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Wise Ones

Ouchley
K. Ouchley

We are losing the old wise ones.  Some of our most erudite naturalists never heard a professor's lecture or studied in a biology lab that reeked of formalin and moth balls.  Still, they know the eddies where giant flathead catfish prowl and ridge-top trails of foraging coyotes.

Kelby was a biologist and manager of National Wildlife Refuges for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 30 years. He has worked with alligators in gulf coast marshes and Canada geese on Hudson Bay tundra. His most recent project was working with his brother Keith of the Louisiana Nature Conservancy on the largest floodplain restoration project in the Mississippi River Basin at the Mollicy Unit of the Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge, reconnecting twenty-five square miles of former floodplain forest back to the Ouachita River.
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