BY JOHN D. JURIGA
Bob Hines holds a unique niche on the roster of past OWAA members. Rather than applying his skill with a pen or typewriter as most writers did, he deftly expressed his artistic talents with pencil or paintbrush.
Born and reared in Ohio, young Hines began drawing around four years of age to comfort his mother, who was bereft after the death of her newborn daughter. As Hines crossed the threshold of adolescence, his beloved mother died. Hines channeled his grief by tending to a backyard menagerie of animals. He also joined the Boy Scouts, acquainting him with the richness of Ohio’s natural beauty. After he graduated from high school at sixteen years of age, Hines taught himself taxidermy, which reinforced his knowledge of animal anatomy and movement. A health crisis the following decade forced Hines to reevaluate his career goals. He returned to drawing as a means of educating the public about Ohio’s wildlife.
Hines had no formal art training. In 1939, when he received a job offer to become staff artist for the Ohio Division of Conservation and Natural Resources, Hines turned to his former high school art teacher. In just four days, he learned enough about oil painting to serve him the remainder of his career. One of Hines’ first assignments was to compose “Under Ohio Skies,” a weekly feature that appeared in some 300 Ohio newspapers. He also illustrated and occasionally wrote an article for the Ohio Conservation bulletin, which in the 1940s had some 50,000 subscribers. Hines joined OWAA in 1942.
A chance meeting with Frank Dufresne lead to Hines’ debut as an illustrator of books with Dufresne’s “Alaska’s Animals and Fishes,” a 1946 release. Hines used his proceeds from the book to join an OWAA sponsored Alaskan trek in which Dufresne was one of the leaders. The grandeur of Alaska’s landscape and its wildlife made an indelible impression on Hines, appealing both to the artist and outdoorsman in him.
Encouraged by then OWAA President J. Hammond Brown, Hines submitted a drawing of redhead ducks, which became the design for the 1946 Federal Duck Stamp.
Hines humbly recalled, “In the 1930s and ‘40s there were no great rewards for designing the Federal Duck Stamp — no big publicity and certainly no huge financial rewards. It was just the honor of doing it.” He had to pay a dollar to purchase one of the Duck Stamps bearing his design for himself.
When Dufresne became the chief of information for the Fish and Wildlife Service, he encouraged Hines to leave Ohio, move to the Washington, D.C. area, and join the Service. A product of his generation, Hines was less than enthusiastic to learn that his immediate supervisor would be a woman, biologist Rachel Carson. Following the success of her 1951 “The Sea Around Us,” Carson asked Hines to illustrate her next book.
After he joined the Service, Hines was eager to observe the selection of the annual Duck Stamp design. He was appalled at the casual, subjective nature of the process. Hines suggested a more formal contest with impartial judging. He went on to coordinate the annual competition for more than 30 years, earning him the moniker “Mr. Duck Stamp Contest.” Hines’s brainchild continues to promote the genre of wildlife art while advancing the aims of conservation throughout the Americas.
In the mid-1950s, Hines facilitated and then designed the first four U.S. postage stamps featuring American wildlife. A British philatelic poll named his 1957 tricolored whooping crane stamp one of the 10 best stamps in the world for that year. The press run of 500 million stamps in the series introduced the term “conservation” a decade before it entered the national lexicon.
Hines illustrated several high profile publications for the Service that advanced the tenets of the organization. “Ducks at a Distance,” a 1963 primer of waterfowl identification, became a best-seller for the Government Printing Office, which sold more than 2 million copies. The frontispiece of “Birds in Our Lives,” a 1966 release, features a color Hines painting of a bald eagle. The image gained popularity as a collector’s print entitled “The Symbol of Our Nation” during the nation’s bicentennial year, selling more than 100,000 copies. To celebrate the centennial of U.S. fisheries conservation in 1971, the Service released “Sport Fishing USA.” Hines’s 22 color plates portray the habits as well as the habitats of their respective fish species. He along with Pete Anastasi wrote and illustrated “Fifty Birds of Town and City,” a 1975 release. Hines’s fish and bird images gained wider circulation as collector’s prints. His color illustrations enliven a 1979 edition of “Migration of Birds.”
In 1972, Ohio Rep. Delbert L. Latta read into the Congressional Record, “The Department of the Interior can be proud to have Mr. Hines on its staff, for his service to his fellow Americans is priceless.”
As Hines advanced through the Service, he attained the title of “National Wildlife Artist,” the only person to hold that distinction. He retired in 1981 after 32 years. Throughout his career, Hines illustrated more than fifty books. Upon his retirement, Hines was free to enter the Federal Duck Stamp contest as a private citizen. Hines submitted several entries, hoping to design a second stamp, but he never placed. His traditional style along with a faltering dexterity conspired against him.
Hines was unable to enjoy a fruitful retirement. His last major commission was to illustrate a 50th anniversary edition of Rachel Carson’s first book, “Under the Sea-wind,” released in 1991. Confined to a nursing home, Hines died in 1994 at 82. The centennial of his birth marks an opportune time to acknowledge a pioneer in the art of conservation, self-taught, versatile, and prolific. ◊
Written by John D. Juriga, author of “Bob Hines: National Wildlife Artist” (Beaver’s Pond Press, 2012).

