Dennis Tavares, a 87-year-old retired forester, is the 44th of the original licensed foresters in California. He is also a conservationist who studied forest science at the University of California at Berkeley, graduating cum laude. He subsequently made his home on the Mendocino Redwood Coast. He eventually wrote of his experiences in which his professional work allowed him to witness almost all the important events that created vast forest empires and a large fishing fleet. All of this wealth ultimately disappeared as the best-laid plans of men went awry. His experiences were adventurous because this area of California was culturally decades behind the rest of the state, which was growing very rapidly; he was, as it were, a latter-day pioneer. So he brought to his new home the perspective of the future he had grown up in.