The life and legacy of a Tamaqua area man will be celebrated with the planting of a tree at Penn State Schuylkill’s arboretum on Arbor Day, April 24.

The dawn redwood will honor the late Michael Mazur of Hometown, a longtime employee of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry.

Mazur, who graduated with a degree in forestry from Penn State, dedicated his career to protecting and nurturing the woodlands of Schuylkill, Carbon and Lehigh counties, said Frank Snyder, a volunteer with the Schuylkill County Conservancy and retired bureau service forester.

“He was an incredible guy,” Snyder said of Mazur, who passed away in December 2023.

Snyder began working for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources (now the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources) Bureau of Forestry in 1974.

About two years later, Mazur began working as a part-time fire tower watchman in Schuylkill County. He returned the following year as a part-time fire patrolman, Snyder noted.

From there, he was hired as a full-time fire inspector, a job now known as a fire forester, for the Weiser Forest District.

“He was in charge of fire suppression in Carbon County and parts of northern Lehigh and eastern Schuylkill county,” Snyder said. “He had a pretty big responsibility for wildfires in that area — and he had a strong desire to fight wildfires.”

In the role, Mazur was in charge of fire crews and volunteer fire wardens in the region.

“He knew the responsibility and the dangers involved, and how to deal with people,” Snyder said.

Mazur’s career continued with the bureau, with his next role as service forester for Carbon and Lehigh counties — a job he held for many years.

He was later promoted to assistant district forester for the Weiser Forest District, which at the time included about 20,000 acres on multiple tracts of land in Schuylkill, Carbon, Lebanon and Dauphin counties.

“What I always admired about Mike was that he did every job you could think of in the (Weiser) district,” Snyder said. “One of his primary efforts was he was in charge of the wildfire suppression activities in the district and he eventually moved on to manage the state forest land in the district.”

Snyder credited Mazur with obtaining much-needed equipment for fire protection when state funding wasn’t always available.

“He would search for military surplus and from that, he got tires for our fire tankers and trucks. He got all kinds of equipment that we really didn’t have money to buy,” Snyder said.

Mazur was successful thanks to his ambition and dedication, Snyder said.

“This district actually used military deuce-and-a-half, 5-ton military trucks for fire fighting in the early days,” Snyder said. “They still use them but not like they did years ago.”

Snyder and Mazur retired around the same time about a decade ago.

“We kind of grew up together,” Snyder said. “We went through a period of history where jobs in forestry were pretty hard to get because no one would retire. It was a highly sought job to work for the Bureau of Forestry. People enjoyed the work.”

The Arbor Day event is open to the public and will be held from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. April 25 from the Penn State campus at 200 University Dr., Schuylkill Haven.

The gathering will celebrate the benefits that trees bring to our communities and the people whose commitment to conservation ensures that future generations inherit healthy, livable environments.

For more information, contact Snyder at 570-449-4239.