College of Agriculture & Natural Resources

When Maureen McDonough, professor in the Department of Forestry, retire this month, she will have spent nearly 35 years in an industry that’s seen incredible changes. And a scholarship in her name will help ensure that future MSU forestry students have the opportunity to witness the same types of changes.

“When I started in forestry, it was very old school, and that’s changed dramatically,” McDonough said. McDonough has studied urban and community forestry and the human dimensions affecting those forests.

That’s the reason her friend and former student, Cara Boucher, decided to honor her friend with a scholarship endowment of $50,000. The Maureen H. McDonough Endowed Scholarship for Social and Community Forestry will be awarded to students whose focus is social and community forestry.

“There’s a big part of forestry that is a management science,” Boucher said. And she should know. Boucher worked with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and served as state forester for Michigan. 

“What we learn quickly is that you manage forests in communities for people’s choices,” Boucher said. “Foresters need more than the biological sciences to be successful. You have to know how to engage different stakeholder groups without abdicating decision-making responsibilities. That’s the kind of work Maureen has been doing around the country and internationally for her entire career.”

For her part, McDonough said she was “totally flattered, shocked and grateful” that Boucher chose this way to honor her colleague’s career.

“I hope this scholarship encourages more students to be interested in the human dimension of forestry,” McDonough said. “Michigan State University was one of the first schools that required its forestry students to take a course that focused on the human dimension.”

Boucher said her goal in starting this scholarship was to help students understand that the social science aspect of forestry is just as important as the biological science of forests.

“I think that part is very important, and it wasn’t a focus when I was in school,” Boucher said. “Sometimes this area gets a bit of a short shrift because it’s not just getting people to understand the science -- it’s about learning how to take into account all the aspects that communities find important in their forests.”

McDonough said one of the highlights of the scholarship is that the applicant has a commitment to trees or forests as a part of his or her community and has shown such commitment.

McDonough, who will enter a working retirement, said she is looking forward to working on the board of advisers for the Greening of Detroit, exploring how urban and community forests can play a role in food security, and finishing her remaining graduate students.

The scholarship fits into the Department of Forestry’s overall goal of increasing scholarship funding for graduate students.

“The goal of the scholarship is to support and encourage students who are interested in the human dimensions of forests with a particular emphasis on participation and engagement of all people in management of and decisions about trees and forests,” said Rich Kobe, chair of the Department of Forestry.  Kobe said several faculty members in the department have supported this scholarship financially.

Boucher said giving a gift to her alma mater in recognition of a colleague’s work is a way to pass on her family’s legacy. Boucher’s mother was an educator and activist, and both parents were MSU alumni.

“My parents strongly believed in the importance of education,” Boucher said. “This was a way to honor them, too.”

Boucher sees this scholarship as a way to honor her friend who has done something special – and she said she sees it as a way for others to do the same. 

“It’s about the people who are making a difference,” she said.

To contribute to this scholarship, contact Samantha Adler, assistant director of external relations in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, at adlersa2@msu.edu or 517-353-4749.