Steven V. Swain, UC Cooperative Extension environmental horticulture advisor for Marin and Sonoma counties, died unexpectedly in San Francisco on Feb. 8. He was 58.
He earned a bachelor's degree in biology from UC Santa Cruz in 1989 and got his start in commercial arboriculture working with Lewis Tree Service in Santa Cruz.
Swain joined UCCE in 2000 in Sonoma County as a staff research associate and sudden oak death project coordinator. After earning a master's degree in environmental horticulture from UC Davis in 2001, he joined UCCE specialist Matteo Garbelotto's lab at UC Berkeley, researching composting as a means of eradicating Phytophthora ramorum from infected green waste.
In 2006, Swain became the UCCE environmental horticulture advisor for Marin and Sonoma counties, doing research and educating UC Master Gardener volunteers and landscape professionals. He specialized in woody plants and their pests and diseases, integrated pest management, water use and conservation, and defensible space for fire resilience.
“Steven's curiosity and passion were infectious and engaging,” said David Lewis, UCCE director for Marin County and watershed management advisor. “He was a teacher and learner in every presentation and discussion. When I last spoke with Steven, he was excited about delivering a bilingual seminar for landscapers.”
Swain was always improving his Spanish and this was to be the sixth year of the Bilingual Gardener program, Lewis said.
“He taught in both English and Spanish with translation and co-teaching assistance from bilingual staff and UC Marin Master Gardeners,” Lewis said. “The Bilingual Gardener program was a priority for Steven. He was committed to support the small, independent landscape-care business owner by growing their technical knowledge and skill in soil management, plant care and irrigation system management. We have postponed this offering and hope to regroup and offer it before the end of the year.”
Scott P. Sherman struck up a friendship with Swain at an arboriculture conference when sudden oak death was new.
“Steven came out to job sites to inspect and evaluate tree issues and always was helpful, scientific and curious about what we saw,” said Sherman, president and CEO of AvidGreen Fine Landscaping, Vineyards & Backyard Farms. “He was open about needing to research issues further and always had new, useful information to share. I was fortunate to be able to readily contact Steven with questions about trees, IPM and general horticulture. We also shared strong interests in firesafe practices, defensible space, mulch flammability and education for our colleagues. I miss Steven daily, a cherished friend and colleague who always was there to entertain questions and share knowledge and insights.”
In 2020, Swain collaborated with Bill Tietje, UCCE natural resources specialist based in San Luis Obispo; Devii Rao, UCCE livestock and natural resources advisor; and Luke Macaulay, a former UCCE specialist at UC Berkeley, to create the UC Oaks website to organize oak ecology, management and oak woodland conservation information based on over 30 years of research.
“Steven was an incredibly knowledgeable pathologist and very willing to share,” said Tietje, noting that Swain answered questions from the “Ask an Oak Expert” feature on the UC Oaks Website and UC Master Gardeners in San Luis Obispo.
In 2021, Swain co-authored the 12-page guide “Reducing the Vulnerability of Buildings to Wildfire: Vegetation and Landscaping Guidance” with Yana Valachovic, UC Cooperative Extension forest advisor in Humboldt and Del Norte counties, and Stephen Quarles, UC Cooperative Extension advisor emeritus.
“Steven brought passion and joy to his work!” said Valachovic. “We wrote that publication during COVID and it remains a bright activity from that time.”
Professionalism, generosity, humor and fearlessness are four words Garbelotto associates with Swain.
“When Steve joined my lab at Berkeley, I knew I had struck gold,” said Garbelotto. “He did not complain about a project being too complex or arduous – he actually wanted these types of projects.”
Garbelotto assigned Swain to lead a project on the effects of composting on the sudden oak death pathogen.
“Before I knew it, he was asking me to tour his study sites, which were often enormous commercial composting facilities,” Garbelotto said. “I remember him climbing on 20-foot compost piles and without hesitation digging into the not-so-pleasant, smelly substrate under his feet. To produce enormous amounts of the pathogen to place into the compost piles, he created a sort of ‘Disney Resort for Phytophthora' in a commercial building with kiddy pools filled with floating leaves infected by the SOD pathogen; it was a ‘go-big-or-go-home' kind of impact. Truly impressive for a starting scientist.”
“In spite of his huge project, Steve took on two other major projects with me. One of them involved placing hundreds of buckets in the Santa Cruz mountains, filling them with hand-carried water every two weeks to capture the swimming SOD pathogen. I think you get the picture of how arduous that was. At the same time, I found out he was selflessly helping others with their projects, finally contributing to a dozen papers.”
On Swain's dry sense of humor, Garbelotto said: “I recall him talking to a passerby and telling him we were doing some final assessment because the whole mountain was going to be strip mined, and he said that with a totally straight face.”
“Steve was a go-getter and he was not one to say no whether the experiment involved tree climbing or using incredibly dangerous tools,” Garbelotto said. “I remember holding my breath many times when he was performing these dangerous tasks with no apparent fear.”
In addition to admiring his colleague's fearlessness, Garbelotto added that he appreciated Swain as a person, recalling “learning how to recognize a California walnut from him on a camping trip or sipping a gin and tonic sitting on hisDucati in the living room of the water tower where he lived.”
Swain was skilled in explaining science in terms easily understood by the general public. In 2015, KTVU in Oakland interviewed Swain about the discovery of a glassy-winged sharpshooter in Marin County.
“Basically what they act like are flying hypodermic needles and we don't need a big population of hypodermic needles flying around moving this stuff all through the grapevines," Swain told the reporter, explaining that the pest could spread the bacteria that causes Pierce's disease, which kills grapevines.
In 2023, he warned pet owners about poison hemlock blooming in the Bay Area after a wet winter, telling the San Francisco Chronicle: “Cats and dogs occasionally nibble on plants, and it doesn't take more than a few leaves to be fatal.”
Julia Van Soelen Kim, UCCE North Bay food systems advisor, wrote on Swain's memory wall: “I will always remember Steven as the natural conversationalist and storyteller that he was, sharing his overflowing enthusiasm, extensive knowledge, and helpful advice that usually came at the end with the phrase, ‘If it was my tree...', or ‘If it was my kid…' It's hard to imagine work without him and I know he will be deeply missed by our UCCE office colleagues, clientele, and community.”
Carole Garcia, a UC Master Gardener of Marin County, also wrote on the memory wall: “Hearing Steven speak at my first MMG Training class in 2022 was when I realized: ‘Wow. This is going to be even more entertaining than I thought!' He zipped around from topic to topic, never stayed within his allotted time limit, and was often irreverent. But he was also always generous with his time, his knowledge and his wit. He MADE us pay attention and learn fully as a result.”
Swain is survived by wife Deirdre, son Rowan, mother Julia Swain, father Oren Swain Jr. (Bridget Sisson) in Virginia, brother Matt Swain (Liu Ping), and two nieces.
Those wishing to send well-wishes to Swain's family are asked to mail cards to the UC Cooperative Extension Marin office, care of David Lewis, 1682 Novato Blvd., Ste. 150B, Novato, CA 94947. Comments also may be posted at https://www.online-tribute.com/StevenSwain. Planning is underway for a celebration of Swain's life, and Lewis will share those details when they are available.
UC Master Gardeners in Marin County produced a video immortalizing Swain demonstrating how to properly plant a tree https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFCV0KRwbX8.