science – Jonathan C. Slaght

April 25, 2017

Science-Based Decision Making: An Example from the Russian Far East

Slaght_EarthDay02_poachers — An infrared, motion-triggered camera catches poachers spotlighting along an old logging road in Primorye, Russia. Photograph © WCS Russia

This article, written for Earth Day 2017 and in support of the March for Science, first appeared on the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Medium page.

I’m a wildlife conservationist and I work in Russia. Here is a tiny example, from that corner of the world that shows how maintaining a grounding in scientific principles benefits both humans and wildlife.

Ternei County (in the Russian province of Primorye) is remote, forested, and sparsely populated. There are few opportunities for steady employment here, with the logging industry being one of the few exceptions. In fact, a single logging company acts as the primary employer in at least four of the ten villages scattered across this 11,000 square mile area.

Over the past thirty years, more and more of Ternei County have been opened up for timber harvest, driven by global demand, with logging roads reaching further and further into these forests of pine, oak, and birch.

As a wildlife conservationist I was concerned that poachers were using old logging roads to shoot deer, wild boar, and even tigers, but intuition was not enough to guide change in logging management practice. The forests appear vast and limitless to anyone passing through them, so how can I measure the impact of logging roads?

My team designed a study.

Continue reading “Science-Based Decision Making: An Example from the Russian Far East”

February 3, 2017February 3, 2017

History in my Mailbox

titlepage — Vladimir Arsenyev’s 1921 “Across the Ussuri Kray”

Last week, at one of the many airports between Myanmar and Minnesota, I received an email from Carol Ueland, my undergraduate advisor at Drew University’s Russian Department. She forwarded me a Russian academic listserv message from a woman offering up a copy of Vladimir Arsenyev’s “Dersu Uzala” free to anyone who wanted it. Carol knew I had just translated Arsenyev’s “Across the Ussuri Kray” and thought I might also be interested in “Dersu Uzala.”

I wrote the woman, sent her my address, and the book arrived at my home in Minnesota a few days ago. I almost passed out when I opened the package.

I had assumed this would be a copy of Malcolm Burr’s translation of “Dersu,” probably the 1996 reprint, but that’s not what I received. This was a first edition of Vladimir Arsenyev’s “Across the Ussuri Kray,” from 1921. The unabridged, uncensored version that my translation was based on (I used a contemporary copy). I’ve been looking for this book for years, and it’s NOT easy to find.

It was self-published by Arsenyev in Vladivostok, at the height of the Russian Civil War. I’m not sure how many were printed but not too many survived. Paper quality was poor and the volume was extremely popular, so the books simply disintegrated as they passed from one eager reader to the next.

Over the years I’ve found a few records of copies sold at Russian auctions, where they fetched $500-$1000, and the only copy I’ve actually seen for sale had a $1000 price tag. So owning a copy has been a bit of a pipedream for me—even if I found one there’s no way I could afford it.

Yet here one was, sent me to me randomly and unintentionally by a stranger.

Yes, the copy I received is in terrible shape: the paper is brittle, the binding is broken, and it’s missing the title page (which is why the sender misidentified it as “Dersu Uzala”). But the book is an absolute treasure, historically and personally, and I am thrilled to put it on the bookshelf next to my translation of this Russian natural history classic.

September 15, 2015September 15, 2015

A Reluctant Participant

Boreal Owl (c) J. Slaght — A Tengmalm’s (or Boreal) owl. Photograph © Jonathan C. Slaght

One night, while mist-netting for larger owls, my Russian colleagues and I were surprised to find a Tengmalm’s owl in our net. This diminutive bird—which for some reason reminds me of a sprinkle-covered chocolate cupcake—is better known in North America as a boreal owl. The species is scattered at low densities across the coniferous forest belt from Alaska to Ontario and Norway to Kamchatka; smudges of brown and white difficult to discern among the shadows and grey lines of the dark forests they call home.This one had likely been stalking a vole when it dropped noiselessly into our near-invisible net; a mistake we took advantage of by snapping photos, taking measurements, and collecting a DNA sample.

The owl wiggled throughout this process and chirped its indignation; a reluctant participant in our pursuit of knowledge. Upon release, he quickly melted into the forest with a turn and a few quick flaps on silent wings; alighting to roost once more among the aromatic firs.

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This post originally appeared on May 13, 2015, as part of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Wild View blog.