Johnson’s colloquium highlights Oregon wildlife, land

Randi B. Hagi — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 16:38:13 +0000

VaCA professor Steve Johnson is a man consumed by love for all manner of frogs, salamanders, toads, and newts. In his colloquium talk on Tuesday afternoon, Johnson spoke on his 2012-2013 sabbatical spent in southern Oregon, getting on his belly in the mud to photograph the inhabitants of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. This 86,774-acre monument is renowned for being one of the most biologically diverse regions in the United States.

“To be able to care, to be able to empathize, is the beginning of conservation,” said Johnson. Instead of clinically photographing specimens from above, Johnson prefers to get up close and personal, like taking portraits of the Southern Alligator Lizards and Pacific Chorus Frogs he finds. These beautiful portraits force you to look into the eyes of an animal and perhaps recognize a sentience that is often missed.

Johnson collaborated with Anna Maria Johnson, his wife, who is a writer and visual artist. The two lived with their children at the Oregon Extension in Lincoln County, working with local wildlands advocates, the webzine “Hot- house,” and their own blog (cascadesiskiyou.org) among other projects.

During the colloquium Johnson shared amusing stories of wildlife encounters. One day, while hiking through the snow near his house, he heard a low grunt, and peered around to find a Roosevelt elk. On Thanksgiving, his family was shadowed under the wingspan of a Great Gray Owl swooping overhead – the largest owl in North America.

One macro shot showed a tadpole being terrorized by a pincher-bearing invertebrate, and Johnson confessed to the audience that he saved the tadpole after photographing it.

“I think frogs need all the help they can get!” he said.

First-year Robert Weaver said, “[The colloquium] was a good example of how photography can be used to create a difference and an impact.”

A crowning moment of the year was Johnson’s discovery of a rare Oregon Spotted Frog after wading through a marsh for hours. The frog, endemic to the Pacific Northwest, was thought to have gone extinct after 1971, until one was discovered in 2003. Since then, its population has remained so low that some monument staff who have worked there for years have never seen one. Johnson said that when he heard how unlikely it would be for him to see one, “of course I needed to find one!”

“Some of you know about my obsession with amphibians,” Johnson added.

Other notable frogs were T-Rex and Old Blind Darby, bullfrogs that Johnson named after seeing them regularly. Bullfrogs were introduced to the West as a game species, prized for their leg meat, and have since adapted to the region.

Last fall’s Conservation Photography class was one result of Johnson’s sabbatical. With field studio techniques learned in the class, almnus Han Park took such stunning photographs of turtles, butterflies, and crayfish that they have been featured on the Internet wildlife database “Meet Your Neighbors.”

After the presentation, one audience member expressed his concern for the Shenandoah mountains. In regards to conserving them, he said to Johnson, “keep your feet to the fire is my charge to you!”

Courtesy of The WeatherVane, March 2, 2014. Photos by Steven D. Johnson.

�� Students Tap Veterans and Conscientious Objectors for WWII History Project

Mike Zucconi — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 15:37:35 +0000

Leroy Plaugher, a World War II army veteran, likes young people to be interested in the war, even if they go beyond the usual battle stories to explore the less-known stories of conscientious objectors and the men and women who were on a “different front line.”

Plaugher was among a group of veterans and conscientious objectors who participated in “Ways of War & Peace,” a spring 2012 class taught by , professor of in the at �� (��).

The course was designed to look at selected readings – memoirs, poetry, fiction and drama – emerging from World War II and examine them for clues about Christian attitudes toward war and . In addition, students collaborated with conscientious objectors, veterans and their spouses to generate oral histories covering fresh ground.

“We should never forget the contributions of those who did not fight – those who kept feeding the people who were suffering because of the war,” said Plaugher.

�� the course

When she could, Eads paired students from peace-church backgrounds with military veterans and students from non-peace-church backgrounds with conscientious objectors “so everyone involved would have a chance to engage in appreciative dialogue with someone from a different perspective.”

“Serious Christians have a wide range of views about war and peacemaking and taking time to hear each other out is well worth our while,” added Eads.

Becca Longenecker, an and double-major from Lancaster, Pa., spoke with Landon Walker, a veteran, about his experiences during the war. Longenecker wrote in her final paper for class that by learning from the past and trying not to contribute to similar events, “I can respect his story and the suffering and loss that he and so many others that lived through WWII experienced.

“I realized in thinking about my respect and admiration for Landon that I did not need to change my convictions about pacifism in order to respect him.”

For Amanda Grace Lewis, a major from Richmond, Va., the power of peacemaking stuck with her as she interviewed Hubert Pellman ‘38, a retired �� English professor.

“I was amazed by how he took the ‘peace church’ tradition and showed his passion for Jesus’ teachings in all areas of his life,” said Lewis. “He chose to be a conscientious objector because of his belief in God’s love being stronger than human violence and conflict and the belief that God calls us, as Christians, to follow Jesus’ example of peace and nonviolence.”

Pellman said the “peace view” was broader than he had originally thought when the war broke out, but added, “I think peace means far more than saying, ‘I don’t kill.’ I think it means doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. It intersects with Jesus’ teachings and way of life.”

Eads said she hoped all the students would leave the class holding the peace position, but knew “real dialogue could be risky.”

“University life, though, ought to give students opportunities to examine beliefs closely and then own them for themselves.”

Randi Hagi Archives - ���������� News

Johnson’s colloquium highlights Oregon wildlife, land

���������� Students Tap Veterans and Conscientious Objectors for WWII History Project

Randi Hagi Archives - �� News

�� Students Tap Veterans and Conscientious Objectors for WWII History Project