Carrie Hugo: Call of the wild

COEUR d'ALENE - When Carrie Hugo and her 18-month-old daughter Eva are together, and they hear a bird, they do more than listen.

"I'll say to her, 'You hear that nuthatch? That's a nuthatch,'" Carrie said.

Young Eva grins and answers her mom.

"She already knows nuthatch," Carrie said, smiling. "She can hear it and say nuthatch."

No surprise, really.

After all, her mom is not only a wildlife biologist with the Bureau of Land Management, she was elected to a two-year term as president of the Coeur d'Alene Chapter of the National Audubon Society.

And yes, mom knows her birds, too. There's some 200 kinds fluttering about Idaho, and she could tell you what most of them are.

"I can identify about 85 percent of North Idaho's birds by ear - when they're singing," she said.

The audubon society may not sound like the most appealing group in the world. They do things like field trips to count birds. They listen to guest speakers about, yes, birds. They peer through binoculars intently, quietly, watching their fine feathered friends in trees.

All those activities are important to Hugo.

"I'm trying to do a couple different things, just to stir things up a little," said the 34-year-old, one of the organization's younger members.

That includes speakers talking not just on birds, but wolves, plants and fish. Maybe have a banquet, a wine tasting or craft sales and looking at opportunities to become more active in the community - and even nationally - on environmentally and wildlife issues.

The Coeur d'Alene Chapter of the National Audubon Society meets the second Tuesday of each month at Lutheran Church of the Master at 7 p.m. Generally about 30 or 40 show up.

"It's important for me to try and get more people to attend," Hugo said. "We have a lot of older members, but we're always trying to recruit younger members, too.'

Hugo would love it if they're out gardening and hear or see a bird, and know it's a spotted towhee.

She does.

"I know what it looks like, I know where it nests, I know its behaviors," Hugo said. "I really want to help people gather those skills if they're interested in them."

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How much did you know about audubon society before joining?

I didn't know anything about birds. That's why you go into audubon. I came here from New Mexico and didn't know a nuthatch sound from a car horn.

So what led you to the audubon society in Coeur d'Alene?

By nature, I automatically have an interest in birds. I actually started attending because I wanted to learn how to identify birds by ear. The best people to learn that from are audubon members.

How can you get the younger crowd interested?

I think part of the effort is through our programs and education settings in school. We're always trying to recruit younger people. I think that's part of the reason I was elected as well. I have an 18-month-old daughter. It's even more in the foremost of my mind, how to get young kids involved and interested.

Young people aren't as interested in the outdoors as we'd like them to be. We have programs that will help teachers teach children about birds and the environment.

Is this an organization for older people?

I think a lot of it is that some of the members are retired, so they have time to be active, as far as going on field trips during the week and on weekends. But not all of them are retired. I think older people have acquired a better appreciation of nature and the outdoors.

How did you get your love for the outdoors?

I was born in South Carolina, lived in Texas, lived in California, went to school in Colorado and Mexico, so I've kind of been all over. My dad was a geologist and he took my family to national parks on summer vacation. That's kind of what got it started. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to be a park ranger. I just wanted to be outdoors. It was just part of my nature. When I went to college I knew what I wanted to study. I looked for a school that had a good wildlife program. The rest is history.

What do you enjoy most about your role with audubon society?

It's twofold. The first thing is, I just find nature very fascinating. It astounds me every time I learn something new about a different animal and how it's adapted to this or that. Mallards, I just learned today, fly 55 mph on average migrating. That astounds me they can do that. It's a keen interest of mine and I'm always amazed by it. Nature is so incredibly intricate and confounding. I love getting other people interested in wildlife, too. If you just bring it to their minds, most people have inherent curiously and admiration for the outdoors.

Does North Idaho have the best of both worlds when it comes to wilderness and the comforts of home?

How many places can you live and have all the comforts and trappings of civilization, and then 40 miles away have grizzly bears, wolves, woodland caribou, wolverines. It's incredible not to mention the bird diversity that we have. It's really a gem where we live.

As chapter president, are you planning any changes for the audubon society?

This group has been getting together for 20 years or more, and you can only have so many guest speakers talk about birds. So this year we're going to try and get a speaker about salmon, somebody about the Palouse Prairie. We have remnants of the Palouse Prairie south of here and they're tiny. The rest of it is gone. So a variety of different subjects and try and tie it into birds. It's people interested in nature and environment with a focus on birds.

What's your favorite bird?

I love bluebirds. We have them nesting on our property. It's fun to watch them raise their families.

What do you think of birds hanging about your house?

I always joke with my husband, those birds are a bunch of freeloaders because we buy so much birdseed. We have lots of feeders at our house.

Do you know birds by their song?

If you can learn a bird by its song, you're really learning a whole language that most people don't understand.

Any last words about being outside with birds?

Going out and meeting people, and going out in nature, are two of the biggest fighters of depression and boredom. Being in nature and learning about nature can be really curative to a lot of different problems.

SNAPSHOT

Carrie Hugo

Date of birth: January 1976

Family: Husband, Jerry. One daughter, Eva

Education: Bachelor's in wildlife at Colorado State, master's at New Mexico State.

Number of hours on average you work in a week: 33

Number of hours on average you sleep in a night: 6

Hobbies: Birding, scrapbooking, hunting

Favorite movie: "Never Cry Wolf"

Favorite author: Edward Abbey

Favorite book: "Desert Solitaire"

Favorite poet: Wendell Berry

Favorite type of music: I love bluegrass

Favorite spectator sport: We're Mariners fans, even though it's pretty painful.

Best advice you ever received: My dad told me two things and I'll never forget them: Remember who you are, and honor your parents.

Person who most influenced your life: A person I knew and was close to, my dad. A person inspired me, Henry David Thoreau.

One thing you consider your greatest accomplishment: My daughter.

Quality you admire most in a person: Empathy