This is part of a weekly series introducing readers to individuals who are passionate about our Mid-Valley community.
When Oregon’s forest trees get sick or die, it’s Gabriela Ritokova’s job to figure out why.
Ritokova is the state’s new forest pathologist. Her mission is to help the Oregon Department of Forestry and private timber owners fight diseases.
It’s a big job, and one that’s getting bigger.
Climate change is accelerating the decline of trees in Oregon, Ritokova said.
On the Oregon coast, Swiss needle cast is attacking Douglas fir. Southern Oregon is dealing with sudden oak death. There is mistletoe on pines in Eastern Oregon.
Those diseases stunt or kill thousands of trees each year, costing local economies millions of dollars.
“Especially with the droughts we have been experiencing, we’ve seen a lot of decline and sometimes even mortality,” she said.
Ritokova is a detective of sorts, but focused on microscopic pathogens.
“One of the things that people discover when spending any time around plant pathologists is that we get excited when we find a dead plant, or something declining,” she said. “It’s basically a puzzle to be solved.”
Ritokova says she was destined to become a forest pathologist, although not necessarily in the United States.
She grew up in a small city in the former Czechoslovakia, which has since been divided into two nations. Her hometown, Košice, is now part of Slovakia. It’s about 50 miles from the border with Ukraine.
Both her parents were scientists, and made sure she spent plenty of time in nature. She even joined the Young Foresters Club in elementary school, where she learned about forest ecosystems, native trees, plants and wildlife.
“This is going to sound funny, but at that time the local foresters taught us how to use a shotgun, which is pretty much unimaginable now,” she said.
Ritokova was in high school when the Iron Curtain fell, in the early 1990s, and jumped at the chance to travel.
“I came because there were so many different opportunities,” she said. “I wanted to learn the language, I wanted to learn about the culture. I never really thought that I would stay here, it just turned out that it happened.”
She worked as a nanny in San Francisco before earning a degree in conservation and resource studies at the University of California at Berkeley.
While there, she worked in the lab of Dave Wood, an entomologist who encouraged her to pursue further studies in forest health.
In 2012 Ritokova moved to Corvallis to work with the Swiss Needle Cast Cooperative at Oregon State University.
Swiss needle cast is a fungal disease that’s causing huge problems for Douglas fir on the Oregon coast, she said.
In her role as associate director there, she established an extensive research and monitoring network along the entire coast of Oregon and Washington.
Now, as the state’s forest pathologist, she’ll continue to collaborate with the cooperative.
A typical day for Ritokova could include performing aerial surveys, climbing trees to get foliage samples, providing technical advice to landowners, training ODF field staff or representing ODF in a scientific meeting.
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“I really enjoy working outside. Even on a rainy day in the woods sometimes it’s better than sitting in the office,” she said.
Ritokova has succeeded despite profound hearing loss, and learning English as her third language.
When not working, Ritokova and her husband enjoy hiking with their dogs. She also travels to central Europe each year to visit her family.
If you have an idea for someone we should profile for this series, please email Statesman Journal senior news editor Alia Beard Rau at arau@gannett.com
Tracy Loew is a reporter at the Statesman Journal. She can be reached at tloew@statesmanjournal.com, 503-399-6779 or on Twitter at @Tracy_Loew.
