URI information officer's first book explores "golden wings, hairy toes"

By RUDI HEMPE
CELS News Editor & Reporter

For more than seven years, Todd McLeish, a public information officer, has been pumping out press release after press release on everything newsworthy that takes place in three of URI’s colleges, including CELS.

And for many years he has been a free lancer, writing wildlife articles for various magazines.

Writing pieces ranging from 500 up to a couple thousand words then has become second nature to McLeish but when he decided to tackle a book, he admits “that’s when I got nervous.”

His nervousness has now subsided substantially as his first book, Golden Wings and Hairy Toes, Encounters with New England’s Most Imperiled Wildlife, has hit the bookstores and McLeish has embarked on a slew of guest appearances in libraries and other venues where audiences interested in wildlife preservation and conservation gather.

The touting of his book caps more than two years of field work and writing—an adventure that he documents in his book in a first-person format that enlivens the seriousness of his subject.

Actually, he has 14 subjects in this book—three mammals, three insects, three birds, two plants, two fish and one turtle. The subjects have something in common—they are all rare and endangered.

The idea for writing a book came to him when he was reading another wildlife book. Having written extensively on wildlife, he came up with the idea of devoting a book to endangered species that live –or are barely living—in the six New England states.

“What I was most nervous about was that I had never written a book –I was concerned about writing in a longer form. I wondered whether I had enough to say,” he says.

It turns out he had a lot to say—266 pages worth and according to the reviews, he has said it well.

“McLeish’s combination of first-hand reporting and background science is irresistible and will leave the reader caring about the ultimate fate of each species,” stated one reviewer.

To pick the subjects for his book, McLeish checked out the federal and state endangered species lists and selected species that are found in the New England states. After consulting with biologists all over the area, including NRS Professors Peter Paton and Scott McWilliams, he narrowed the scope of his book to 14 species.

The next step was pretty logical. He Googled each species by name and immediately came up with the names of biologists who were studying each.

Next he contacted those scientists.

“Everybody was incredibly cooperative and that was just remarkable,” he says. The cordial receptions he received eventually turned into invitations to go into the field with those scientists and that turned into two summers of field trips, hither and yon.

It is difficult for McLeish to pick out his most memorable experiences but certainly his trips out on Cape Cod Bay to watch right whales rates high on his list. That the right whales are extremely endangered is well known.

Not so well-known are several other endangered species described in his book such as Bicknell’s thrush, a songbird which dwells in a very precarious habitat—a difference in 2 degrees Celsius could reduce this bird’s favored habitat by 50 percent. The habitat is also affected by acid rain and if that is not enough, this bird faces a triple whammy—mercury poison, the

Then there is the Sandplain Gerardia, one of the rarest plants in the country, whose population in Rhode Island was down to just one plant in 2005, though it has recovered slightly since then. Frequently found in historic cemeteries, this plant likes a habitat that is kept clear of trees and shrubs by only occasional maintenance. In the chapter on this plant, McLeish makes reference to the late Dr. Richard C. Skogley, a famed URI turf scientist who used to visit old cemeteries around the country in search of grasses that have desirable characteristics and have not been affected by chemicals and machines.

There is also the American Burying Beetle which thrives on Block Island and few other places. The beetles’ reproduction habit is threatened by the fact that Passenger Pigeons are now extinct—that strange connection is one of the many surprises in this book. But there is hope—captive rearing of the beetles by zoos and reintroducing them to new locations is keeping the species viable.

The book’s title is in part derived from the appearance of one of the book’s featured species, the Golden Winged Warbler. To find out where the “hairy toes” reference comes from, check out the book.

Of course writing one’s first book is more complicated than just gathering the material—McLeish had to find the right agent. The agent had to specialize in non-fiction and be from New England because of the limited geographical scope of the book. Then the agent had to find the right publisher and they did—University Press of New England.

The book sells for $25 and McLeish is scheduled well into the spring with public presentations. In addition Rick McKinney, who teaches a URI course in non-game and endangered species management, will be using McLeish’s book in that course.

With the first-book-nervous-syndrome now gone, McLeish has started work on his second book—one that will deal strictly with endangered marine species. Chances are after he finishes the field work, he will have grown a good set of sea legs.

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