Part of: Craig Rudolph oral history (2 objects)
Craig Rudolph oral history - Craig Rudolph oral history
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- This call is now being recorded.
- Well, David Todd here.
- It's working.
- Oh, good, good.
- Well, it was,
- when I hit speaker, a little
- screen comes up and maybe the
- setting got changed or something,
- but the choices were phone,
- speaker and.
- So I hit speaker a second time in
- that, in that little screen,
- and it actually turned the speaker
- on.
- Oh okay.
- I don't know. I wasn't aware of that
- before, but whatever.
- You know, these phones
- are like Chitty Chitty Bang
- Bang.
- I mean they've got so many buttons.
- Obviously, you know well, by now, I
- don't know what I'm doing.
- No, you're good.
- Anyway, I've got a good signal here,
- so we should be good.
- OK.
- Well, you know the drill.
- Let me launch, if you don't mind.
- Well, I do have
- one question.
- Yes, of course.
- How far through this narrative
- are we eating to re-record?
- I forgot from last time.
- Well, so,
- I think that we
- have a good recording, starting with
- your discussion about the Theory
- of Island Biogeography.
- But before that...
- So, the question,
- we've got the question, "Is there a
- book or movie that was especially
- influential?"
- Yeah. Uh-Huh.
- We've got that.
- Yes.
- So we basically just need to do
- the first three questions,
- I guess, a bit.
- I think so, yeah.
- Childhood, and schooling and so on.
- Yeah.
- And higher education, and then we're
- done.
- Right.
- And I just, if you don't mind, I'd
- like to tack
- on this introduction in the
- beginning.
- Oh, yeah, yeah, of course.
- Okay. Well, yeah,
- that should cover it. So I think
- that 10 or 15
- minutes, if you can spare that,
- we'll be all done.
- Oh, I've got all the time we need.
- I mean if we have to redo
- it after the first
- run, we can do that. I got plenty of
- time.
- Okay.
- Well, super.
- Well, let me let me begin, and
- I'll give a little introduction and
- then we can start with questions and
- wrap up shortly after that.
- Okay.
- All right.
- Oh.
- Well, my name is David Todd, and
- I'm on the line with
- Dr. Craig Rudolph.
- And together we plan on
- recording this oral
- history interview for research
- and educational work on behalf
- of a nonprofit group called the
- Conservation History Association
- of Texas, and for
- a book and a website for Texas
- A&M University Press, and then
- for preservation and an archive
- at the Briscoe Center for American
- History, which is located
- at the University of Texas at
- Austin.
- And Dr. Rudolph would, of course,
- have all rights to use the recording
- as he sees fit as well.
- And I just want to make sure that I
- was okay with him.
- Yeah, that's fine.
- Super. Okay, well, let's
- get started.
- It is November 2nd, 2021.
- It's about
- five o'clock Central Time
- and again my name is David Todd.
- I'm in Austin.
- We are conducting an interview with
- Dr. Craig Rudolph,
- who is, I think, currently in
- a secure, undisclosed location
- in Oregon.
- And this interview is being done
- remotely.
- Dr. Rudolph is a former
- research ecologist with the U.S.
- Forest Service's Southern
- Research Station in
- Nacogdoches, Texas.
- In that capacity, he's
- had a long interest and research
- career with
- the red-cockaded woodpecker.
- And today we're going
- to ask a few questions about his
- background, his life and
- career in wildlife conservation.
- And the first
- question I wanted to ask is if
- there might have been any early
- events in your life
- that influenced
- your interest in natural history
- and science.
- Yeah, most definitely.
- I had developed an early interest
- in butterflies around the age of
- perhaps four or five,
- and my father encouraged
- this interest and over
- quite a number of years, we spent
- many days throughout California
- collecting and ultimately mounting
- butterflies.
- And this went on really until I
- entered college.
- So that was a major influence,
- I think, in starting me on
- the path to a
- biology career.
- And then growing up in Southern
- California, where chaparral
- dominated the landscape, and
- chaparral burns relatively
- frequently, I was frequently
- exposed to the effects of fire on
- the natural environment.
- And observing the flush of
- herbaceous vegetation and
- the tremendous response of animals,
- butterflies in particular,
- following fires, prepared
- me to recognize the critical role
- of fires in natural ecosystems.
