[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2871-2872]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  REMEMBERING SHILOH FOREST SUNDSTROM

 Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize the 
contribution of a young Oregonian whose life was cut far too short, but 
whose impact will stay with my State forever.
  Shiloh Forest Sundstrom, a young leader in the field of conservation-
based rural development, was tragically killed by a hit-and-run driver 
in November at age 34.
  Shiloh was a child of Oregon. He was born in the coastal mountains of 
western Lane County and lived much of his life enjoying all that rural 
upbringing had to offer. He loved the horses and cows on his parents' 
ranch and attended school in the small town of Mapleton.
  A gifted student, Shiloh was his high school class valedictorian in 
2000 and was accepted to Brandeis University. As an undergraduate, he 
spent a semester abroad at the School for Field Studies in Kenya, where 
he saw that the struggles of rural communities in Kenya paralleled the 
problems facing rural Oregon communities.
  Studying the ways in which the Maasai people of Kenya struggled to 
balance their efforts to maintain a traditional resource-based economy 
while benefiting from wildlife conservation and tourism, Shiloh saw 
that the positive lessons being learned there could be applied back 
home in Oregon.
  After graduating with honors from Brandeis, Shiloh came back to his 
beloved Oregon for his master's degree in forestry at Oregon State 
University. He then moved to the geography department to work toward a 
doctorate and returned to Kenya several times to pursue his research.
  However, Shiloh was much more than a gifted student. He had the rare 
ability to take his research out of the classroom and work to implement 
positive change in the broader world. His work with the Siuslaw 
Institute, founded by his father John Sundstrom, and with the Siuslaw 
Watershed Council, injected a reasonable approach to often contentious 
natural resource issues, always with a focus on positive outcomes.

[[Page 2872]]

  Shiloh always strived for success through collaboration--what I like 
to call the Oregon way. He was involved in the Rural Voices for 
Conservation Coalition, RVCC, a network that seeks common ground 
between diverse interests on conservation-based challenges facing rural 
areas in the West.
  Shiloh's deep ties to rural Oregon, his stellar scholarship, and his 
worldwide experience gave him a uniquely powerful voice in 
demonstrating that conservation and economic development can go hand in 
hand.
  The powerful outpouring of sadness at his death shows how deeply 
Shiloh impacted his community. The lessons that he taught and his 
leadership will not be forgotten. Shiloh's thoughtful, collaborative 
approach, his love of the land, and his dreams of a better world will 
live on in everyone he touched in the short time we were blessed to 
know him.

                          ____________________