Woods, John George

"At an early age moved to Toronto, Ontario. Life in a big city made me appreciate wild places and through my high school years I spent most of my free time exploring the ravines, wood lots, and shorelines around my home. In my mid-teens, I summoned my courage and knocked on the huge wooden doors of the Ornithology Department at the Royal Ontario Museum. Greeted with warmth and enthusiasm by the curators, I have always credited the "ROM" as a place that encouraged youth. This was one of the chief assets of being brought up in Toronto. At 17, I landed my first job as a Park Naturalist in Algonquin Provincial Park. As a high-school student, I couldn't start until the last days of June and within a week found myself in front of park audiences giving talks on subjects like "The Mammals of Algonquin Park". In Algonquin, I met and worked with the famous Ontario naturalist Russell J. Rutter. As author of the park's interpretive newspaper "The Raven", Russ would often spend the night shift in the Algonquin Museum running off the weekly edition. When this was done, Russ and I would sometimes spend the rest of the night howling for timber wolves, listening to Barred Owls, and talking about our favourite subject -- nature. With one summer off to work as a research assistant on bats with the ROM, I worked as a Park Naturalist in either Algonquin or Pinery Provincial Parks until I graduated from university. I count myself as very fortunate in being hired as full-time Park Naturalist by Parks Canada in 1972. Since that time I have had a variety of postings within Parks Canada as a Chief Park Naturalist, a wildlife researcher, and an Acting Chief Park Warden and have worked in Banff, Mount Revelstoke and Glacier, and St. Lawrence Islands National Parks. My perspective on park interpretation has always combined research with public communications. Whether working as a bat research assistant for the ROM or a wildlife biologist studying the DNA fingerprints of grizzly bears, I believe in taking park audiences close to the front lines of science. At the interface of science and the public, I have authored numerous popular and scientific writings including two small books: Glacier Country (Douglas and McIntyre 1987) and Snow War - An Illustrated History of Rogers Pass (National and Provincial Parks Association of Canada 1983). My major interpretation projects and commitments have included: the Rogers Pass Centre; Skunk Cabbage, Giant Cedars, Abandoned Rails, Loop, Booth Rock and Sunday Creek Bog trails; a term as editor of Interpretation Canada's newsletter; a guest editor for an issue of "The Raven"; and, as project leader for the movie "Snow War" (National Film Board). I hold a B.Sc. in Biology from the University of Guelph, a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of British Columbia and am a registered professional biologist in British Columbia. While I now work primarily in wildlife research, I maintain an active interest in interpretation and gives frequent public lectures and field trips related to my work." In 1973 he was one of the participants in the organizing meeting at Dorset ON for the Association of Canadian Interpreters (the fore-runner of Interpretation Canada.) In 1982 he was the Publications Committee Chair for Interpretation Canada and served as Managing Editor of Interpretation Canada Journal.