Special Collections Blog: Dragon Tales

The Forest of Talking Trees: The Buckley Memory Forest and the Work of Robert Johnson

Written by Caitlin Snyder, Class of Dec '19, Alden Room Research Assistant

Most people want simple things for their birthday.  A birthday cake, streamers, candles, and a group of good friends gathered together.  However, Henry H. Buckley received something far greater on his 75th birthday, in 1932.  The master-mind behind the idea was Jenny Hurlbut Buckley, Mr. Buckley’s wife.  She approached their friends and family with the proposition of buying some property.  Each person interested would plant a tree on the property.  The project began relatively small with a half-acre of land, but so many people were interested in the prospect that it grew to two full acres.  It would likely expand from there.  The forest spoke volumes about how many people cared deeply for Mr. Buckley.  It reflected friendship, and the memories Buckley had with his friends.  The forest itself tells a story that has an influence to this day.

In addition to fond memories, the forest left a behind legacy.  The Henry H. Buckley Foundation declared the forest was to be preserved.  It would also be donated to the Normal School, modern SUNY Oneonta, for environmental research.  This is where Dr. Robert Johnson, the Normal School’s Head of the Science Department, came in.  Johnson was known for his environmental work, especially that on birds.  He published a great number of pamphlets on the migratory and nesting practices of birds.  Johnson wrote articles for Bird Day, which were featured in a bulletin for the State University of New York. He did a great amount of field research and observation.  Much of his work centered around New York State and the Susquehanna Valley.  It is little surprise that he was involved with the Buckley Memory Forest, and the research that was to be done there.

1940 Yearbook Photograph of Dr. Johnson

The Buckley Foundation intended the forest to be a place for which vegetation could be studied, as well as for pesticides to be tested.  The Normal School utilized the forest as a place to study how the trees grew, their different characteristics, soil climate, insects that impacted the trees, and much more. The school wished to further utilize the resources given to them, so they issued an essay contest regarding the forest and its future.  Johnson spearheaded the 1935 contest.  The results were essays about a laboratory that should be built in the forest, to benefit research.  Another prize-winning essay talked about how the Normal School could benefit aesthetically by the forest, and the art that depicted it.  The efforts of Robert Johnson, the Buckley Foundation, and the students of the Normal School made the Buckley Forest a place for environmental research and conservation.  Buckley left behind a legacy in the Memory Forest, which told a story of its own.

Cover of the Buckley Memory Forest Essay Competition edited by Robert Johnson, 1938

To read Robert Johnson’s environmental pamphlets and learn more about the Buckley Memory Forest, visit the Alden Room.

Cover of the Bird Day Bulletin to the Schools from March 1935