Jay Mengel

Just before they were engaged to be married, Jay Mengel and Lois DeMarco decided to challenge their relationship by co-authoring a book. They passed the challenge and discovered that they make quite a team. Both brought talents that enabled them to build on each other's expertise to produce the field guide: "Identifying Trees of the West."

Jay graduated from Lebanon Valley College and retired from the US Air Force after almost 30 years of service as a pilot and staff officer. He was a member of a multi-service staff that wrote documents for General Colin Powell during Desert Storm when General Powell was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. After retirement, he rekindled his interest in nature by volunteering as a Master Naturalist in Mississippi. He took the interpretive skills he learned in that role and started a nature tour business giving informative and in-depth tours of the Pascagoula River and coastal barrier islands on Mississippi. He later took these skills to national forests, state and national parks, and national wildlife refuges across the nation where he volunteered, giving interpretive programs for visitors. He visited Yellowstone National Park and after a season as a volunteer, he returned for two additional seasons as an interpretive ranger working at the Junior Ranger Station in Madison Junction.

Lois, a graduate of Rutgers University, was a 34-year career forester with the US Forest Service. A certified silviculturist, Lois spent most of her career on the Allegheny National Forest in Northwest Pennsylvania. During her last six years as the Ecosystem Management Staff Officer, she was responsible for all the biological science programs on the forest, including timber management, silviculture, and wildlife, as well as soil, water, and air programs. Her writing skills were honed by authoring complex environmental impact studies and technical assessments on forest sustainability. Lois, who took most of the photos used in the book, sparked her interest in photography after retirement by capturing images of birds as she and Jay chased the spring migration of warblers from the Texas/Mexico border to Ohio. Lois's childhood vacations took her to national parks across the country. Through this experience of traveling across the nation and seeing much of our beautiful country she developed her love of the outdoors and nature.

Both Lois and Jay have connections with the US Forest Service, Northern Experiment Station, Forestry Sciences Laboratory in Irvine, PA: Lois as a collaborator on several silvicultural research papers and presentations; Jay as a botany technician identifying forest plants and trees for several research projects.

After researching and compiling the text for Identifying Trees of the West, they took off on an extended honeymoon in their motorhome. Along with Jazzy, their 14 year old Australian Shepherd, they visited national forests, and state and national parks throughout the west collecting additional information and taking the photos for the book.