by Bea Peterson
NYS Wildlife Pathologist Dr. Ward Stone addressed a crowd of more than 200 youngsters and adults Friday evening, March 13, at the HFCS Outdoor Expo.
Stone told the gathering that wildlife is part of our heritage, our culture and our history. “Not too many schools have such a day as this,” he said. Guest speakers spoke to students throughout the day about outdoor jobs and activities. Many of them spent time in the school gymnasium, which was filled with wildlife activities. Close to 400 people visited the exhibits in the evening.
Stone said he grew up traversing Rensselaer, Columbia and Duchess Counties. His father was killed in WW II and money was short when he was a child. He learned to trap. “Trapping taught me a lot,” he said. His day started at 4 am. After he checked the lines, he was off to school. “There was no basketball hoop at my school, but we had nature walks,” he said. Between the walks and the trapping he learned a lot about animals, especially muskrats and minks. When he was a sophomore in high school he took biology. One of the projects he undertook was to describe the parasites he found on the animals caught on his trap line. “My teacher said, ‘you could be a scientist’.” It was something he had never thought about. He went to Syracuse University on scholarships and received a degree in zoology. “My mother wanted me to ‘go for the money.’ She wanted me to be a doctor or accountant or lawyer.” His next degree was in pathology, then medical school through the US Navy. In 1969 he was appointed the New York State Wildlife Pathologist. He worked on pesticides and then PCBs. He said there are still some PCB hot spots that will be cleaned up by General Electric, but they all should have been cleaned up 25 years ago.
Another project was getting Alcoa and General Motors to stop polluting the waters of the Mohawk Indians.
He identified West Nile Virus when it was discovered in New York City. At the time, he said, the U.S. had no test for the disease. He believes Lyme disease is also an exotic. He said tics are great hitchhikers. They will hitch a ride on a bird, a vehicle or an animal to get to a new location.
“I believe global warming is a real thing,” he said. An avid fly fisherman he has noticed that brown trout are invading the cooler waters of the brook trout.
Faith In Science
Progress is being made in the sciences every day. Since the initial cases of Chronic Wasting Disease were discovered no further cases have been found. “There has not been a single confirmed case of a person contracting the disease from eating deer or moose,” he said.
In the laboratory Stone has been able to grow the fungus that is affecting bats. The White Nose Syndrome, as it is called, has caused the deaths of hibernating bats in several eastern states. Stone has found that the fungus dies at temperatures of 100 degrees. He believes it to be a cold loving fungus from the Arctic or Antarctic. It grows in the caves because they stay cool all year around. When the bats hibernate they drop their body temperature to conserve energy allowing the fungus to grow on them, particularly their noses. When he left Hoosick Falls Friday evening he was going back to the lab to continue his work.
“We Americans can deal with just about anything that comes our way. Being outdoors teaches us to protect the environment.” Exotics are a problem here and around the world. The American gray squirrel was introduced in England and has practically eliminated the English native squirrels, he said. “We have to protect our markets and not let such things as live turtles and frogs be released to disseminate native species.” Mussels brought in on ships have caused big problems. Products manufactured in other countries may have been cheaper, he said, but the bugs brought in on the shipping pallets have raised havoc with native trees and the damage comes at great cost.
The sciences and DEC have been weakened by budget cuts. “There is no research section [at DEC] any more,” he said, adding that “we should be better at providing services to the public.”
Enjoy The Outdoors
He hopes people will stay enthusiastic about the outdoors. “Being true to nature is so important. Study hard, read books but most of all get out there and take care of nature.” People today don’t have the same fighting spirit they had years ago, he said. Not the spirit they had when he worked with people such as Hoosick Falls artist and naturalist Wayne Trimm. The DEC, he said, used to work six days a week. Folks came in, and they had to bank the furnace. “Some of that is lost today. If you go into wildlife management go in because it’s a cause,” he said “The pay is not terribly great, but the cause is great.” He outlined several successes over the years.
In ‘69 the osprey and the bald eagle were in trouble. “Today the birds are back.” Wolves are showing up on the east side of the Adirondacks. Turkeys have been reintroduced and are thriving. He believes that with the proper plantings wild, not raised, pheasants could return to the area. People have seen what they thought were black panthers but they’ve turned out to be fishers. There are moose in Rensselaer County.
“Enjoy the outdoors without fear. Check carefully for tics, especially behind the ear or at the hair line. If one is found, get to a doctor and get proper antibiotics.”
Dr. Ward Stone is 70. He has no plans to retire. “I’ll keep going until it stops being fun,” he concluded.
He can be heard answering nature questions on Mondays on the WAMC public radio program “Our Back Yard.”