Everyday Conservationists

If you are reading this blog you already know about Aldo Leopold, John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt the great conservationists that were the driving force behind the early years of land protection in the U.S. They are the main reasons why public lands exist in this nation and many nations have replicated the US model of national parks, national forests, and our historic monuments. Some of you might even know other conservationists like Rick Bass, Charles Sheldon, Jane Goodall, and the like…but what about the everyday conservationists? Well the dudes in this photo are the everyday conservationists. They are the guys who care about the environment. They are the guys to give a shit! They are the everyday conservationists. They are the volunteers who raise money for wildlife habitat protection, restoration, and conservation. They are the guys who start local conservation clubs and land trusts that provide wildlife habitat in their own communities. They were thinking global and acting locally before environmentalists even coined the term. In many ways they were the first environmentalists. They were the guys with beards before beards were cool. They are tool salesmen, forklift operators, construction workers, and truck drivers. Most of them are union men. They are also fathers, sons, husbands and brothers. They are the guys who get kids out of the house and replace the nintendo with a bow-and-arrow. The photo contains me in the glasses, and my late uncle Dwight, Paul, Art and Jeremy… some of the finest individuals I know and have had the privilege of sharing outdoor experiences with.
These guys buy over priced and poorly cooked dinners at fundraising events, organize fund raising events themselves, organize raffles, buy hunting/fishing licenses, and duck stamps all for conservation of the things they love. They are the today’s forgotten conservationists, the guys in the trenches who give freely to state and federal wildlife agencies, non-profit conservation organizations and who own property purely as wildlife habitat, a place to hunt or fish and a place to spend time with family and friends. These dudes are carrying on a tradition of conservation started by the above mentioned conservation greats and many of them hope to some day pass that tradition down to today’s youth that seem to me lost in a alternate reality caused by a lack of self-sufficiency and a general malaise concerning the world around them...
These are the men who helped make me into the person I am today. Unfortunately, two of these guys are no longer with us and I miss them. They looked after me as a kid and as a young adult. They set me a path the made me who I am today. They taught me a lot of things… The following list of things we learned from Dwight Shelton, my maternal uncle, my brother and I read at Uncle Dwight’s memorial services a few years ago and I think is sums up the unsung conservationist, the everyday conservationist pretty well. Many of the next passages you could say about any of the guys in the above photo.

The Top 11 Things We Learned from Dwight Shelton

1) Dwight taught us the importance of growing your own garden and knowing where your food comes from. Then what to do with it once you have it. This year I caned 60 pints of tomatoes and 30 lbs of Tuna. I pickled peppers and made blackberry jam from wild black berries and copious amounts of white sugar. I also tried to pickle eggplant which didn’t really work very well and would not recommend in the future.

2) Dwight taught us about women. He said once “It is ok to get married. As long as your anniversary date doesn’t conflict with the opening day of deer hunting, trout fishing, pheasant hunting or duck hunting. Be sure to choose wisely on these dates and your marriage will be successful.”

3) Dwight taught us about hard work one summer when we dug potatoes in the Farmland garden. Then he taught us about hard work again after the winter storms in 2003 when he and the family collected and cut fire wood for months.

4) Dwight taught us how to be self sufficient and celebrate chores which seem mundane to most. Like cutting firewood.

5) Dwight taught us how to shoot a bow and how to clean a deer. Dwight gave me my first bow and I shot my first deer with him just down the ridgeline from me. That day he also shot a doe with his bow. Both does died within 20 yards of each other.

6) Dwight taught us how to make the best deer chili, which always seems to taste better when in Manville.

7) Dwight taught us how to play a great gag on your friends and still keep them friends. Gags in deer camp often involved the placement of a land terrapin into someone’s sleeping bag or under their pillow.

8) Dwight taught us about volunteerism and the importance of giving back to the environment, the community and the youth.

9) Dwight taught us a good birddog not only has a great nose and occasionally finds a pheasant, but also keeps you warm at night when the stove burns out. Dwight in fact gave us our first birddog an English setter named Toby no one really wanted.

10) Dwight taught us the importance of family and how one has the obligation to care for one’s own blood. He also taught us how to arrange family events properly so they can also be hunting or fishing trips, For example, Thanksgiving choices might include deer hunting in Indiana or Steelhead fishing in Michigan.

11) Most Importantly, Dwight taught us the value of conservation and how the environment really is the most important thing. In everyday life Dwight taught us to reuse glass jars for canning, cut only trees which have fallen naturally by wind or old age, and how to get involved with conservation groups like the Indiana Wildlife Federation, The National Wild Turkey Federation, and Ducks Unlimited. Today, I work for Ducks Unlimited and do my best to promote what Dwight taught me. Dwight gave us books to read about the great conservationists including Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir and Aldo Leopold. We feel Dwight would approve of this quote from Aldo Leopold’s Round River, as we feel Dwight lived and believed much like Leopold did…so here goes.
“Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land. By land is meant all of the things on, over, or in the earth. Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left. That is to say, you cannot love game and hate predators; you cannot conserve the waters and waste the ranges; you cannot build the forest and mine the farm. The land is one organism. Its parts, like our own parts, compete with each other and co-operate with each other. The competitions are as much a part of the inner workings as the co-operations. You can regulate them—cautiously—but not abolish them.”
We learned a lot from Dwight Shelton and will miss him forever, but will never forget him as we walk the hills in-between the cedars, the ash, and the maples, of his Manville Farm. His family and the farm are Dwight’s Legacy, please protect them, cherish them and always respect them.

