UC Santa Cruz Publishes Oral History Memoirs Of Conservation Biologist Raymond F. Dasmann

Santa Cruz, CA–The Regional History Project of the University Library at UC Santa Cruz has published the oral history of Raymond F. Dasmann, an internationally renowned scientist whose theories on ecodevelopment influenced generations of ecologists, conservation biologists, and governments wrestling with the dilemmas posed by economic development and a deteriorating environment.

The 232-page oral history, entitled Raymond F. Dasmann: A Life in International Conservation Biology, was transcribed and edited from interviews conducted by UCSC Regional Historian Randall Jarrell.

Dasmann, a professor emeritus of ecology at UCSC, is the author of more than a hundred scientific articles and books, the most well known of which is The Destruction of California (1964), a prophetic perspective on the state’s environmental health. His writings also include The Last Horizon (1963), Planet in Peril (1971), The Conservation Alternative (1973), and his classic textbook, Environmental Conservation (fifth edition, 1984).

In his narrative, Dasmann discusses his work in the 1950s as a field biologist, studying deer populations in California and wild game in Africa; his pioneering work at the Conservation Foundation in the 1960s; and his work in the 1970s at UNESCO and the World Conservation Union.

Dasmann was born in San Francisco in 1919 and as a boy was fascinated by wildlife and the outdoors. After serving in the military during World War II, he received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, where he studied zoology with wildlife biologist A. Starker Leopold. Both his master’s and doctoral research focused on studies of deer and elk populations in northern California, field studies that were characterized by his ecological approach.

In the oral history, Dasmann also discusses his academic career at Humboldt State University: two periods from 1954 to 1965 in which he taught range ecology and management. In 1959 he served as a Fulbright Field Biologist in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where he did fieldwork on African wild animals. From these experiences he wrote African Game Ranching (1963), a seminal work which addressed the issue of threatened wildlife populations and how the traditions of indigenous peoples could be utilized to solve this problem.

Dasmann’s career took an unexpected turn, leading him away from fieldwork and into policy studies, when he became director of international programs at the Conservation Foundation in Washington, D.C., from 1966 to 1970. In this position, he began working on conservation problems on a global scale.

From 1970 to 1977, he was senior ecologist for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), also known as the World Conservation Union, in Morges, Switzerland. When it was founded in 1948, the IUCN was virtually the only world conservation organization concerned with nature protection.

Dasmann also served as a consultant to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), where he inaugurated the Man and the Biosphere Program. He also participated in the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, a watershed international environmental meeting.

Dasmann left the IUCN in 1977 and accepted an appointment at UC Santa Cruz. During his tenure at UCSC, he promoted the interdisciplinary nature of ecology and environmental studies and inspired a generation of students who have gone on to become agents of change as ecologists, field biologists, and environmental activists. In his narrative he describes the emerging field of conservation biology, the evolution of UCSC’s Environmental Studies Department, and the colleagues with whom he worked over the years. Dasmann retired from the university in 1989.

While at UCSC, Dasmann continued his involvement with an array of environmental organizations, serving as a member of the board of directors of Friends of the Earth and as a member of the advisory council of Earth Island Institute. From 1977 on, he continued as a consultant to the World Conservation Union, focusing on ecodevelopment and environmental planning in the South Pacific. In 1987 Dasmann cofounded the Golden Gate Biosphere Reserve and remains very involved in this prototype biosphere reserve.

The Dasmann volume is available in Special Collections at UCSC’s McHenry Library and at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library. The volume may also be purchased from the [www.Xlibris.com][2] web site. For additional information, contact UCSC’s Regional History Project via e-mail ([ihreti@cats.ucsc.edu][3]) or telephone (831/459-2847).

Jarrell will discuss the volume at the April 22 meeting of the "Science Matters" series. Sponsored by UCSC’s Science Library, the discussion will take place at the main branch of the Santa Cruz Public Library, 224 Church Street, Santa Cruz, beginning at 2 p.m.