Helping Wildlife Just Part Of Being Human For This Homeowner

Many of Tom Rogers’ human neighbors don’t appreciate the way he keeps his yard.

Shrubs and trees are not pruned and are allowed to grow in wild directions. The grass is uncut and close to a foot high in some places.

Rogers admits it looks a bit “scruffy.”

“The neighbors hate it,” says the 81-year-old Valley resident.

Others who live in his neighborhood around East Maxwell Avenue really like it, though, he says.

Like the eight quail that stopped by to rest the other day. And the song birds that peck food out of his feeders.

“It provides good cover for them,” says Rogers, who’s lived in the Valley with his wife, Jane, since 1957.

The Montana native has devoted a good portion of that time to providing cover for wild things that live in the Valley and trying to explain to people, including his neighbors, the importance of such efforts.

“I’m concerned about both people and the life systems of the Earth,” says Rogers, a retired biology teacher who helped establish the Dishman Hills Natural Area. “A lot of people think we’re separate from nature. We’re not. We’re a part of it.”

It was 1966 when Rogers began the movement to save part of the Dishman Hills from development.

At the time, he was leading nature hikes into the hills and studying the plants and animals there.

“I thought good heavens, if something’s not done, they’re going to put houses all over it,” says Rogers, sitting in his modest home among pictures of wildlife and bookshelves filled with titles like “Birds of Idaho,” “The Lost Woods” and “Man and the Environment.”

So the Dishman Hills Natural Area Association was formed.

The group raised money and through the national Nature Conservancy purchased 80 acres for $230 per acre.

“Can you imagine that?” he says.

Today, the association owns 220 acres and is negotiating to buy another 170 for $225,000.

In the meantime, Rogers has continued his walks into his beloved “hills” and counted birds for the Audubon Society.

He also keeps his own notes on insects, mammals, plants and other wildlife he encounters.

“I carry a 3-by-5 notebook with me wherever I go,” he says. “I’ve got several shoe boxes full of them.”

Rogers has documented deer, elk, bobcats and cougars in the hills, as well as scores of birds and insects.

When he was a boy, he chased butterflies around the family dairy farm outside Libby, Mont.

“I wanted to become an entomologist,” he said. “Of course, when I was 10, I wanted to be president.”

Jane Rogers, his wife of 53 years, has supported him all the way.

“Well, he sure loves nature,” says Jane Rogers, who has a degree in botany. “He takes on the world, and I keep the home fires burning.”

The couple who spent their honeymoon hiking through Glacier National Park and the surrounding wilderness raised five children.

Rogers’ latest project is a book on the natural history of the Inland Empire.

The University of Idaho press has expressed interest in the book, Rogers says.

“There’s no way you can tell all of it,” he says. “But somebody needs to tell some of it.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: Saturday’s People is a column featuring remarkable Valley people. To suggest subjects for future columns, please write The Valley Voice, 13208 E. Sprague, Spokane, WA 99216, or call editor Mike Schmeltzer at 927-2170.