January 27, 2009
Talk of the South
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Photo by Dusan Smetana
Goings On
Jim Range: 1945–2009
On January 20, one of the great conservationists of the last several decades, Jim Range, died after a brief battle with kidney cancer. He was sixty-three. Range was the co-founder and chairman of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, a coalition of hunting and fishing organizations that lobbies for wildlife conservation and the protection of wild places. Throughout his career—including four years as chief counsel to Senator Howard Baker—Range fought for major environmental legislation by bringing together unlikely political allies with a combination of tough talk and Southern charm. Whether it was helping to craft the Clean Water Act, convincing President Bush to stop excessive drilling on the Rocky Mountain Front, or championing the importance of wetlands, Range was relentless. He was known as a “legislative cowboy” in the model of his hero, Teddy Roosevelt, and his tactics often worked.
Range also happened to be an early fan of Garden & Gun. Raised in Johnson City, Tennessee, he grew up with a passion for hunting, fishing, and all things Southern. He had an insatiable appetite for good books, became a gourmet cook (especially of game birds), and was an accomplished orchidist. But he was most at home in the field, chasing sharp-tailed grouse with his dogs in the mountains of Montana, fishing the shad run every spring on the Potomac, or fly fishing for trout just about anywhere.
A memorial service for Range was held this morning at Fletcher’s Cove, on the banks of the Potomac, in Washington, D.C. We couldn’t be there, but today we salute an extraordinary Son of the South.