- I'm not sure I recognized it at that
- time, but as
- I got older and got
- further along in my education, that,
- that really, I think
- made me accepting of those sorts of
- views.
- That's interesting, that some of
- those early exposures can really
- prep you to
- see things maybe more clearly and
- strongly as you get older.
- So during
- your more formal schooling,
- did you have any classmates
- or teachers, anybody
- in school, or college, or grad
- school, who might have been
- influential in
- setting you on this path to
- science and ecology and
- work in conservation field?
- Yeah, I think there were probably
- many, but looking back
- to high school, I think there
- was one
- type of influence that was pretty
- influential. I was very fortunate
- to have two teachers, one in
- algebra and another in geometry,
- that exposed me to the world of
- mathematics.
- And that kind of opened up an
- appreciation of how the world works,
- that there were
- underlying principles, not just
- a random collection of unrelated
- bits of information.
- And that made the universe a much
- more interesting place, and I think
- probably drew me to
- biology as a lifelong
- pursuit.
- And, sort of
- coincidentally, this
- occurred during a period when
- ecological theory was being
- extensively used to
- explore ecological
- principles, applying mathematical
- concepts to ecology
- theory and.
- Consequently,
- I had some fundamental
- grasp of math skills
- that really served me well
- in trying to understand where
- ecology was going and ecological
- theory was going.
- So I think that kind of paved
- the way a bit for
- being able to really appreciate
- what was going on in ecological
- research.
- Okay, so
- you're telling us a little bit about
- your high school
- introduction to some of these
- principles that stood you in good
- stead in the years to come.
- I was hoping that you might tell us
- next about your experience
- in higher education, in
- college and graduate school.
- Were there possibly
- any important influences
- during that period?
- Yes, I received my undergraduate
- education, and a master's degree,
- from the University of California,
- Santa Barbara.
- And this was in
- the mid '60s.
- And the biology department at
- UC-SB at that time was a
- very strong department, possibly
- the largest department on campus,
- and very active in
- ecology in particular.
- And this was influenced in a
- major way by one of the faculty
- members, Joe Connell, who
- was an extremely influential
- ecologist at that period of time.
- He worked extensively in intertidal
- habitats, of which the campus
- had many. We had about a mile
- of coastline and,
- the university had about a mile
- coastline,
- and he was an early
- advocate of field manipulation,
- using rigorous experimental
- approaches. And I think that had a
- kind of a major influence on
- my work going forward.
- And equally important was the
- charismatic field biologist Bob
- Haller.
- And although I was a teenager,
- I took quite a number of botany
- classes, several from, from
- Dr. Haller.
- And that gave
- me, I think, insights into
- ecological relationships
- that I would have otherwise
- overlooked.
- Having some
- grounding in botany, even though
- I was a zoologist, basically,
- because it's all tied together in
- ecology, so I think that was very
- important.
- Subsequently, I obtained
- a Ph.D. from Texas Tech University
- in Lubbock, Texas. And my major
- professor was Robert
- Mitchell.
- He was an invertebrate zoologist
- working extensively on cave
- faunas in Mexico and in Texas.
- And I had developed an interest
- in cave organisms during a time
- spent in the Ozarks in
- northeastern Oklahoma
- after my time at UC-SB.
- And ultimately, I did my
- dissertation research on salamanders
- associated with caves in the
- Oklahoma Ozarks.
- And
- I think those were kind of the major
- threads that guided
- me through my graduate
- studies.
- Well, that is really
- helpful. I know this is just
- skimming the surface, but it
- gives a nice background to work that
- you did in the years to come,
- which we fortunately have gotten the
- chance to talk about earlier.
- So I wouldn't want
- to waste your time,
- but if there's anything else you'd
- like to add while we're on the line,
- we would love to hear.
- No, I think we've pretty well
- covered it.
- Yeah, I don't think there's anything
- additional.
- Okay, well,
- conciseness is a virtue.
- And thank you so much for your
- time today.
- It's always a pleasure to talk to
- you and thanks a bunch for being
- so steadfast in helping
- us.
- Oh certainly. I enjoyed it.
- All right.
- Well, take care of yourself.
- I hope we get to talk again soon.
- I do, too.
- All right. Bye now.