I think, I don’t know if this trip per se didn’t shape the zoo’s responsibility part. That part, I think really just clicked in an instant again, when Gerry Durrell started writing his books about setting up first his little animal collection books, which were all hysterical and funny and… Read More
But then when he started getting a little more serious, and I went, yeah, that’s what zoos ought to be doing is besides just having one of everything because I mean, we really did rank our institutions with, “I’ve got one of these, you don’t have one of those.” And… Read More
That was the collection plan. And so, zoo director of zoos looked quite different one from the other depending on the director and whether he liked it, and wanted to put it in his collection. And I kept thinking there has to be a better reason, I mean, than just,… Read More
We need to take care of the ones that need the help.” Did this trip cement your love for deserts?… Read More
He had leased the property in 1968, I believe, but they were looking for somebody, they started looking for somebody to actually work there and put enough money together to hire somebody in 1969. So, I was being interviewed in the end of 1969, and I was hired in March… Read More
What were you discovering?… Read More
I was discovering that there were millions of ways to do interpretation, and that most of them seem to be useless to me. I would look at zoos and I’d see some terrible exhibits, and I’d go into the park center buildings and they had a lot of panel type… Read More
How did this trip shape your views on nature or zoos responsibilities?… Read More
At that point it was called the Living Desert Reserve. The local individuals that had started this were very well connected in the little community of what was Palm Springs at the time. They actually went to the Disney family who had a home in Palm Springs, got permission from… Read More
And so, but he liked this particular property and that’s why he was able to get it leased from the water district. He was very well connected and our water district is, in the desert your water district is probably your biggest public agency. And they have all the power,… Read More
What year was this?… Read More
I don’t know anything about starting a facility from scratch.” And he said, “Well, I was a young herpetology student just out of college when I got the job at Arizona Sonora Desert Museum to help start it at scratch.” He said, “I didn’t know anything either. You’ll figure it… Read More
So- They hired you as what?… Read More
The only employee and I was, my first title was Resident Naturalist because my first job was to help raise enough money to put a small building on the property that they had leased. And I was supposed to live there and interpret the property, just be like a park… Read More
And this was called the Living Desert Project?… Read More
And he said, “Well, it’s kind of odd because I’m bringing somebody here that lives there (chuckles). Why don’t you go back and talk to her?” And so, they came back and found me and talked to me about starting a nature center. And I didn’t know quite what to… Read More
And so, I drove over to Arizona and I sat on the floor of Bill Woodin’s house on his floor and I said, “What on earth should I do?… Read More
So, some of these techniques you were able to transfer over?… Read More
In the summer of 1970, you traveled 10,000 miles to study nature reserves?… Read More
Right. Well, by that point, I’d been hired by the Living Desert. That in itself was kind of an interesting piece of luck, although I always tell young people, you make your luck to a certain degree. You gotta have some luck, but you can’t stay at home waiting for… Read More