Of Men and Marshes

introduction. Paul L. Errington: His Life and Work

Paul L. Errington: His Lift and Work MATTHEW WYNN SIVILS Trapper, ecologist, and narure writer Paul Erringron dedicated his life ro the understanding and preservation of wetland environments and ro the rich diversity of wildlife that calls them home. Through his technical research as well as in his popular writing, Erringron challenged us ro change the way we think about and value marshlands. He was one of the most innovative, forward-thinking, and influential ecologists of his day, and his lifetime of exploring and working in midwestern glacial marshes culminated in his narural hisrory classic, OfMen and Marshes. Erringron was born on June 14, 1902, in east-central South Dakota. His education in wetland ecology began in rural Brookings County, where his mother's parents had homesteaded on land adjacent ro Lake Teronkaha. The young Erringron spent many of his formative years exploring this lake, as well as other local marshes, ponds, and riverbanks. The area would prove the perfect environment for nurturing his love of the outdoors, a process he chronicled in his posthumously published The Red Gods Call. When he was eight years old Errington contracted polio, bur he did not allow the disease ro interfere with his love of the outdoors, especially ofhunting and target shooting, both ofwhich he continued ro do over the next few years. As he related, "My main problem was relearning ro walk; and my most rapid gains in walking were linked introduction ix with my development as a shooter at the beginning of my teens."1 On Saturdays he and the neighborhood boys went on extended hikes, sropping ro plink at improvised targets with their .22 rifles. Erringron-still recovering from the damage polio had done ro his legs-would struggle ro keep pace, lagging behind and then running ro catch up, until by the end of the trip he would resign himself ro following from as much as a half-mile behind. The young Errington was determined ro improve both his walking and his marksmanship. In a teenaged friend named Kirk Mears he found the key ro doing both. This long-legged boy was a remarkable shot, and he and Erringron got inro the habit of shouldering their rifles and walking long distances, sometimes thirty miles in a day. Though his friend never slowed his pace (Errington recalled, "If he ever tired I never knew of it"), he would srop from time ro time ro engage in shooting contests. These grueling hikes paid off two-fold: "Gradually I found I had less and less fatigue ro hide," Erringron writes. "Gradually, roo, I gained on him in the shooting.'" When he was not shooting or walking along the banks of Lake Teronkaha, Erringron could be found making good use of the Brookings County Library. He had a special fondness for writers like Ernest Thompson Seron and Jack London, who penned adventure srories about hunting, woodcraft, and trapping. By 1915, at the age of thirteen, he decided ro become a professional trapper. "I was thinking that maybe I should quit school and go up north as a wilderness trapper," he later explained. "However, I was not ready ro announce my professional ambitions at home for fear they would not be well received.... (My mother and stepfather wanted me ro go ro college and study ro become a professor)." 3 They did, however, support his recreational trapping and in doing so helped set him on the path ro gain a deep understanding of marshland ecosystems, an experience that served him well once he did indeed become a professor. Erringron set about trapping minks, muskrats, weasels, and other animals, and he made a little money selling the pelts. By age fifteen, firmly entranced with the idea ofliving an adventurous outdoor life, he was ready ro announce ro his family that he was going ro quit school, move ro the Canadian north, and become a professional trapper. He reasoned, "Why should I continue going ro school when I knew what I wanted ro do' All I would need up in the wilderness would be an ax, a rifle, traps, and the simplest equipment for cooking, X matthew wynn sivils sleeping, mending clorhes, and so on-all ro be raken in one canoeload ." His idea was nor well received. Afrer months ofarguments wirh his morher, during a rime rhar he admirred "surely did nor represent my mosr enjoyable personaliry phase," rhe family decided he would...