It doesn’t sound like you were in the shadow of anybody at Joshua Tree, being the first.
That’s true, of course, depending on who you follow.
Barbara: But, the ranger there, Chuck Adams, was very interested in natural history and he knew a lot more about the birds and the animals than Bruce did at the start.
He probably still does. I talked to the superintendent about “I need training” and “how about if I go up to Yosemite for two weeks and see what I can find out from everybody up there”. The regional office approved of this, and Doug Hubbard, who was the chief naturalist in Yosemite at the time, approved of the idea. We went up as a family and spent two weeks at Yosemite and I got into everything I could there: the library, seasonal talks, nature trails, publications, and museum. I worked very intensively for two weeks, and I think this was some of the best training that I ever had.
Do you think Yosemite would be the best place, if you were to do that again?
I don’t know. I haven’t thought about that.
Barbara: Well, you had individual training too. It was just you there, and they helped you and answered all your questions.
That’s right. Tremendous cooperation. I remember when we took a vacation (this was on our own) and we stopped at Grand Canyon. I heard Louis Shelback, who was chief naturalist at that time, speak in the lodge at the north rim of Grand Canyon to a packed house. It was packed with people and Louis came out on stage, no slides, no notes, nothing like that and he mesmerized the audience with what he had to say. And he was so impressive I felt, “gee, it’s impossible to be like that.” I was kind of sorry I decided to become a park naturalist! The contrast was just so great. I think he was one of the people that said, “don’t try to be like anybody else, be like yourself.” That gave me a little different perspective. Also, he showed me all through their study collections, what they were doing there, and this added, I think I could have learned a lot in a number of different parks. But these things were both very helpful. So I spent a lot of time developing nature trails and publications, a slide fire. I also remember that Joshua Tree was loaded with archeology. I spent a lot of time getting the museum study collections in order. And that was at a time when the Park Service was getting much better organized in giving the field a unified system with which to work.
