Andy Russell - Wild Country: The Best of Andy Russell

Copyright 2004 by Andy Russell
Foreword 2004 by Jim McLennan
Introduction 2004 by R. Bruce Morrison

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency is an infringement of the copyright law.

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Russell, Andy, 1915
Wild country : the best of Andy Russell / Andy Russell ; edited by R. Bruce Morrison.

eISBN: 978-1-55199-455-0

1. Russell, Andy, 1915- 2. Outdoor life Alberta. 3. Natural
history Alberta. 4. Ranch life Alberta. I. Morrison, R. Bruce II. Title.

SK 17. R 88 A 3 2004 796.5092 C 2004-902340-3

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporations Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.

A Successful Season and Return to the Toklat are from Grizzly Country by Andy Russell, copyright 1967 by Andy Russell. Reprinted by permission of Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

By the River and The Wilderness Fisherman are from Trails of a Wilderness Wanderer by Andy Russell, copyright 1970, 1998 by Andy Russell. Reprinted by permission of The Lyons Press, a division of The Globe Pequot Press, Guilford, CT.

The publisher has made every effort to contact copyright holders and will be happy to amend the credit line as necessary in subsequent editions.

McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
The Canadian Publishers
75 Sherbourne Street,
Toronto, Ontario
M5A 2P9
www.mcclelland.com

v3.1

To my children,
Dick, Charlie, John, Gordon, and Anne,
And to my grandchildren,
Anthony, Sarah, and Tim
With love

A.R.

How do you describe Andy Russell without reaching for clichs? Hes a unique mix of historian, cowboy, hunter, fisherman, writer, conservationist, filmmaker, and, not unimportantly, hellraiser. Need some pioneer Alberta history? Andy Russell lived it. Want to know about mountain wildlife? Andys studied it, hunted it, filmed it. Want to know where civilization has run amuck in the twentieth century? Andy can show you. Few voices today carry the authority his does, whether speaking of the psychology of grizzly bears, the meaning of Native ceremony, or the questionable antics of governments.

Andy Russell is the kind of man they dont seem to make any more. His status as an historian comes not from scholarly study, but from the fact that he was a participant in history. Hes a living link with western Canadas past. He was there when Alberta was young and green, and has seen first-hand the homesteading of the southern foothills, and the damming of his beloved Oldman River. Andy is aware of his calling, which, in the words songwriter Ian Tyson used to describe cowboy artist Charlie Russell is to get er all down, before she goes. Andy Russell has been getting her all down on paper, on celluloid, and with his voice for almost sixty years.

In his fascination with wildlife, Andy brings the perspective of a hunter a true hunter who feels an intense and at times painful connection to his quarry. It can be argued that the deepest understanding of Mother Natures tragic and funny idiosyncrasies comes to those who hunt. It can be not just argued, but firmly proven, that the greatest protectors of North American wildlife are organized hunters. Andy Russell makes no apologies for his hunting, and his extraordinary understanding of wildlife demands and receives respect from people of many stripes. When he speaks as a hunter, environmentalists listen. When he speaks as a conservationist, hunters listen. He has embraced the crucial role of convincing society that the two are not opposites.

Perhaps this is simply a manifestation of another Russell gift: his ability to see and understand the big picture, even while living in a snapshot with the rest of us. This vision allowed him as a young man to anticipate the effects of development on his guiding-outfitting business and prompted his decision to make wildlife films when nature photography was barely even a category. It showed him as an older man the future consequences of a dam on the Oldman River. Today he still sees beyond the next corner on conservation issues, and perceives the convoluted agendas of various stakeholders.

Its true that other people observe, photograph, and write about history and wildlife in the west. Some of them do it nearly as well as Andy does. His greatest gift, though, is one that few of the others possess. Its the grand and sacred gift of storytelling, which Andy learned and valued through his lifelong association with early settlers and aboriginal Albertans. Andy Russell is a sneaky story-teller. When youve finished reading a story you might discover that youve not only been entertained, youve also been taught, for embedded in his stories is a great treasure trove of information. Try, for instance, Seppi: A Bird Dog in this collection. If you werent familiar with the history and background of the German shorthaired pointer before, you are now. This combination of research, experience, and storytelling is uniquely Andy Russell.

My first encounter with Andy Russell was in the library of Victoria Composite High School in Edmonton in 1967. I found and thumbed through a copy of Grizzly Country when I was supposed to be studying mathematics. I then borrowed the book, and read it at home when I was supposed to be writing an English essay. Later, when I helped run a fly-fishing store in Calgary, Andy would occasionally come in to get some flies or leaders. Every purchase was accompanied by a wonderful story of a fish, a horse, or an adventure. When he was through hed tip that big black hat, smile, and disappear around the corner like something I had only imagined. Though I grew up in the city, I have always felt a far stronger connection to what lay outside the city. Some of this is Andys doing. It was an honoured occasion many years later when we met at a writers conference and had our photograph taken together at his home.

For many years Andy presented historical vignettes in a radio series called Our Alberta Heritage. The title was intended to describe the programs, but it really describes the man who presented them. His cumulative efforts at recording and preserving Albertas heritage have been acknowledged repeatedly. The plaque honouring him with the Order of Canada hangs without pomp alongside sheep and elk heads on the wall of his log house near Waterton Park.

The cultural roots of Alberta are not found at West Edmonton Mall or the Calgary Tower. They are found in the grass, the hills, the trees, and the sky. Like it or not, what got us here is our connection to these things. Our heritage is rural. Yet its my sad observation that at best our society tends to forget its rural heritage, and at worst we outright try to distance ourselves from it as though it were a source of embarrassment. Why do we do that? Other parts of North America are proud of their roots, and we should be too. Andy Russells stories confirm this and provide a fine and strong antidote to our silly preoccupation with our own sophistication.