T R I B U T E
Interview by Inga Yandell
Men of Character
Ladies it’s worth considering the Male Mentors in your Life.
For often their unique perspective, which is so different from ours, can provide an insight we might otherwise have overlooked.
This issue we delve into the mind of Douglas Chadwick and discover why he is Content to be Curious!
When it is beyond our means to travel to distant lands in search of adventure and knowledge, we must rely on the experiences of another.
Some people have a skill for writing with vivid detail and in their account will bring you along for the journey! Fortunately for those of us
who revere the splendor of Nature, it is captured in full when translated by Environmental Journalist Douglas Chadwick. With his unique
ability to translate a passion for wildlife, Doug inspires people to review their perspectives on the environment and consider their role in it’s
preservation!

I understand your career began as a boy, assisting your father with scientific fieldwork, was his influence the reason you pursued work
with wildlife?
My father was a Geologist, his work was very much an observational discipline that explored history from a natural perspective. We were
out in the field all the time learning how to see the earth in four dimensions (factoring in time) and getting a sense of layers and layers of
history. Mind you, I would see things in terms of layers and layers of life. Not the best Geologist, I would turn over a rock, see a beetle and
my mind would drift to the curious creature. I recall receiving a microscope one year from my father, which I put a drop of pond water
under, what I saw excited the imagination. It was teeming with micro-organisms, active and full of life. From that moment on I was
hooked! Certainly though, that time I spent in the outdoors helped develop my appreciation even further. Being that the most active
regions are also mountainous and remote we explored some truly beautiful places such as Alaska, the Rocky Mountains and Mexico. It is
much easier to connect with your surroundings when the landscape is so mighty, you are humbled and captivated by it’s splendor.

What was the greatest thing he taught you?
What makes for good natural history is a sense of wonder and curiosity, that will take you most of the way. I am privileged to look at these
things unfolding and continue to be in awe of what I see that is the most valued insight, just be open to the wonders around you. Withhold
your judgement, quit doing what we are so good at, which is instantly trying to categorize something and make it fit a pre-existing model.
Just sit and look awhile and after a bit this pattern emerges that is just astonishing.

When you moved your family to a remote cabin without utilities, were you hoping to pass down a genuine interest and appreciation for
nature to your children?
I didn’t have a family back then and my wife shared the same ideals of living a self-sufficient lifestyle in the woods. Where you see more
wildlife than people on a given day, that’s always a good thing. I always wanted to be a frontiers man and after living at high altitudes off
and on for 7 years to study the social behavior and ecology of mountain goats, it is hard to conceive living any other way. In all it was partly
about that romantic notion of returning to the land and relying on your own skills and partly about fulfilling that need to be amongst the
wilderness.
How difficult is it to rely on the land, creating a lifestyle based on simple needs, was there anything you did miss?
The best home I ever had was a fire pit under a piece of plastic strung between two spruce trees near a trout stream at the base of an
avalanche slope. Above that avalanche slope were some goat cliffs, where I watched bears and goats then down by the stream I would also
watch trout. Being surrounded by all these animals I realized they have a hierarchy, a social system, and their own language. With wild
flowers in abundance and these creatures roaming by, there was not much to miss! I learned how happy and full life could be content in the
simple things.
It always surprises me when people from the city who spend hours commuting in traffic, come out to the wilderness and say “isn’t life hard
out here?” Quite the opposite, I have found that the most pressing concern I might have is whether or not I should throw another log on the
fire. It comes down to perspective and without the trappings of modern convenience you learn to be mindful of your environment and
recognize a different kind of abundance.
Do you sacrifice safety living in the cabin or the bush, or is the suburban concept of security misleading?
Statistically here in the US, you have a 50% chance of being in a serious automobile accident in your lifetime. People would drive 2,000
miles cross country in their cars, which is the deadliest thing you can do statistically. They are living in a city with high crime, susceptible to
illness and stress yet for them an encounter with a bear poses more risk. I like to remind these folks that as soon as they get out of their car
and enter bear country their statistic for safety just improved dramatically. Whilst it is possible to come across a bear either in the wild or
sometimes in your own backyard, depending on your neighborhood. Bears are not the ominous beasts depicted on film or in dramatic
accounts of human terror and tragedy. Instead these giants are more often content to sneak their food from populated areas undetected
during the night and don’t roam about thirsty for human blood.
My favorite statistic for illustrating this point is, that vending machines kill more people annually than bears do! People get frustrated
when their candy won’t dispense and they start shaking the machine, it topples over and that’s that! Compared with cleaning the leaves out
of your roof gutter, the rates of falling to your death or incurring a serious injury are much higher than the dangers present in our woods.
The average number of people killed by dogs in North America is 15, as compared with an average of 1 person by bears, so the fear is
relevant only by perspective. Mentally the bear looms so ominously in our minds and after swimming with sharks on the Great Barrier Reef
I can relate to that fear. However, for me living in bear country the danger is only there because of the way we think about something big
enough to eat us, statistically it is meaningless.
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97