I joined NYSOWA in 1988 when my mentor and dear friend Bill Hilts, Sr. suggested that membership would lead to growth and improvement in the craft of outdoor communication. Bill was, as always, correct! Truly membership has its privileges, and interacting with some of New York’s finest scribes and photographers sets a high standard to follow.

Unfortunately, due to work and travel commitments attending only a few Conferences was the extent of my direct NYSOWA involvement.

However, in service to NYSOWA, I was honored to serve both as Treasurer and Chair of the Paul M. Keesler Photo Awards Contest for three years in the early 2000’s.

In terms of early publishing, a panel piece on the wood duck appeared in the NYS Conservationist in high school.  At 14, I created a backyard waterfowl aviary with wood ducks, pintails and mallards. Since age 12, raptors have shared both my avocational and vocational pursuits particularly in falconry, kestrel research and several conservation businesses.  Over the fleeting decades, I have held both master raptor banding and master eagle falconry permits.  My formal education included natural resources conservation (Morrisville State College) and environmental science (U/B). My wife Anne is also a master falconer and her business Montana’s Eagle Experience, LLC maintains three eagle species along with owls, falcons and hawks with which her clients can interact.

Perhaps the greatest contribution to conservation communication in New York state was travelling with a quite famous gentle bald eagle named Liberty from 1989 until our necessary departure to AZ in 2015. Together, we crisscrossed the Empire State and neighboring states with half a dozen other raptors promoting ecological principles, human population regulation and habitat protection under the ‘wise use’ concept espoused by the late, great scientist Aldo Leopold.  Messages were uplifting, encouraging and always aimed at getting audiences involved whether hunting, fishing, trapping, birdwatching, planting trees, hanging bird boxes, protecting waterways and so forth.  Virtually every program had a hawk flying to selected participants.  Get outdoors!  Get moving! Get involved!

In Lyndonville in 1991, I established Institute for Environmental Learning, Inc.  Here, clients from across the country and even the world visited to see the gray wolves, mountain lions, eagles and raptors literally at arm’s length.  Photographers, writers, artists and young people spent time in the quiet contemplation of socialized apex predators – and learned of the critical importance in preserving biodiversity for future generations.  Once again, Bill Hilts Sr. served on my Board of Directors offering his sage wisdom and expert advice.  His guidance was invaluable.  He is greatly missed by so many of us!

In retrospect, having done both, I will always be considered a motivational speaker versus a hook and bullet writer.  Both have their place, of course.  But there is something incredibly powerful in the educational experience when a hawk flies to one’s gauntlet or when an eagle perches on a stranger’s glove.  Magic happens and perhaps a future outdoor communicator or naturalist, at that precious moment in time, is born.

In the words of Pierre DeChardin, “The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of one’s self to others.”  Each of us has stood on the shoulders of others.  Be those shoulders that others now stand upon!

Paul and Anne and the birds moved to northwestern Montana near the famed Cabinet-Yaak Wilderness in 2021.  A century-old bridge separates our tiny town of Noxon from the outside world.  One day soon enough, I will complete the Carbon cycle when Anne scatters my ashes under the century-old apples trees that feed the deer, elk, turkeys, ravens and black bears. A fitting end to a life dedicated to the natural world.

Paul Schnell
Pschnell0@gmail.com