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• Montreal, Quebec: 110 miles, (2 hours)
• Albany, N.Y.: 140 miles, (2.5 hours)
• Burlington, Vt.: 61 miles, (2 hours, including ferry across Lake Champlain)
• Plattsburgh, N.Y.: 50 miles (1.25 hours)
• Syracuse, N.Y.: 200 miles (4 hours)
• New York, N.Y.: 290 miles (5.5 hours)

Ground transportation options include a rental car (highly recommended if you want to see more than Main Street Lake Placid); the Adirondack Trailways bus; or the Amtrak train. If you book an Amtrak ticket, choose Lake Placid as your destination even though the train itself doesn’t go to Lake Placid. That ticket will include a train ride to Westport, 45 minutes east of Lake Placid, as well as a pre-arranged bus ride from Westport to Lake Placid.
In case you’re wondering what to pack, my advice is to expect daytime highs between 50 degrees and 70 degrees. Bring a warm jacket, too. There will likely be frost overnight, and snow is certainly possible in the mountains. Though you should also pack rain gear: mid-September often brings a beautiful Indian summer to the Adirondacks.
The conference is early for peak fall foliage, which is usually the last week of September in the High Peaks region, through mid- October at lower elevations. However, a number of trees and shrubs will already display flaming reds, brilliant oranges and glowing yellows. Expect both Mother Nature and the Lake Placid CVB to put on a good show for us.
And don’t forget: If you donate $850 or more to OWAA’s 85th Anniversary campaign by Dec. 31, 2012, Jack Ballard and I will give you a private tour. See you there! ◊
A former OWAA board member and an award-winning television producer, writer and photographer, Lisa Densmore is local chair of the 2013 OWAA conference in Lake Placid, N.Y. www.DensmoreDesigns.com.

