The Story of Wild Goose Jack: the Life and Work of Jack Miner

In the mid-1800s the citizens of North America still viewed the continent as a boundless source of natural and wildlife resources and the idea of "conservation" had not yet been invented. As the pioneers pushed the edge of the frontier steadily westward, they encountered massive herds of buffalo and unblemished, awe-inspiring landscapes. Even in the long-settled areas of eastern America, people could witness virtually endless flocks of passenger pigeons that were reported on occasion to have obscured the sun altogether.

It was into this environment that Jack Miner was born in Dover Center, Ohio, in 1865. The son of a poor brickmaker, Jack received his education in the great outdoors and cultivated a deep love of nature from his earliest days. When a move to Canada in 1878 failed to produce immediate economic prosperity for the large Miner family, Jack used his vast knowledge of the woods and wildlife to kill large numbers of game for profit. His experiences with the gentleman hunter of Kingsville, Ontario, however, helped to convert him from a market hunter to a sports hunter, and his fascination with the Canada goose later led him to take up the cause of conservation in earnest.

Jack's success in luring this elusive waterfowl to his home, his pioneering bird-banding activities, and his thirty-year lecturing campaign across the length and breadth of North America gained him world-wide recognition and fame. The Jack Miner Migratory Bird Sanctuary became an international landmark, and in 1947 the Canadian government formally recognized his contributions by establishing a National Wildlife Week to be observed everything April in his memory. Today, people continue to honour the works of Jack and his sons, who have carried on his mission, by visiting the sanctuary by the thousands during the annual spring and fall migration periods.

The Story of Wild Goose Jack conveys the drama and accomplishments in the life of a remarkable man. Jack Miner's conversion from the practice of thoughtless slaughter to a dedicated pursuit of conservation is particularly relevant in a world in which scarcity and extinction, rather than abundance, are steadily becoming stark realities.

The foreword is written by Sir Peter Scott, Honorary Director of The Wildfowl Trust and Chairman of Council, World Wildlife Fund International.