Interview with Kenn Kaufman

[XemaSab]

http://www.grist.org/comments/interactivist/2005/05/09/kaufman/index.html?source=daily

A Man of His Bird
Kenn Kaufman, birding guru, answers Grist's questions


What, in a perfect world, would constitute "mission accomplished"?


Real success for me, died-and-gone-to-heaven success, would be a world in which every adult and teenager could actually recognize fifty species of animals and plants native to their own region, and actually gave a damn about the continued survival of those species.


What's been the best?


Just a couple of months ago ... I'd spent four years trying to convince my publisher that my field guide to North American birds should be published in Spanish. After all, there are close to 30 million people in the U.S. who speak Spanish at home. The publisher was apprehensive that there wouldn't be a market for this book, so ultimately I paid for the translation myself, did all the prep for getting it ready to print. This March, we went to Portland, Ore., where the local Audubon chapter was doing outreach to the local Hispanic community, and I did an evening program to introduce the book. Well, we had something like 150 people there, whole families, lots of kids, and we had this rowdy session with my fractured Spanish, talking about bird-watching as a great family activity, and a number of these young fathers were coming up afterward to buy the book and tell me they were going to take their kids birding. It felt like a validation of what I was doing. I'm losing money on the book, but I think it can make a difference and get a new audience turned on to nature.


Who is your environmental nightmare?


Ronald Reagan. Before Reagan, the Republican Party and conservatives in general were not strongly anti-environment. Reagan's administration accelerated the trend toward conservatives trashing the environment (and environmentalists) to create short-term increases in profits for their wealthy donors. By the time Reagan's eight years in office had ended, anyone who wanted clean air or clean water or biodiversity or healthy ecosystems was being labeled as a liberal, a left-wing radical. The environment had crystallized into a left-vs.-right issue. Even today, of course, there are plenty of Republicans who are good environmentalists, but the overall party platform goes the other way. The George W. Bush administration obviously has a bad track record on the environment, but it was Reagan who unthinkingly set the stage.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

1. What a smart man.

I enjoyed that. Thanks.
I particularly was interested in this:

Q: Who's the biggest pain in the ass you have to deal with?

A: I hate to say this, but when you're trying to get more people interested in birds and nature at the most basic level, as I'm doing, a lot of the opposition and obstruction comes from "serious" birders and naturalists who want to set the bar too high for newcomers. They're zeroed in on their own area of interest, and they can't see the conservation value of having large numbers of enthusiasts whose interest is more casual but still genuine.

That just amazes me. Birding isn't an elitist hobby/passion.
That's what I liked about my ornithology class this past semester. My instructor's main goal was a beginner class to enable students to discover the fun in birding.
It worked too.

[XemaSab]

2. I had the pleasure of meeting him

a few years ago, and he's the nicest guy. He always listens to questions and he's very humble.

The best thing he said was that there are a lot of people who are great birders, but not so many people who are great all-around naturalists. That stuck with me.

[amazona]

3. I love his guides

The Bird guide is the one I carry in the field for weight reasons. Other guides are more complete but for light-weight for a small person who can't carry much weight, his book takes the prize. It is also easy for beginners to use. I'm teaching a new birder a little at a time, a hobby birder, and he uses Kaufmann because the organization of the book is a little easier than the classic taxonomic organization of the others.

His Butterfly guides make the other Butterfly guides I've seen look sick!

I find a big issue in out-reach to newbies/hobbyists is to talk to them on their level of interest. Don't try to worry them about getting an ID on every shorebird. Find the Osprey or the Great Blue Heron or the Bald Eagle. Big birds = big thrills. They don't have to be rare birds.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[semillama]

4. I looked at his guide

wasn't sure about it. Very different looking to this recent Sibley convert.

Still, I'm thinking it might make a great cross-country travel guide for my unfortunately too infrequent trips to different parts of the country.