Jack Ward Thomas – författare

When Jack Ward Thomas was named chief of the U.S. Forest Service in 1993, only  twelve men had ever known the staggering responsibility, political pressure—and extraordinary opportunities to influence the future of America’s natural resources—that came with the job.Theodore Roosevelt had created the agency in 1905, appointing Gifford Pinchot as its first chief. Now Thomas would shoulder the load once borne by two icons of the conservation movement.Forks in the Trail is a collection of stories about the experiences that shaped the values, knowledge, skills, and decisions of a field biologist who came from a hardscrabble Texas farm and eventually rose to the pinnacles of natural resource leadership in Washington, D.C.Thomas arrived at his new post with a unique set of perspectives and experiences. His formal education and decades of forest, range, and wildlife research had prepared him academically. His rural upbringing and passions for nature, hunting, and sustainable use of natural resources had prepared him pragmatically. But it was basic moxie that ultimately equipped Thomas to confront the most controversial conservation topics of the day, from protecting old-growth timber and spotted owl habitat to the deaths of  fourteen wildland firefighters in 1994.Thomas’s life is the story of how conservation and natural resources management happened in America during the second half of the  twentieth century. But more than just old war stories, timelines, and reiterations of his curriculum vitae, Forks in the Trail offers intensely personal reflections of life lessons—of the “foibles, fears, mistakes, adventures, misadventures, successes, failures, and comedies of errors and ego”—learned along the way to a full, remarkable career."During my life," Thomas writes, "I had many adventures, good and bad; achieved beyond my wildest dreams; and, to my lasting chagrin, too often fell short. In the process I learned much; lost often but won some too; suffered the ''slings and arrows of outrageous fortune''; helped foment some troublesome quandaries; and helped in the resolution of others."With tales well told, Forks in the Trail reveals a distinctive life and an illustrious career.

Wilderness is smooth sippin’-whiskey for the outdoorsman’s soul. But it’s also espresso for those determined to keep America’s wildest places untrammeled by man.For Jack Ward Thomas, it was both.Wilderness Journals tells the story of how Thomas came to know the “high lonesome” and how his experiences packing into rough country with fine horses and good friends would fuel his passion and vision as chief of the U.S. Forest Service.A true journal-style memoir, Thomas describes adventures along the trail, including encounters with bold bears, reclusive war veterans, and vast expanses of the West that only the heartiest explorers ever see. He writes about the wildlife, forests, meadows, and mountains with two voices. One is the voice of an emerging conservation leader looking into the future of natural resource management. The other is the voice of a backcountry horseman simply doing what he loves.When Thomas moved to Oregon in 1973 to begin work as a research biologist, he found a mentor and enduring friend in Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife regional director Bill Brown. It was a camaraderie that changed Thomas’s life and career. Together, the two embarked on a decades-long odyssey of wild-country experiences that would galvanize Thomas’s will to beat back the exploiters who gaze upon America’s wildernesses and see only dollar signs.An appendix in Wilderness Journals includes specific examples. During his tenure as Forest Service chief, which began in 1993, Thomas intended to enhance and expand America’s wilderness system. But changing the status quo comes hard for a federal agency. In revealing commentary, Thomas probes behind-the-scenes political struggles, internal resistance, final analyses of his defeats—as well as his hopes for the future.

Hunting nourishes human bodies, minds, and, in some cases, careers. Like many rural Texas youths in the 1940s, Jack Ward Thomas learned to hunt early on. It provided food for his family and a lifetime of enjoyment. But hunting also brought Thomas to his life’s work in conservation, highlighted by his tenure as chief of the U.S. Forest Service.Hunting Around the World offers the best accumulated stories, nostalgia, and wisdom of a quintessential hunter-conservationist.Thomas hunted red stag in the Scottish highlands, doves in Argentina, caribou in Alaska, and all manner of big, small, and feathered game across the United States. But his first and most enduring love was hunting in the "high lonesome" of western wildernesses, most often with his wise companion in adventure, Bill Brown. Thomas’s storytelling about those quests is classic sporting literature. Readers will feel the chill of a frosty mountain morning, tense moments as a bull elk wanders into shooting range, exhilaration as well as "pangs of conscience" in making a kill, and the wistfulness of truth that old age and old injuries will someday bring every hunter’s backcountry chapters to an end.The field accounts in Hunting Around the World are enriched by the perspective of a man who devoted his life to sustainable management of natural resources. As author, Thomas often switches from his well-worn hunting hat to  that of a veteran biologist, field researcher, and U.S. Forest Service chief. This unique insight is what makes Thomas’s hunting memoir an unusual and special work.Thomas concludes with thoughtful analyses of why he hunted, fair chase, simple-minded critics of hunting, habitat loss as the greatest threat to both wildlife and hunting, and his final surrender—leaving his cherished firearms to heirs: "It seems sad that I can’t pass along my memories that are attached to the rifles, shotguns, and pistols. But that’s as it should be. Guns and their owners should make their own memories together."