Boyd Norton is known worldwide as an author, wildlife photographer and fierce defender of what’s left on Earth that’s still largely wild. He comes to Boise Tuesday with a multimedia presentation on the Serengeti in Tanzania.
Today he is co-founder and co-director of Serengeti Watch; he’s releasing a new book, “Serengeti: the Eternal Beginning;” and he’s fighting to stop a commercial highway from bisecting the Serengeti park and cutting through the route of the greatest wildlife migration in the world. But decades ago Norton was a nuclear physicist at the NationalReactor Testing Station, now called the Idaho National Laboratory.
Fresh out of Michigan Tech University, Norton came to Idaho in 1960 to join a cadre of nuclear scientists studying reactor safety. These were Idaho’s “Right Stuff” days, when physicists and engineers were building reactors, running tests and then letting them go supercritical to see what happened.
Norton ran the controls on the Special Power Excursion Reactor Test the day in 1962 when they allowed the reaction to run out of control and destroy the reactor. At the same time he was discovering Idaho’s beauty from the top of the Sawtooths deep into Hells Canyon.
He joined Idaho’s fledgling conservation movement and became one of its leaders. He was a founder of the Hells Canyon Preservation Council and the Greater Sawtooth Preservation Council. These groups stopped destructive dams and laid the groundwork for protection of the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area.
Norton also played a key role in the preservation of the Jedediah Smith Wilderness Area on the west slope of the Tetons. He was involved in saving the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, the newest national parks in Alaska, and designating of Siberia’s Lake Baikal as a World Heritage Site.
He also inspired young INL scientists to join the cause, bringing the so-called “site environmentalists” into Idaho’s preservation effort. These chemists, programmers, materials scientists and others, including Jerry Jayne and Russ Brown of Idaho Falls, challenged clear-cutters, miners and promoters of the Teton Dam. They were among the fighters for every wilderness and national recreation area in the state since 1964.
Now retired from the INL, they continue their efforts today.
When Norton left nuclear science, he turned to wildlife photography and conservation worldwide. He founded the International League of Conservation Writers, International League of Conservation Photographers, and North American Nature Photography Association.
He has served on the Board of Trustees of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. Now, through, Serengeti Watch, he is trying to promote sustainable park management and sustainable tourism for the surrounding communities in Africa.
Boise conservationists Amy Haak and John McCarthy, who have been to Africa, obtained a grant from Conservation Geography in Boise to bring Norton back to Idaho.
All proceeds from ticket sales and donations at Norton’s presentation will go to Serengeti Watch. Norton will sign copies of his new book.
The presentation at the Linen Building, 1402 W. Grove St., will start at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 and available at Rediscovered Books.
Rocky Barker: 377-6484