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BY JAKE McGINNIS
According to Michigan author and freelance writer Tom Huggler, there are no secrets in outdoor writing. He doesn’t have a little tip for selling articles. Success in outdoor writing, he insists, is all about careful planning and hard work.
“It’s always been a buyer’s market,” said Huggler. “So it’s a challenge of getting the pieces of the puzzle together. You need to find the pieces, get the editor’s attention, study the market, and then craft the piece. Then you can turn in an article that they simply can’t turn down.”
Huggler’s observation comes after a noteworthy career as an outdoor writer. He published his first story, a piece on muskrat trapping, when he was 12 years old. He was 17 when he placed an article in the January 1963 issue of Outdoor Life, a piece that fetched him a $350 paycheck. That article, a hunting story titled “Crows a la carte,” was by no means a shortcut into the industry, though.
“It took me 15 years to sell the next,” he said, chuckling.
After college, Huggler pursued a career in education. He taught high school English, served as an administrator and pursued writing on the side, particularly during summers. By 1974 he was writing enough to qualify for membership in OWAA, but his writing remained a weekend profession.
It wasn’t until 1982, with a year’s leave of absence and a carefully calculated savings account, that Huggler stepped tentatively into the outdoor communications industry. He knew precisely how much money he would have to make as a writer, and he was prepared to return to the classroom in the event he didn’t meet that goal.
Today, he tells the story with ease. He marks 1982 as the start of his full-time writing career, and that savings account, tucked away in case he couldn’t make ends meet, ended up financing a family vacation in Europe. For Huggler, outdoor communications ended up paying off.
Ralph Stuart, the editor of Shooting Sportsman magazine, has worked with Huggler for some 25 years. For him, the reason for Huggler’s success is simple.
“Tom is the epitome of what I would like to be if I was a writer rather than an editor,” he said. “He’s always working — always photographing, always taking notes, always observing details — and it shows in his writing.”
Jake Smith, editor at The Pointing Dog Journal, has also seen the results of Huggler’s dedication to the craft. He describes Huggler’s regular column, Eastern Encounters, as a joy to read. “It’s one of the few manuscripts I receive each issue which I find myself reading with a cup of coffee instead of a red pen,” he said.
Huggler’s work doesn’t always end when an article is submitted, though. He still works closely with editors, who he describes as a gateway to readers. Red marks are an important part of the writing process.
“He’s always been a great person to work with because there isn’t much of an ego there,” Stuart said. “He’s proud of what he turns in, but he’s not afraid to change it.”
Huggler put it another way. “Not every piece is a home run,” he said, “but if you’re going to write for someone is has to be a best effort.” And that includes whatever it takes to make that story perfect.
These days, Huggler publishes about 25 articles a year, including regular columns for three magazines. During the peak of his career, though, he was selling 150 to 175. He served as the camping editor of Outdoor Life and has worked in film, television and public relations. Over the course of two decades he penned 20 books, including the Fish Michigan series, “The L.L. Bean Guide to Upland Bird Hunting,” “Quail of North America,” “The Camper’s and Backpacker’s Bible” and “Fall of Woodcock,” among others.
Forty years in the outdoor communications industry has established a fine reputation for Huggler and his work.
Stuart sums it up nicely. “To me, Tom is a consummate professional. That’s the reason why he has been as successful as he has.”
A reputation like that can only be the result of true dedication to craft. Huggler admits, though, that a few good friends make things a lot easier.
“If it wasn’t for OWAA I wouldn’t have been as successful as I have,” he said. “The membership of OWAA is a cherished group of people.”
Still, Huggler’s achievements are strictly his own, and after forty years as an outdoor writer his advice ought to be taken seriously. No matter the story, the pay or the point in one’s career, only a best effort will do. That, he says, is the only secret. ◊
Jake McGinnis is currently completing a bachelor’s degree in writing at Northland College, where he serves as an editor of an independent student newspaper and a writing tutor. A lifelong outdoors enthusiast, he enjoys canoeing, fly-fishing and Nordic skiing. McGinnis was OWAA’s summer journalism intern.

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The recent awards to Dave Richey and Thayne Smith could not be more appropriate or more deserving. I’ve know these gentlemen for 40 years and have always admired their dedication to their craft, and to OWAA. Congratulations to both of them.
— Ron Kerr, former OWAA member

Thanks for coming to Alasaka

Sportsman’s Alliance for Alaska would like to thank all of the OWAA members who traveled to Alaska for the 2012 conference. We hope that you enjoyed as much of what Alaska has to offer as your schedule allowed. Should you have any questions regarding Bristol Bay/Pebble Mine or the Tongass National Forest, don’t hesitate to reach out. The video of the Pebble Mine panel discussion should be available online soon. Also, if you have any hero shots you’d care to share, we always like to include things like that in our newsletter. Contact me at 605-351- 1646 or Scott@SportsmansAlliance4AK.org.
— Scott Hed, Sportsman’s Alliance for Alaska

Feedback guidelines

Members are encouraged to write about issues and topics. The executive director and editor will decide whether opinions are appropriate for debate or if the comments promote a personal cause; if the “cause” is unrelated to OWAA’s mission and potentially damaging to the membership, the letter might not be printed. Word limit: 400. Longer letters will be returned for revision. Send letters to editor@owaa.org.

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