Shaw, Harley G. 1937- (Charles S. Haws)

PERSONAL:

Born March 16, 1937, in OK; son of Walter David (a heavy equipment operator) and Edyth May (a switchboard operator) Shaw; married Ella Jean Mizenheimer (deceased); married Patricia M. Wood- ruff (a publisher), 1985; children: Jean Elaine Shaw Debono. Ethnicity: "Plain Vanilla European." Education: University of Arizona, B.S., 1960; University of Idaho, M.S., 1963. Politics: Democrat. Hobbies and other interests: The outdoors, auto mechanics, horses.

ADDRESSES:

Home and office—Hillsboro, NM. E-mail—hgshaw@zianet.com.

CAREER:

Arizona Game and Fish Department, Phoenix, summer aide, 1955-59, research biologist, 1963-90; private wildlife consultant and writer, 1990—. Board member for Hillsboro Library, 1998-2000, and Hillsboro Community Center. Central Arizona Land Trust, board member, 1988-95, chair, 1995-97, chair of lands and projects committee, 1997-99; Arizona Antelope Foundation, vice president and chair of projects assessment committee, 1997-99; Hawks Aloft, director; workshop presenter.

MEMBER:

Wildlife Society, Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, Phi Kappa Phi, Xi Sigma Pi, Beta Beta Beta.

WRITINGS:

Soul among Lions: The Cougar as Peaceful Adversary, Johnson Books (Boulder, CO), 1989.

(Compiler, with Mona Lange McCroskey) Historic Photographs of Central Arizona Grasslands and Associated Habitats, Sharlot Hall Museum Press (Prescott, AZ), 1995.

Stalking the Big Bird: A Tale of Turkeys, Biologists, and Bureaucrats, University of Arizona Press (Tucson, AZ), 2004.

Wood Plenty, Grass Good, Water None: Vegetation Changes in Arizona's Upper Verde River Watershed from 1850 to 1997, Rocky Mountain Research Station, U.S. Forest Service (Fort Collins, CO), 2006.

Author of technical reports and field guides. Contributor to periodicals, including Southwest Naturalist, Journal of Wildlife Management, American Rifleman, Handloader, Rifle, Horse and Rider, Outdoor Arizona, Arizona Wildlife Views, and Journal of Mammalogy. Once used the pseudonym Charles S. Haws.

SIDELIGHTS:

Harley G. Shaw told CA: "My primary motivation for writing lies in a feeling that nothing has truly been done until it has been clearly recorded on paper. I have a strong, innate distrust of the spoken word; it is too easily denied. Written words can be revisited; they are a commitment. Both Soul among Lions: The Cougar as Peaceful Adversary and Stalking the Big Bird: A Tale of Turkeys, Biologists, and Bureaucrats are efforts at popularizing technical work that I carried out.

"Past natural history writers such as Thoreau and Leopold are certainly my role models. I can't think of any contemporary writers that I emulate.

"I usually arise very early—four o'clock a.m. or so—and write for two or three hours. Once the rest of the world awakens, there are too many distractions. I get my thoughts on paper as they come, then revise a lot. Ten rewrites of a manuscript would not be unusual."