ENHS Nature Trails Jan 99 Article 1

This month's speaker: Dave Stone

Wild Utah
by Dave Stone
Photographer, Conservationist and Naturalist, Eugene, Oregon
Friday, January 1, 7:30 p.m. Rm. 100, Willamette Hall, UO Campus.

Nature Trails conducted a brief interview with our speaker:

Were you interested in nature as a child?
My fondest early memories take place in the hedge bordering our yard and the neighboring golf course and in the apple tree that grew out of that hedge. There I found refuge from the world of adult rules and expectations. There I found the freedom to imagine and explore and become attached to the natural world.
We moved from that house when I was five years old and I begged my parents to take the apple tree with us. Of course that wasn't possible, but they promised that I could visit my tree when we came back to see our old neighbors. On our next visit a few months later, I was devastated to discover that my tree had been cut down. Thus, at that early age, I became a tree hugger and have been trying to save that apple tree ever since.

Parental influences?
Try as I might, I couldn't drag my sedentary father out of the house and into the woods. He aspired to be a writer and deserves credit for the writing talent I have. He was also a prolific snapshooter and taught me to value photography. My mother kept a bird feeder outside the kitchen window, but I didn't pay much attention to it.

Early teacher influences?
In spite of the endless movies about African insects and the diseases that they cause, my seventh grade science teacher Miss Stone (no relation, thank goodness) was unsuccessful in turning me off to the natural world. My freshman biology teacher, though, convinced me to avoid further formal study of biology, which I assumed involved dissecting ever bigger and more disgusting organisms than the earthworms and cow eyes he inflicted upon us.

Any nature hobbies?
Does being Conservation Chair of Lane County Audubon count? That plus my nature photography focus my attention on the natural world. If you're gonna save it, you gotta learn about it. When you photograph it, you pay a lot of attention to it--the landscape, the plants and animals, the seasons and the climate. My photographic specialty is moss, and I thank Dave Wagner for all I have learned about that obscure but vital part of the natural world.
The Audubon part of my hobby requires that I learn about birds. My major regret is that I didn't study birds when I was young. Like learning a second language, mastering birds, I assume, comes much easier at an early age,. It sure isn't coming easy now.

Memorable experiences, memorable travels?
That's the same thing, isn't it? I can't remember dates; I can't remember names; but I sure do remember places. I've long been afflicted with Bear Fever, as in "the bear went over the mountain to see what he could see..."
My primary life-changing experience was my first trip "out west" At the end of my first summer after graduating from high school in Ohio, a friend and I headed west. I had no idea of the scale of this country. On the first day, we "bagged" two states - Ohio and Indiana. The second day it was one and a half states - Illinois and part of Missouri. By the fourth day, it was down to part of Kansas. And so on. Imagine my surprise when we turned north in eastern Utah. What about California, I asked my tour-guide friend? Way too far for our two week schedule.
Well, I'm in charge now, and I get to go where I want. The Olympics for the rain forest, Grand Canyon for geology that makes your head hurt, Baja to go boating among the gray whales, but mostly to my adopted second home--southern Utah--for nearly unlimited opportunities for exploration and solitude and, of course photography: pronghorn, rattlesnakes, cactus, mysterious petroglyphs, stunning landscapes.

How did you get into photography?
In this, I was a late bloomer. My best friend in college was a photographer and he taught me everything you need to know to get serious about taking pictures. I was snapping away for about fifteen years before I decided to take the leap and make it my profession. I don't have the hand-eye coordination to draw or paint, so I never thought of myself as an artist. People who saw my work, though, called it art. Now I admit it. If I have a machine with dials and buttons and numbers, I can make art. Amazingly enough, people now pay me to take photographs - magazines, calenders, field guides, arts and crafts, even weddings. Most amazing of all, I've learned to get up in front of a group of people and teach them how to make photographs. They even pay me to take them to southern Utah and tell them what to do. Who could ask for more?

What brought you to our town?
When I was in fourth grade we studied climate of the US. The map colored everything east of the Mississippi green, indicating a hot and humid climate. The Great Plains were a desiccated brown. Up along the Oregon and Washington coast was sliver of blue, called Mediterranean climate. What a special place, I thought. In the 1970's all the good environmental news came from Oregon - the bottle bill, cleaning up the Willamette, even the wilderness victory at French Pete. In my late twenties, it was time to "go back to school." I literally searched the world for my ideal place and found Eugene, with the mountains and the coast an hour away, a top notch University and best of all, the locals speak English. So here I am, doing my darndest, like all the rest of us over-educated folks, trying to keep a foothold in the best place in the world.

What are you going to talk about?
What else? Southern Utah. I've traveled there nine times to take the cure for Bear Fever and, happily haven't recovered yet. I'll be showing you the hot spots like Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and the more obscure sites like Valley of the Gods (better than Monument Valley), Coral Pink Sand Dunes and the San Juan river

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