The stuff of nature

Terry Sprague at home in the outdoors.

Terry Sprague chooses a quieter path

Terry Sprague is at his best surrounded by nature. The mild, grandfatherly man recalls his farm work when he was young, excited to reach the end of a row so that he could discover the wildlife in the hedgerows on his farm on Big Island.

That natural curiosity developed into a decades-long career as a valued authority on nature in the Quinte region. Recently, Sprague decided the time had come for him to retire, and he has been winding down his work.

In 1967, Sprague split his property and sold his farm. He moved on to work for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources at Glenora fisheries, then as a naturalist at Sandbanks provincial park and with the local conservation authority at Macaulay Mountain.

The conservation authority amalgamated as Quinte Conservation in the early ’90s, under the direction of Terry Murphy. When Murphy hired Sprague to develop an outdoor educational program, he was delighted.

“This was the dream of my life,” says Sprague. “The purpose was to introduce people to the conservation areas and other natural areas within the watershed, which was now 6,200 square miles.”

The walks offered people of all ages the chance to enjoy the outdoors and learn about wildlife. It was especially popular with seniors, who felt safer in guided tours.

The tours achieved Murphy’s goal of bringing positive attention to Quinte Conservation, and so after 18 years, Sprague began to run them under the banner of his own company, Nature Stuff Tours. This year, he is discontinuing the tours. He sees other local entrepreneurs picking up where he’s leaving off, pointing out people like Phil Norton, who guides nature tours for photographers, and Pamela Stagg, who offers birding tours.

Last year, after 50 years, Sprague retired his column at the Picton Gazette called Nature Stuff.

He’s also written and contributed to books about nature, including The Birds of Prince Edward County.

Yet at 70, Sprague isn’t retired so much as semi-retired. He retains his stewardship work with Quinte Conservation, travelling to conservation areas all over the region and working with a team of 60 volunteers. He’s still taking on nature tours and talks, although he’ll cherry-pick when and how many he’ll do.

“It’s a hard decision,” says Sprague. “I’m 70 years old, and I’ve felt, if I’m going to retire, now’s the time to do it. But how do you retire from something that you really love doing? Retirement is all about leaving things behind and doing what you really enjoy in life. Well, I really enjoy this. So what do you exclude?”

Sprague hopes to see more young people get interested in nature. He recalls the people in his life that influenced his passion, from established biologists down to his grade school teacher, Marie Foster, who shared her passion for the wonder of the ecosystem with him when he was too young to feel comfortable openly expressing a great interest in anything.

I try my best to encourage [teenagers], because I know when I went through high school, you didn’t want to mention what you’re interested in,” says Sprague. “And I feel they need the encouragement, because these are the people who are going to take over after we’re long gone.”

In turn, he recalls the people he influenced.

“There are happy stories. There was one young lad, his name was Lynn Lougheed. He used to live near Macaulay Mountain, and I ran into him one day when he was 13. And he was sketching,” says Sprague. Lynn drew all the illustrations in Sprague’s bird book. They lost touch until a few years ago, when Sprague published a photograph of Lynn to illustrate an article.

“A few weeks later, I got this email from the Galapagos,” Sprague laughs, “where he is working as a biologist. He married a biologist, too. So there’s a real happy story.”

On Saturday, a sold-out retirement bash for Sprague will be held at the Wellington community centre.