Doug Bake and Red Tree Voles: A Tale of Discovery in the Pacific Northwest

Abstract

In 2002, we began compiling a database on all historical locations of Red Tree Voles (Arborimus longicaudus) and Sonoma Tree Voles (A. pomo) in Oregon and California. Part of that exercise involved visiting museums that had Tree Vole specimens and reading the old field notes of previous researchers who had collected museum specimens. As we began reading field notes and looking at specimens, we noticed that a remarkable number of Red Tree Voles had been collected around Tillamook, OR, in the 1960s and 1970s by a logger named Doug Bake. Most of the Red Tree Voles that Doug collected were prepared by Murray Johnson, then curator of mammals at the Slater Museum of Natural History at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. Prior to preparing them as study skins, Murray kept many of Doug’s voles in captivity to study their behavior. He even used them in experimental crosses with Sonoma Tree Voles that he collected in California and found that these matings were not very successful, suggesting a reproductive barrier between Red and Sonoma Tree Voles (Johnson and George 1991). Murray also used some of Doug’s voles in feeding trials to see if individuals that normally fed on needles of Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) could switch to Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii); he discovered that they did poorly at this. Though Murray had passed away by the time we started compiling our database, we were curious about whether Doug Bake was still alive, and, if so, we hoped to talk to him about how he came to be interested in Red Tree Voles and how he was able to capture so many of them. So we checked the Tillamook phone directory and found him listed. Because we knew that he had to be quite old, we were reluctant to simply call him up, so we decided to write him instead. About a week after we sent him a letter, we got a response back from Doug, written in his distinctive block print, saying that ‘‘It’s been over 20 years since I fell timber and my memory is a little rusty. However, if I can recollect anything beneficial, I’d be glad to talk with you.’’ We were elated by Doug’s quick response, so we immediately called him up and arranged to meet with him at his home on the outskirts of Tillamook. We met on 1 August 2003 and spent a couple of hours sitting on Doug’s couch, talking to him about his days in the woods and his interactions with Murray Johnson and Alex Walker, another Tillamook resident and one of the earliest naturalists to study mammals in northwest Oregon (Walker 1928, 1930). After our visit, we were so impressed with Doug and his unique contribution to science that we were inspired to write the following article. It is part obituary, but more than that, it is an example of what an ordinary lay person can contribute to science if they really desire to.