IAN McTAGGART-COWAN O.C.,O.B.C., PhD Chair, Public Advisory Board, 1981-2000
Ian was appointed the inaugural Chair of the Public Advisory Board of the Habitat Conservation Fund in 1981. He served in that capacity as a volunteer for 15 years. He served a further 4 years as Chair once the Habitat Conservation Trust Fund was formed in 1996. His encyclopedic knowledge of the natural world and his administrative expertise made him an invaluable leader in establishing the fund and guiding public input into its conservation work.
The following article appeared in the Spring 2004 edition of Discovery, the magazine of the Vancouver Natural History Society.
Renaissance Man
By Rod Silver
When Andy Stewart, a wildlife biologist with the BC Conservation Data Centre went looking for historical information to include in the final volume of The Birds of British Columbia, he found a letter written by Dr. Rudolph M. Anderson of the Canadian National Museum to naturalist/writer/collector Hamilton M. Laing. The date was December 26, 1929. In part, it read:
There is another factor that enters into the plans. You are now about the only freelance collector in the West who is competent to do museum collecting, and is familiar with the technique, and, as an old apostle, we want you to help pass on some of the tradition to a disciple. We have a young man in view that has been recommended to me from several different sources. His name is Ian McTaggart-Cowan of North Vancouver, now a third year student at the University of BC. I met him at Winson's place in Huntingdon last Fall, and Kenneth Racey and Allan Brooks spoke highly of him, also Professors Spencer and MacLean Fraser of the department of zoology at the University.
They say his forebears were naturalists, and he has camped and hunted all his life. Spencer says he… is a go-getter in the field. I had only a short conversation with him last fall and was much taken by him.
I think that Cowan is the real thing…..
Ian McTaggart -Cowan was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1910, and immigrated to Canada at age 3. The eldest of four, his mother encouraged an early interest in natural history, an interest that grew as he did. At age 12, he completed a one year diary of all the birds he had seen around his North Vancouver home as a requirement for a proficiency badge in the Boy Scouts. While a first-year student at UBC, he attended a lecture by Vancouver Natural History Society life member Kenneth Racey, hosted by the Burrard Field Naturalists. The topic was small mammals of the Lower Mainland. Ian was fascinated by Racey's knowledge of wildlife, his understanding of the rapidly changing natural world and his expertise in the use of techniques to study small mammals. Racey invited him to his house to see his collection, and he sensed Ian's enthusiasm and thereafter included him in many of the Racey family field trips including outings to their summer home at Alta Lake. Racey and Cowan would publish "The Mammals of the Alta Lake Region of Southwestern BC" in 1935.
For Ian, 1930 saw the beginning of total immersion in the adventures of becoming a vertebrate zoologist. He was appointed as field assistant to Mack Laing, first for a month on the little known Tobacco Plains near Elko B.C., then for 3 months to the Rocky Mountain National Parks of Jasper and Banff. It is here that his initial biological studies of the fauna of the parks were begun.
The following year, Laing's expedition was cancelled as the depths of the Great Depression took hold and research monies vanished. Kenneth Racey was seriously ill in the winter of 1930-31, and in the spring, decided to take a few months away from his business to recuperate. He asked Ian to accompany him on an extended field trip. They spent May 1931 studying the birds and mammals in the Tofino area including the fascinating near shore fauna, then the alpine assembly of creatures at the head of the Nanaimo River. The most important contribution of the Nanaimo River work was the rediscovery of the Vancouver Island Marmot, an animal not seen since it had been trapped-once- on the mountains above Alberni. June was spent with the entire Racey family on Anarchist Mountain and in the southern Okanagan where a new mammal for BC was discovered: the Pacific Pallid Bat. The expedition continued in July and August in the western Chilcotin and included a side trip by Racey into the unique "northern" habitats of the Itcha Mountains to see caribou. Ian acknowledges the extraordinary contribution that Racey made to his growth and understanding of wild landscapes and their vertebrates. Though a generation apart, they became life-long friends.
After graduating from the University of British Columbia with an undergraduate degree in 1932, Ian took a teaching fellowship at the University of California at Berkley to work on his doctorate. Here he had the opportunity to work under the guidance of noted ecologist Joseph Grinnell. While at home in B.C. during the summer of 1933, a broken leg almost ended his doctoral studies because he was unable to report for his duties as a teaching assistant. He found himself without an income to pay for fees and books for the autumn term. His year was saved by the generosity of Grinnell who accompanied his gift with some scholarly advice to Ian: "Now, no more foolishness about dropping out of your program because of a small shortfall. I don't want the money back-give it to some worthy student somewhere down your path. There will be many of them." Ian fondly remembers Grinnell for his kindness, and for providing a first glimpse of the dedication that good thesis advisors require in order to ensure the success of their graduate students.
IAN MCTAGGART-COWAN
