"Wild Goose Jack"
Conservationist
Jack Miner's Testimony:
The Lord is my Guide and Teacher, I will not get lost:
He makes my heart a receiving station for His wireless:
He sits down beside me in the pathless woods and opens up his book of knowledge:
He turns the leaves very slowly that my dimmed eyes may read His meaning.
He makes the trees that I plant to grow, and flowers to arch my path with their fragrant beauty; gives me dominion over the fowls of the air and they honk and sing their way to and from my home.
Yea, He has brought me up from a barefooted underprivileged boy to a man respected by millions of people, and I give Him all the credit and praise whenever, wherever and forever.
Jack Miner was born in Dover Center, Ohio on April 10, 1865. Jack attended school for only three months. The outdoors was his classroom. He spent most of his free time around the creeks and in the woods, studying the habits of wildlife.
When Jack was thirteen, he moved with his family to Gosfield South Township near Kingsville, Ontario. To supplement his families’ income, he became a trapper and market hunter. This led to the formation of the first "Game Protective Association."
In 1904, Jack founded the Jack Miner Bird Sanctuary for the conservation of migrating Canada Geese and wild ducks. This was the origin of the waterfowl refuge management system. In 1906, Jack was dubbed "The Father of Conservation" by the Minneapolis Journal.
 
After a four-year effort, eleven Canada Geese landed at the Jack Miner Bird Sanctuary in 1908. In 1909, Jack pioneered the tagging of migratory waterfowl by banding his first wild duck. In 1910, the first banding record was completed when Dr. W. Bray of Anderson, South Carolina returned the band. Jack began a thirty-year lecture career. He spoke of the need for the establishment of sanctuaries and wildlife refuges and lectured on wildlife conservation.
Jack banded his first Canada goose in 1915, in order to trace migration habits. At this time a Biblical verse was inserted into each band making the geese, "Missionaries of the air."
 
In 1916, the data from tagging recoveries proved instrumental in the Migratory Bird Treaty that was signed by the United States and Canada. The Act placed the first restrictions on hunting, assuring protection for the waterfowl population of the future.
Jack’s first book, "Jack Miner and the Birds," was published in 1923.
On April 9, 1927, Jack was the guest speaker at the Izaak Walton League’s Annual Banquet in Chicago. President Herbert Hoover was the guest of honor. One of the nineteen charter members of the Outdoor Writer’s Association of America was conceived at the banquet.
Jack was awarded the Oudoor Life Gold Medal in 1929. It was for the "greatest achievement in wildlife conservation on the continent." This was the first time the award had ever been presented to a Canadian.
The Jack Miner Migratory Bird Foundation, Inc. was created in 1931, under US philanthropic law. This foundation was incorporated in Canada in 1936 by a special Act of the Ontario Legislature. In the same year, Jack was chosen by Prime Minister MacKenzie King to deliver the around the world radio address, for the 25th anniversary of King George’s Reign as Monarch." After the address was broadcast, Jack received letters from sixty-five countries
from around the world.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
