CNR honors outstanding alums
Utah State University’s College of Natural Resources recently honored two alumni for outstanding professional achievements. Dennis T. Becenti of Fort Defiance, Ariz., and Brad R. Quayle of Salt Lake City, received citations in a ceremony conducted April 9 by Dean Fee Busby.
Becenti, who earned a bachelor’s degree in range science from Utah State in 1977, received the Outstanding Achievement Award. During his career with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Soil Conservation Service (now known as the Natural Resources Conservation Service), Becenti assisted landowners and Tribal governments of both the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Tribes to improve management of rangelands. He led the Navajo Nation in developing its first Soil and Water Conservation District and holds the distinction of being the first native-born Navajo District Conservationist on the reservation.
Becenti considers his work to help the Paiute Tribe develop a range management plan for its reservation one of his most important accomplishments. Throughout his career, he has stressed education as a vital part of his work and has voluntarily taught range ecology and management classes for students at Navajo high schools.
Earlier this year, Becenti received the 2005 W.R. Chapline Land Stewardship Award from the Society for Range Management at the organization’s annual meeting in Fort Worth, Texas.
Quayle, who graduated from Utah State in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in geography, received the Professional Achievement Award. He is currently employed as a geographic information systems specialist with the USDA Forest Service Remote Sensing Applications Center in Salt Lake City. Quayle manages technical operations of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Active Fire Mapping program, which uses satellite image data to monitor wildfire activity in the continental United States, Alaska and Canada.
In addition to his responsibilities with MODIS, Quayle is involved in the application of remote sensing and related geospatial technologies for other Forest Service projects, including burn-scar mapping, post-fire ecosystem recovery monitoring and burn-severity mapping. During his 13-year federal career, Quayle also served with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Omaha, Neb., and has written or coauthored numerous professional papers.