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Hugh Boyd

Discussion in 'WWII Obituaries' started by GRW, Jul 24, 2016.

  1. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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    "Hugh Boyd, who has died aged 91, was a pioneer of waterbird science and conservation; a dedicated field researcher, he published getting on for 200 papers, notably on Arctic breeding geese and waders, introduced key monitoring schemes and was in the forefront of moves to improve international cooperation on wetland conservation which led to the development of the Ramsar Convention on wetlands in 1971.

    Boyd, a trained zoologist, began his ornithological career in 1948 as warden of Lundy Bird Observatory, Devon, a reserve renowned for its seabirds, particularly the Atlantic Puffin. The previous year his first paper, on “The hatching and fledging success of some Coots”, had been published in British Birds.

    In 1949 Boyd became the first resident wildlife biologist at the Severn Wildfowl Trust (now the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust), which had been established at Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, by the naturalist Peter (later Sir Peter) Scott in 1946. Situated on the Severn estuary, Slimbridge was notable not only for its unsurpassed collection of captive wildfowl, but for the large numbers of Russian White-fronted Geese which visited every winter. In the next 20 years, the lively team of scientists at Slimbridge would win an international reputation for their work.

    By the time Boyd arrived, however, the pace of post-war reconstruction was beginning to threaten wetlands across Europe. Moreover, poorly regulated (or even unregulated) hunting had long been adversely affecting wild populations of many bird species.

    The few protected areas that existed were limited in extent and distribution. There were no effective international frameworks for conservation and knowledge of numbers and trends was poor.

    Boyd’s major task was to establish a waterfowl monitoring and banding programme to provide the scientific basis for a national conservation effort. During this work, he undertook detailed studies of the biology and behaviour of waterfowl, particularly White-fronted Geese, and helped to establish from scratch techniques which ornithologists now take for granted, such as systematic counts, the use of ringing in understanding demographics, studies of age ratios and aerial surveys.

    In 1953 he published a seminal work in the journal Behaviour entitled “On encounters between wild White-fronted Geese in winter flocks”. By 1960 monitoring programmes on ducks, geese and swans had been established, providing new information on patterns of distribution, abundance, population dynamics and habitat use.

    The plight of the goose population was illustrated by Boyd’s estimate in 1960 that there were just 100,000 individuals from 10 populations of seven species in Britain.

    Boyd’s work informed subsequent programmes to protect species populations, create protected areas, and conserve critical wetland sites throughout the United Kingdom. From 1956 Boyd represented Britain on the International Wildfowl and Wetlands Research Bureau (now Wetlands International), where he was one of the originators of what became the Ramsar Convention.

    In 1967, after two years spent with the Nature Conservancy (now Natural England), he left Britain for Ottawa, Canada to take up a post as Research Supervisor of Migratory Birds in Eastern and Arctic Canada at the Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS ), where he had the opportunity to continue his work on Arctic breeding birds and their habitats in another continent.

    Later (from 1975 to 1980), he became director of the CWS’s migratory birds branch, then senior policy adviser.

    Modest, softly spoken but rigorous in his approach to research, Boyd fostered a strong scientific ethos at the CWS, encouraging younger scientists and helping them to get published. Under his influence, the CWS developed long-term research and conservation programmes not only for ducks and geese, but for seabirds, shorebirds and songbirds – the “twittering bird business”, as he put it.

    He would lighten the atmosphere of many scientific seminars with his wry humour: in one discussion of multi-national conservation measures along migration routes, he brought the participants back to reality saying: “I think we should study where the birds actually fly, rather than telling them where to go.”

    He was also instrumental in persuading the CWS to expand international partnerships to include close ties with the United States, European and global agencies, and in persuading the Canadian authorities to bring their influence to bear on other countries in North, Central and Southern America to join in international wetland and waterbird conservation conventions.

    Ever the realist, Boyd always recognised that conservation strategies often have to be shaped around potentially damaging human activities. When oil was discovered on the north slope of Alaska in 1968, he set up a seabird programme to prepare for the offshore oil exploration that would inevitably occur in eastern Canada. When plans were announced for a vast hydroelectric project at James Bay, at the south end of Hudson Bay, he established a shorebird programme in advance of the development to ensure that the effects on wildlife could be properly measured and monitored.

    He was also in the vanguard of those considering the impacts of climate change in the Arctic, and oversaw the development of the La Perouse Bay Snow Goose research project, initiated in 1968, which became one of the longest and most productive field studies of a bird population in the world.

    Hugh James Boyd was born in Bristol on May 12 1925 and studied Zoology, Microbiology and Chemistry at the University of Bristol, following military service with the Royal Navy in 1943-44."
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/07/18/hugh-boyd-slimbridges-first-resident-biologist--obituary/
     
  2. Skipper

    Skipper Kommodore

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    Quite a man! May he rest in peace :poppy:
     

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