Chili Time

Last night after work about 6 about the same time I arrived at the local watering hole for a hand crafted Indian Pale Ale, the first rains hit Sacramento. If you live in Sacramento you know how glorious the first rains can be. The first rains of the season are important for a place that only receives 18 inches of rain a year. The smell of the first rain is a familiar one like bread baking or that wool sweater you’ve stashed away for the summer. The smell grabs you and delights the senses. All of Sacramento’s rain comes in the wet season from October-May. To me (after living in the Midwest for a good while) Sacramento only has two seasons the wet season and the hot season. The wet season coincides with hunting seasons, so I generally like the wet season more. Usually there is zero precipitation from June-September, which means when the rains arrive it is kind of a big deal. The rains cool the summer’s last breaths, and remind me duck season and my annual deer hunting trip to Manville, Indiana is right around the corner.
When the rains come my thoughts on food change from outdoor grills too one pot meals, baked goods and hearty meals fit for the smell of the rains. As I drank my IPA and talked with bar regulars about the important things in life like the effects of rain, hunting and good beers…. my thoughts turned to Chili. I just so happened to have some venison steaks defrosted in the refrigerator, which would make a great chili. Off to the store, and home in under 15 minutes with onions, jalapenos, a few cans of chili beans, a can of kidney beans, and some sharp cheddar cheese. Below is my basic chili recipe and I tend to alter it as needed for amount of mouths to feed, what I have in the kitchen at the time. Chili is one dish that can be made differently every time and there are thousands of different recipes spanning geography and ethnicity. Here is my basic chili recipe that has its roots in Southern Indiana and Ohio but with a California twist:
2 medium Onions Diced
2-4 jalapeños depending on how hot they are Diced
1 pound venison steak, antelope steak or other large quadruped animal
4-6 cloves garlic
2 heaping table spoons Chili powder, chipotle, ancho, or whatever you have on hand Add more if you want more heat.
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2-3 cans chili beans
1-2 cans kidney beans drained
3 cans tomatoes whatever you have on hand crushed, chopped, and whole. I like to mix it up jars from the garden and cans from the store.
Some old wine or a beer, if you have a bottle of wine laying about that your wife opened and drank 1 glass off of and then fell asleep the night before is always a good one to use…
A handful of elbow macaroni
In a heavy pot with a little olive oil cook onions and jalapenos until onions just translucent; add meat, garlic and brown meat.

Add dry spices including chili powder, and cinnamon.
Add beans, tomatoes, and wine. Add 1 handful of macaroni and cook until pasta is done. Like many one pot meals chili gets better the next day. Take it to work for lunches.

My first blog post 10/4/2011.

Hi, my name is Joe Navari. I'm 35 years old and live in Sacramento, California.  I'm a regular dude who lives to hunt, fish, eat, drink and in general live off the fat of the land in all its forms.  This is my blog and I hope someone likes it.  I work for a large non-profit conservation organization and do real estate transactions for wetland protection by day.   By night, on weekends and sometimes when during the week I try to hunt, fish, and travel or eat something new during every bit of spare time I have.  You could call me obsessed with being outside, at the bar, or visiting friends and family.  In general I dislike being home alone.  Luckily, I'm rarely home alone as I'm married to a wonderful woman who in general supports my obsessions and puts up with my odd hours and the constant transient nature of my being. Monica (my wife) is also an attorney working for a large law firm in Sacramento, which helps to support my train-wreck of a life.  I’ve also owned English Setters for the majority of my adult life and currently live with a 13 year old setter named Coltrane or just Trane for short. 

I hunt because it is a tradition I grew up with, and because I love to eat, and because I’m an environmentalist who knows where his food comes from.  Like many hunters, I know how the natural world works and I have a deep respect for it. Additionally, hunting is an activity that does not take great athletic skill, which I have always been lacking.  Hunting also brings together good friends and family over a drink, a pot of chilli, or a long walk in the woods.  It fosters understanding through mutual respect for the natural world and in my mind liberalizes one’s outlook on life, politics, and nature.

I feel vegetarians have a false sense of the world and fundamentally flawed ethos when they tell me they are vegetarians for environmental reasons.  Most of the time, they are actually vegetarians for human social reasons, which I personally do have empathy for, but don’t follow the beat of the vegetarian drum. These social reasons usually have to do feeding the world’s population, water consumption, and the industrial food complex blah, blah, blah.

Quite the opposite in fact, I’m a gluten for the slow, local food movement.  If you killed it, you grew it, you gathered it, or you brewed it I want it and I usually want more….