Newsmaker




Monday, February 24, 1997

Name: Andrea Beck
Age: 43
Education: Roosevelt '71, Stanford '76
Occupation: Hawaii Forest Industry Association executive
Exercise: Soccer

"We know it's a good investment. How outrageously good is going to depend on your situation," she said.

Including finished products such as furniture, Hawaii's forest industry was worth $28.9 million in 1991 (the most recent figures), ahead of coffee and papayas, she said.

Two actions sought by the association are taking place: a $500,000 request in the Legislature to match federal forestry money, and pro-forestry property tax changes on Kauai and the Big Island.

The forestry association is also in noncommercial activity, such as restoring eight acres of dry-land forest in Kona.

Beck is excited about these things because they're part of the forestry association job she began last year. Environmental interest also runs in the family.

The daughter of former lieutenant governor and avid hiker and camper Tom Gill, Beck is the niece of Hawaii naturalist Lorin Gill.

Besides the new part-time forestry job, Beck continues her part-time state job of the last 16 years showing homeowners how to build alternative energy projects.

"It's been a job where I know I've made a difference. It was a very hands-on job," she said.

Beck was doing hands-on work soon after returning from college at Stanford.

She helped build the Makiki-Tantalus trail system in the late 1970s.

In college she was got a taste of her two present jobs combined when she studied biomass energy tree farms.

Her degree was in communications, which serves her well for the minimagazine "Woods" she writes and edits for the forestry job and "Transitions," which she formerly produced for the energy job.