969.

After his discharge, Dick attended the University of Minnesota, where he received a master's degree in agricultural engineering/mechanical engineering in 1972. He worked on agricultural tractors as a project engineer for the White Farm Equipment Co. before coming to MTDC in 1977.

During his early years at MTDC, Dick helped modify equipment used for mine reclamation, helping mine operators meet the Bureau of Land Management's reclamation regulations. Dick traveled to Venezuela to help with a mine reclamation demonstration project.

The projects Dick recalls from his career of more than three decades at MTDC include:

• Working on two different sizes of small cable yarding systems for removing forest residues and slash.
  
  
• Developing equipment to help make Forest Service nurseries safer and more efficient.
  
  
• Developing a machine to evaluate steam treatment for fumigating nursery soils without having to use the pesticide methyl bromide.
  
  
• Working with Forest Service Research & Development to build an "in the woods machine" that produces wood chunks that can be burned to produce energy or used to build temporary roads for low-volume traffic.
  
  
• Evaluating commercial GPS receivers and working with manufacturers to improve the accuracy of GPS receivers under a forest canopy.
  
  
• Serving on an interagency team that evaluated GPS receivers under difficult canopy conditions throughout the United States.
  
  
• Helping train Indonesian land managers in the use of GPS technology.
  
  
• Designing accessory attachments for smokejumper aircraft so smokejumpers can attach parachute tether lines.
  
  
• Helping develop a protocol for testing bear-resistant containers that has become a standard.

Dick is a licensed Professional Engineer in Illinois, Minnesota, and Montana. He has been a member of the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) and the ASABE (American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers) for more than 40 years.

Dick has been active in a booster club that helped raise funds for the school his son and daughters attend and has been active in his local church.

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