The American Society of Landscape Architects has elevated Robert Ribe, professor in the UO Department of Landscape Architecture, to the ASLA Council of Fellows for 2015. Fellowship is among the highest honors the ASLA bestows on members and recognizes the contributions of these individuals to their profession and society at large based on their works, leadership, management, knowledge, and service. The new class of Fellows will be recognized at the 2015 ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO November 6-9 in Chicago, Illinois.

Ribe is the third UO faculty member selected to join the Council of Fellows. He joins Kenny Helphand and Robert Melnick in earning the FASLA distinction.

Individuals considered for this distinction must be members of ASLA in good standing for at least ten years and must be recommended to the Council of Fellows by the executive committee of their local chapter, the executive committee of ASLA, or the executive committee of the Council of Fellows.

Ribe received his nomination, in Knowledge, from the Oregon Chapter. Ribe is a leader in the practice of scenery management by landscape architects and has received national and chapter honor ASLA awards for his research. He teaches design and planning studios, landscape analysis classes, digital media, and research methods to students in landscape architecture, planning, and environmental studies. 

From 1999 to 2010 he directed the Institute for a Sustainable Environment (ISE), leading that interdisciplinary group through a five-fold growth in granting and support for students.  His work in the institute provided primary research and advice to governments in Oregon and Washington on the management of forest ecosystems and wildfire risks, and assistance in conducting their sustainability assessments and programs. 

Ribe’s research exploring how people relate to forest landscapes has advanced that body of knowledge internationally, and he has taught and conducted research in Australia and Switzerland. His work is methodologically rigorous and applicable to the real world. His collaborations have investigated public landscape perceptions extensively and built strong evidence that has altered and validated regional landscape plans and policies.  

In 2010 he was appointed to a National Science Foundation working group on methods for valuing cultural ecosystem services, and he was recognized in 2007 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Scientific Advisory Council for his innovations in evidence-based impact assessment methods.

Ribe, who joined the UO faculty in 1988, is also a prolific author. His publications include “Clearfell Controversies and Alternative Timber Harvest Designs: How Acceptability Perceptions Vary Between Tasmania and the U.S. Pacific Northwest” in the Journal of Environmental Management; “Public Perceptions of West-side Forests: Improving Visual Impact Assessments and Designing Thinnings and Harvests for Scenic Integrity,” a General Technical Report for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; “In-stand Scenic Beauty of Variable Retention Harvests and Mature Forests in the U.S. Pacific Northwest: The Effects of Basal Area, Density, Retention Pattern and Down Wood” in the Journal of Environmental Management; and many other peer-reviewed articles. He has published in journals including, in addition to the above, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Environmental Psychology, Landscape and Urban Planning, Landscape Journal, Landscape Ecology, Landscape Planning, Landscape Research, and Environment and Behavior, among many other publications.