Donors

Kate Chamberlin, Jamey Eddy, Matthew Germino, Steve Herman, William Kuestner, Michael Lockhart,

Doug and Trisha Pineo, Mark Ritchie, Richard Smith, Astrid Vargas, Emmanuelle Vital, Cordelia Wagner

Chris Garber: A Tribute

— by Mark Ritchie

On January 21, 1996 our friend, Chris S.

Garber, 33, lost his life doing one of the things he

loved, skiing the back country. While telemarking

on Centennial Ridge in the Snowy Range he was

Database here in Laramie. During that time he

walked the mountains and plains of Wyoming

looking for rare species; surveying such critters

as the Wyoming toad, the boreal toad, and the

Townsend big-eared bat. As Chris’s work contrib-

uted to the cause of conservation, he was helping

to ensure Wyoming’s natural legacy. At the same

time it fed his own love of the outdoors. It was no

secret to his friends and employers that one of the

reasons Chris loved his work was his excuse to be

He started out as a sheries research assistant in

Corvallis, Oregon. He was an interpretive natural-

ist in Friday Harbor, Washington. As a technical

aide with the Washington Department of Wildlife,

Chris assisted on Gyrfalcon and Peregrine Falcon,

studies. Again he worked on Peregrine Falcons

for The Peregrine Fund to reintroduce the raptor

in Washington state. He worked as a biological re-

search assistant once more in Corvallis, Oregon.

He did a stint as a wildlife consultant in Seattle,

and took it to Chris he could tell you what spe-

cies it came from. If you saw a small, thin mammal

with a black tail bouncing around Libby Flats in

the Snowy Range he would tell you it was a long

tailed weasel, what it ate, and how it survived the

winter. He believed in the ideals of conservation

education and often gave presentations to kids.

This past year he started Peregrinations, an eco-

tourism company as yet another way of extending

outdoor experiences to others, pay the bills, and

of wildlife, he was kayaking in Belize, Baja, Costa

Rica, Nicaragua, and most recently in Thailand

and North Vietnam. He had a trip in the works to

explore the coast of Bafn Island by kayak. He’d

hiked Alaska and walked the remote interior of

Ellsmere Island National Park in Canada. He ex-

plored untold miles in the broad basins and ranges

of Wyoming.

From an early age Christopher held a fasci-

nation for raptors, particularly falcons. Much of

This past fall Chris told of one of his most moving

ights with his falcon. The sun was just below the

horizon, the Wyoming sky pink and blue, Cielo, his

falcon, a thousand feet above held her eye pre-

cisely on her prey. Both dogs were on point, and

Chris, in that perfect spot known to the falconer’s

world, found grace in a most perfect unity of bird,

dog, prey, and a man.

Chris is survived by his mother, Jan Rivera and

brother, Robert, both of Delaware; his father, Jan

— by Doug Pineo

Conservation and falconry lost a wonderful friend

on January 21 when Chris Garber died in an av-

alanche while back-country skiing in the Snowy

Range near his home south of Laramie, Wyoming.

He was 33 years old. Characteristically, he was

in the company of two expert telemarkers, having

fun while seeking to learn more. He outlived most

of us in many respects.

Chris pursued his passion for the natural world in

Conservancy. Chris was a superb photographer

and an experienced adventurer and wilderness

traveler. He hiked and kayaked in Central America,

southwest Asia, the high plains and desert ba-

sins of the West, and the Alaskan and Canadian

Arctic. He was a peregrine hack-site attendant in

Washington’s Columbia Gorge. In Wyoming he

surveyed rare toads, salamanders, bats and the

plant communities in which they live.

Chris, whom it was my pleasure to sponsor in

two shrub-steppe cruisers pointed grouse for

many Wyoming falconers, but got good with Chris

and Ciello. Chris focused lots of energy on work-

ing with good dogs, and avoided frequently ac-

quiring new birds. He was richly rewarded for this

approach.

Chris’s life was a vigorous celebration of our natu-

ral world, good music and art, and friendship. At

his memorial in Laramie, a packed hall of friends,

falconers, biologists, artists, adventurers and their

ored the deer he shot, the grouse brought to foot

by Ciello, and their sagebrush home. He knew

all the wildlife he encountered and their ecology.

There were no “dicky birds” in his world. He held

no prejudice against man, woman or beast. This is

one of the great lessons of Chris’s life.

Chris died with his boots on, pursuing his bliss in

a wild place he held dear. He has left us to fol-

low, as he did, Edward Abbey’s advice, “So get

out there and hunt and sh and mess around with