Dr. Gil Boese (1937-2018)

President of Zoological Society of Milwaukee
Served on Boards of Jane Goodall, Diane Fossey and Lewa Conservancy, Kenya

Dr. Boese wrote: “I think one of the most memorable days at Runaway Creek was the first time we walked through it. Just stepping 20 minutes off the coastal road and we were into a wilderness that shut you off completely from everything but its presence and its challenges. The trails weren’t that well maintained. There were the give-and-take palms that sent spines into your arm, the cutting grass that could cut right through a rubber boot. It didn’t give to you without making you work for it. It was so beautiful and wild. The discovery of Monkey Cave and all of the artifacts. I just knew we were in another world. We climbed to the top of the karst hills and we were literally sitting in the canopy with the monkeys. It was one of those rare moments when I realized this is it and now that we’ve got it, we have to save it… and to save it, we’ve got to learn about it.

“Runaway Creek serves as a model that shows people that you can manage a unique and important area in such a way that it is a benefit to the total society. The Reserve gives back to the surrounding communities and beyond on many different levels. In doing so, Runaway Creek serves as a model that if you start preserving private fragments in this way in more than one place you can move it from arithmetic to geometric contributions toward saving habitat and more. Then there will be a chance that we can keep this globe intact. You’ve got to get the local people to understand what it is they have right under their feet and to work with them in such a way that they will not lose their indigenous culture and lifestyle within the parameters of technology. I’d love to see kids running through the jungles and also working on their laptops. I’d love to see them go to college but not forget where they came from. Those of us who do work in the private protected areas, we have to do it right. Period.

“All these small dots on the map—if you save one, that’s great. But if you save enough of these unique fragments in such a way that they can be linked together then you’ve created a system. If others do this in other countries and continents, we may patch together a network of survival for the remaining species on our planet. We may patch together a network not only for the indigenous species, including man, but also we might be able to keep oxygen at critical levels for survival.”

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