Leo L. Laythe was born on March 26, 1892. He was associated with Corvallis, Oregon, where he attended Oregon Agricultural College and participated in collegiate athletics. His recorded family relationships include his mother, Ella, and his father, Silas.
Laythe attended Oregon Agricultural College, now Oregon State University, and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1916. While a student, he was listed as a member of the 1914 Oregon Agricultural College football team. His scientific and agricultural education preceded a career in ranching, agricultural extension, wildlife management, and federal conservation administration.
Laythe began his working life as a rancher and in 1917 became a county agricultural agent in Cody, Wyoming, with assignments recorded in 1917, 1918, and 1919. In 1921 he entered the United States Biological Survey as a fieldman. His early federal work included field assignments in the western United States and participation in wildlife and predator-control programs. By the late 1920s and early 1930s he was associated with investigations and administrative work connected with Rocky Mountain National Park and the Biological Survey's Division of Game Management. He served as a regional director and directed federal wildlife activities in the western region, including migratory-bird refuges, predator and rodent control, wildlife-management operations, and conservation education. During the 1930s he reported on wildlife-management work in Colorado and Wyoming and participated in programs involving refuge protection and the enforcement of waterfowl regulations. After the creation of the Fish and Wildlife Service, he continued as regional director in Portland, Oregon. In that capacity he supervised regional refuge and fisheries programs across the Pacific Northwest and western states, including work involving the Klamath Basin, salmon and steelhead resources, hatcheries, fish passage, water diversions, pollution, and refuge administration. He was still identified as regional director of the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife in 1959 and was listed at the agency's Portland regional office. Laythe also authored a 1950 article on the development of the lower Columbia River fishery.
Directed federal wildlife-management and refuge programs across the western United States as a regional director of the Biological Survey and Fish and Wildlife Service.
Contributed to the administration and development of western fisheries and wildlife-conservation programs, including work concerning Columbia River salmon and steelhead resources.
(Journal article by Leo L. Laythe, published in Transactio...)
1950(Co-authored report by Roger W. Toll, Leo L. Laythe, and J...)
1927Laythe was associated with the Fisheries Society, Gamma Sigma Delta, and the Masons. His professional affiliations reflected his work in agriculture, fisheries, wildlife management, and federal conservation administration.
Laythe's recorded immediate family relationships include his mother, Ella, and his father, Silas. His professional connections included federal wildlife administrators, refuge managers, fisheries specialists, and conservation officials working throughout the western United States.
