Sisters naturalist "just loves life"
By Jim Cornelius

Folks in Sisters know where to turn when they have a question about the menagerie of wildlife that roams the Sisters Country. They ask Jim Anderson: Naturalist.

Anderson is quick to note that a "naturalist" is a biologist who flunked chemistry. If pressed for a self-definition, he says he's an "omnologist: a @#%!#@$!@# know-it-all."

All kidding aside — and he's is a kidder — the 80-year-old Anderson really does enjoy learning about just about anything.

"I'm interested in everything there is around," he said. "Because every part of this earth is connected to the other parts."

Anderson was never formally educated, but he has built a variety of careers out of his love for the natural world, a passion for flying and a knack for connecting with children and stoking their interest in the world around them.

Anderson was born March 27, 1928, and raised on a small farm in West Haven, Connecticut. On that farm, he learned the conservation ethic that would guide his life from his maternal grandfather.

The book "Where Rolls the Oregon," an account of a naturalist discovering the snowy egret in the Silver Lake area, inspired him to head west.

"For some reason I couldn't get it out of my mind," he said.

Jim rolled into Bend on his Harley-Davidson in September 1951, after spending four years in the U.S. Navy serving on sub-chasers. The day after he arrived in Bend he was fighting forest fires, using his Harley for transportation on mountain roads.

In the mid-'50s Jim spent time with Fort Rock horseman, Reub Long, author of "The Oregon Desert" to see if he wanted to be a buckaroo. He didn't.

He logged, mined pumice, and studied coyotes — which would lead him into a major political showdown with government trappers. Anderson was instrumental in forcing the adoption of new protocols for managing coyote predation.

Instead of indiscriminate use of poisons æ—æwhich often took the lives of raptors and other birds and mammals — Anderson and others urged predator-specific methods going after the coyote that actually was doing the damage to a rancher's livestock. The fight was backed by legendary Central Oregon legislator Sam Johnson.

The epic battle in which Anderson faced violent hostility from trappers and some wildlife managers ended with a win for Anderson — and for Don Coyote.

In 1962, Anderson landed a gig that would become a cornerstone of his life and reputation. He went to work for the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland.

Loren McKinley, the museum's director, offered him a position on a shoestring.

"He said, ïthe only money we've got is for a night watchman. Would you be a night watchman?' I said, ïIf that's what it takes.'

"I rode the night manager's wages right into the museum."

Anderson spent the years 1962-69 implementing outdoor education and scientific investigation activities for families, students and teachers, and operating science camps.

"I could do anything I wanted to," he said. "It was a magic time." Anderson's programs have been adopted by museums as far afield as Australia.

After OMSI Anderson moved to the Oregon Zoo where he ran the children's zoo's conservation education program. Returning to Central Oregon, Anderson developed a glider business with his wife Sue that indulged his passion for flight.

"We never made any money but we had a lot of fun with it," he said.

Anderson has continued to educate, visiting schools to share his love for birds and other creatures, working with the Sisters Library and writing a long-standing column for The Nugget Newspaper.

In every endeavor, he promotes his conservation ethic.

"I am not a preservationist," he says. "I am a conservationist."

Anderson believes in wise use of resources and the creation of harmony between man and his environment. He's seen a lot of change in Central Oregon and he's torn between fear and hope.

"I try to think of what its going to look like 50 years from now," he said. "Unless the attitude of man changes, I'm afraid a lot of it is going to be gone."

Yet, his magical Oregon, where so many people dedicate themselves to passing our natural treasures on to our children, gives him hope.

"Oregon is and always will be the epitome of what the whole world should be," he said.

Having just turned 80 hasn't slowed Anderson down. He's still writing and teaching, counting birds, chopping wood and enjoying the natural world he has fought to protect. His motivation is simple.

"I just love life."

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