David Craig wants to spread the word about white oaks. Salem is willing to listen.

Professor David Craig speaks at an event entitled "The Decade of Oak: Oregon's Mighty Tree for Common Ground" at Venti's on 325 Court St NE, Salem, Oregon, on March 27, 2025. Photo by Iris McClure.

Biology professor David Craig, wearing his distinctive green glasses, walked around a crowded restaurant with a large bag of acorns, giving them out for people to plant. It was an original start to the first event of Salem Talks Science, an initiative started by local couple Taylor and Dylan McDowell to make the Salem community more engaged with and interested in science. 

Dozens filled Venti’s Cafe, the restaurant where Craig presented his work, “The Decade of the Oak,” on Thursday, March 27, and listened as he presented the curiosities and importance of the Oregon white oak. In addition to his teaching work at Willamette, Craig has been involved in researching human interaction in the environment and the behavior of multiple species for years.

Attendees first played a quiz led by Craig that revealed everything from how to say oak tree in Chinook Wawa — the Indigenous language of the Kalapuya peoples and other tribes in the Pacific Northwest — to what the science community calls a person who studies tree rings. The answer to the latter is a dendrochronologist, Craig revealed, as there happened to be one in the audience. 

Craig then stressed the importance of protecting old white oaks, as they are “water conservation wizards” essential to the wellbeing of many other species in the Willamette Valley, especially the white breasted nuthatch bird, which has a very high affinity to white oaks. At the age when humans start using glasses and getting visibly old, oaks are “just getting started,” Craig said. He also joked that the oaks are the “same color as money,” signifying their capacity to protect the fertility of the land — an especially important task as the world gets hotter and drier due to climate change.

Oaks are present in Oregon residents’s lives in a more meaningful way than they might think, including making up a substantial portion of the new terminal at Portland International Airport and the floor at Venti’s — where the event was held — Craig noted. The trees are in parks and people’s backyards, and oaks are also instrumental to the well-being of multiple species, including humans and their interaction with the environment. 

Craig argues we should protect the Oregon white oak by planting more, protecting the existing trees, especially the old ones, and tracking their development. He is deeply involved in preserving white oaks in the Salem community, from documenting the history of one of the oldest in Salem — removed last year by the city due to a fungus spread — to partnering with his students to study them closely after an ice storm damaged many. 

Craig also founded Growing Oaks, a project that “entails collecting acorns from Oregon Oaks and growing them into saplings to be planted around Willamette’s campus, the Zena property, as well as public and private properties around Salem,” according to its website.

Referencing the acorns he gave out at the start of the talk, Craig talked about his interest in planting more oak trees in Salem. “You plant acorns in your yard. I plant acorns in other people’s yards,” he joked. 

Taylor and Dylan McDowell have not announced the next speakers of Salem Talks Science but plan to make their science pub a long term and regular occurrence, especially after the success of Craig’s talk, which filled up the restaurant.