“The rumors of my death,” wrote Mark Twain, “have been greatly exaggerated.” So with the news of my retirement from NTBG. It is true that I am leaving my post as Director of Conservation at NTBG in just a few days. But unlike Bilbo Baggins, in the opening scene of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, I will not be giving a farewell address to friends and then disappearing before their eyes. For starters, I don’t have a magic ring, although one would be handy at times.

Back home in NC last year, David Burney shapes a critical piece in the ribbing of a traditional wooden boat he’s helping build at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Cultural Center, on Harker’s Island. (photo by Lida Pigott Burney)

No, this is quite something else. For eight years, I have tried to do three jobs: 1) build the NTBG Conservation Department from near oblivion to whatever it is today, largely on grant funding; 2) create a college-accredited Field School program on Kaua`i from scratch; and 3) continue and expand my research program in paleoecology and conservation in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly at Makauwahi Cave on Kaua`i and the Indian Ocean island of Rodrigues (which also has a cave reserve). At my age, that’s just too much – I’m not doing any of it as well as I would like.

So I’m abandoning #1 to a very able new Assistant Director of Conservation at NTBG, John Chapman, formerly the Assistant Director of the Kaua`i Invasive Species Committee. #2 is bigger than ever, with at least seven offerings coming up this year, including the Botanical Illustration Intensive Workshop with Wendy Hollender February 10-24 (more on that in the next issue). And Lida and I have big plans for Makauwahi Cave Reserve and other research initiatives, now that I can focus more directly on this very special place.

So I will be disappearing for a while in October, for instance, but only to do some work on a new special assignment at the National Geographic Society in Washington, DC. Something so new and special that, theatrical as it sounds, I am not allowed to divulge the subject of the scientific workshop I am helping organize until after it’s over. I expect to have some exciting news on this in the October issue of this newsletter.

Lida and I also have some research to write up for new scientific publications; I’m working on the concept for another book for the general reader; and – who knows – maybe it’s time to build a new and bigger wooden boat, this time a sailboat with a cabin on ‘er. We’ll see…retirement can allow for spontaneity, right?