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A Tribute To Mason Smoak And David Maehr
Photo courtesy of ARCHBOLD BIOLOGICAL STATION
Dave Maehr (foreground), Mason Smoak (background) and Marta Gandolfi processing a recent black bear capture on June 15 in Highlands County.
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Published: June 29, 2008
In the timeless tragedy of the June 20 plane crash in Placid Lakes, Highlands County lost two influential, admired, and much-loved members of our community; Mason Smoak from Lake Placid and Dave Maehr, professor from the University of Kentucky, and visiting scientist at Archbold Biological Station.
They were both doing what they loved, dual adventurers in the sky, completing another valuable aerial survey of the Highlands County black bear population. Theirs was a great friendship and close partnership based on the common bond of conserving the remaining wilderness in Highlands County, a passion for research on black bears, and an insatiable interest in the data streaming in from the many radio- and satellite-collared bears they were both determined to find, track and watch.
Dave was the quintessential field biologist; outdoorsman, highly observant, an incredible naturalist, wonderful at handling animals, and talented artist and photographer. He was a pioneer in studying large carnivores, notably black bear and Florida panther, with radio and satellite tracking. Almost unrivalled in his ability to engender love and respect for the natural world, Dave successfully elevated public awareness of the crisis in conservation of large animals.
Over the past five years Dave Maehr's groundbreaking studies on Highlands County's black bear population would have been impossible but for Mason Smoak's incredible volunteerism, enthusiasm and support. The Smoak family provided unlimited access to their large and beautiful ranch in Venus; prime bear habitat of flatwoods, bayhead and scrub. This access was combined with extraordinarily generous use of their field buggies and ATVs, the family camp house at the ranch, and assistance in the field.
A couple of weeks ago Dave sent an e-mail about a recent bear capture "we owe this one to Mason Smoak. This will be the first Highlands bear (#Male29) to get a non-number secondary name — Mason".
Mason Smoak epitomized everything that Dave respected. Joe Guthrie, Dave's graduate student, described Mason "out there, helping work up captured bears in the dark, holding a nut-driver in one hand and a failing flashlight between his teeth, swatting the mosquitoes away from the researcher's faces as they bent over a bear."
Wade Guthrie, Dave's former graduate student, noted that Mason's greatest contribution to the bear project was "his energy and ability piloting many crucial telemetry flights in his own airplane, often on short notice." Watching that distinctive, yellow silhouetted plane circling over Archbold's property and the surrounding ranches of southern Highlands County gave you reassurance that all was well with the bears, and with bear research.
Mason was a great friend to Dave and his assistants. Joe Guthrie has written that: "He'd make sure we were invited to all the Smoak family holidays. Through Mason the entire Smoak family became surrogate family to us. It was always apparent that there was nothing that he wouldn't do for us, or for any one of his friends. He was an extraordinary friend, and an extraordinary contributor to everything that he touched. We owe a special debt of gratitude to the entire Smoak family for their kindness and hospitality."
The Smoak family, and Mason in particular, were tremendous ambassadors for Dave's bear research, helping to recruit other landowners into the large network of critical study sites. Ray Royce, Highlands County Citrus Growers Association, wrote to Archbold of just "how passionate Mason was about Dave's work and environmental stewardship in general.
I know that Dave and Mason spent Thursday night together planning their Friday trip and were great friends." In a poignant essay written in May 2008, Dave said: "I know of at least three ranch families who openly display their love of bears. They do this by placing conservation easements on their land, by assisting those who study them, and by parading photographs of their resident bears (adorned with new radio collars) through local restaurants as though they were priceless trophies. Mostly, they do this by leaving the forests and bears alone."
Dave left an inspirational plea for those of us in Highlands County : "People in the towns of Lake Placid, Sebring and Avon Park need to voice the obvious truth: that functional green space in Florida not only promotes human welfare directly, but that it maintains habitat for bears. The ability of a forest to support a bear population is the best evidence that it also provides priceless amenities for people. Such places create clean air, clean water, beautiful scenery, singing birds, a buffer against too many neighbors, and a calm that has been lost with the frenzy of tires and shoes on pavement. They are also a hedge against the sprawl that destroys the reasons people moved here in the first place."
Mason sought neither reward nor attention for his huge contributions to conservation, but in 2005, at Dave's instigation, Mason Smoak was honored with Disney's 2005 Conservation Hero Award for North America, a great accolade in the conservation community for "his efforts to manage and protect the ecological integrity of the Smoak family's Turkey Track Ranch, and for going above and beyond to support the bear research project." Together Dave and Mason raised the profile of black bears in Highlands County, revealed the habitats bears rely upon, documented the vast landscapes they need for survival, and showed us the new locations and landscape corridors we had never known they used.
It is unclear, at present, exactly how Archbold Biological Station, University of Kentucky, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, and Dave's many colleagues and former and current graduate students will continue this vital research and conservation work. But we know one thing, as long as black bears move across the great ranches and wilderness of Highlands County, the remarkable spirit and great camaraderie of Mason and Dave, and everything it inspired, will stay with us all.
Archbold's thoughts, condolences, and our deepest sympathy go out to the Smoak and Maehr families.
Hilary Swain is director of the Archbold Biological Station.
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