The Daily - Day 1 - June 18, 2019 - 30

Ideas
B I G

A C T I O N

Peacock founded the nonprofit
Save the Yellowstone Grizzly in
2016 in response to attempts to remove the bears' threatened status
under the Endangered Species Act.

Hayduke Lives

The legendary Doug Peacock, who continues
to fight for wild places and grizzly bears,
will speak at tomorrow's Conservation
Alliance Breakfast. By Doug Schnitzspahn
a giant in the American conservation movement. The basis for
the much beloved character of
Hayduke in Edward Abbey's iconic
novel The Monkey Wrench Gang,
Peacock, 77, spent two tours as a
special forces medic during the
Vietnam War before returning to
the U.S. to find healing and hope
in the wilderness, especially in
the company of grizzly bears. A
2007 Guggenheim fellow, he is the
author of Grizzly Years: In Search
of the American Wilderness. He
currently serves as chairman of
the board of Round River, which
works with indigenous people
and governments to develop region-wide conservation strategies,
and he also founded the nonprofit Save the Yellowstone Grizzly
(savetheyellowstonegrizzly.org).
What will you be talking about
at The Conservation Alliance
Breakfast tomorrow?

I'm going to blab about my origin story. I think I should try to
explain the story of my life, why I
decided that saving wilderness and
wild country is the most important thing I can do. It's a long story
that starts way back in Vietnam
and involves many years with
grizzly bears. Part of that involves
talking about the bears and talking
about Ed Abbey. I'll try to convert
anybody I can, but I know there's
going to be a divergence of opinion.

30

What is something most people
don't know about grizzly bears?

All you have to do in grizzly country to be safe is not be a threat to
a mother's cubs. If you don't run,
if you don't make a quick move, if
you're not a threat, they leave you
alone. As a matter of fact, sometimes the mothers will come and
leave the cubs with you while they
do some other activity like fish for
salmon. My daughter and I had
that happen to us two years ago
in Yellowstone.
How can grizzly bears continue
to survive?

It will be a miracle if humans
survive. When I fight for grizzly
bears, I'm doing the same thing I
do for any other animal-bison or
elk or human beings. I see it as all
the same. We need habitat to survive. We didn't evolve in cities and
farms. We evolved in what is today called wilderness. And so I'm
going to fight to keep some of that
around. But the key for grizzlies
in the short run is human tolerance. They're not going to make it
without human tolerance.
What can people learn today
from Edward Abbey?

He makes his own case: You
know, if an armed murderous
robber bashed down your door and
started chopping up your furniture
with an ax, what the fuck would
you do? He went to more extremes

/ SUMMER MARKET 2019

than we go to today. He believed in
civil disobedience. He also had a
wonderful cranky sense of humor.
What gives you hope?

The hearts and minds of some
really good human beings. There
are a lot of people who care about
their communities and care beyond their own species. I've always
believed in our tolerance for other
species and other races, languages,
and cultures-our ability to care
for an animal or a stranger. And
we're going to need a lot of that.
Does Hayduke live?

Sometimes. I was in the hospital
yesterday because I banged the
shit out of my hip. I had about a
quart of fluid burst through the

side of my leg. It's going to take a
week or two to heal up. I don't give
a damn. It's a beautiful day today.
I'll take my dog out to a big flat
with all these buffalo drive lines on
it, some of them from about 3,000
years ago. It's a beautiful place. I'm
looking forward to it.
Doug Peacock will be speaking
at The Conservation Alliance
Breakfast tomorrow, June 19,
7-9 a.m., at the Hyatt Regency
Centennial Ballroom, 650 15th
Street, Denver. Peacock plans to
show Grizzly Country, a short
film about him by Ben Moon
and Peak Design. The breakfast
will also celebrate recent wins,
member-funded grants, and steer
a course for the coming year.

BEN MOON

SIMPLY PUT, DOUG PEACOCK IS
http://www.savetheyellowstonegrizzly.org
The Daily - Day 1 - June 18, 2019

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