Claude Ferguson

Alan Claude Ferguson was born into a pioneer family of the Ozarks where he and his three brothers were raised on a small Jersey dairy farm in Willow Springs, Missouri. He was the second son of John Carl and Mary Willie Boles Ferguson. His father, John Carl Ferguson was active in the establishment of the Missouri Conservation Commission in the late 1920s and the 1939 enabling act for the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri. He and his brothers, Carl, Bob and Paul would go with their father to one-room school houses where they would show their home-made movies of wildlife, streams and untouched forests to encourage the support of this legislation.

Aldo Leopold was a frequent guest in their home during his game-range survey of the north-central states. All four of the Ferguson brothers received an education and appreciation of the outdoors at the knee of Aldo.

Ferguson, while a senior at Willow Springs High School, joined the Forest Service in 1940. He was assigned to the Blue Buck Tower as a fire lookout on the newly founded Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri. He worked closely with the Civilian Conservation Corp as a fire control aide in the Mark Twain National Forest. After three years service in the U.S. Navy as an Aviation Radio-Radar Operator, Gunner and instructor during W.W. II he returned to the Mark Twain as a forestry aide in timber management and land acquisition.

Upon completion of his B.S. in Forestry from the University of Missouri in 1952, his first assignment as a forester was on the Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin. Subsequent promotions included district ranger on the Shawnee National Forest in Illinois and the Hiawatha National Forest in Upper Michigan followed by a 1961 promotion to staff forester on the Ottawa National Forest in Upper Michigan. While on the Ottawa, he had staff responsibilities for the examination, appraisal and reports for the purchase of the L.P. Fisher estate later known as the Sylvania. He was again sent to the Hiawatha, Upper Michigan, in charge of lands, recreation, wildlife, soil and water before his 1964 promotion to Chief of the Branch of Cooperative Forestry Management and Chief of the Branch of Operations in the Forest Service Eastern Regional Office in Milwaukee.

In 1965, Ferguson accepted an assignment to the Bedford, Indiana regional headquarters, where he was forest supervisor for the Hoosier National Forest in Indiana and the Wayne National Forest in Ohio. The two were combined and renamed the Wayne-Hoosier National Forest in 1951, and once again separated in 1993.[2]

He oversaw the design of a public recreation site, Hardin Ridge[3] on Monroe Lake Reservoir, Lake Monroe.[4]

Ferguson headed a Department of Agriculture Forest Service team with the re-introduction of wild turkeys to Indiana from his home state of Missouri.

In 1971, at his request to comply with the federal anti-nepotism law, he stepped down as forest supervisor. He assumed the position of staff forester in order to marry a forest service employee. December 20, 1976, he retired from the U.S. Forest Service.

On October 19, 1974, Ferguson, and the Indiana Division of the Izaak Walton League of American Endowment, Inc filed a lawsuit against Donald Girton, Supervisor of Wayne-Hoosier National Forest, the State of Indiana and Jay Cravens, the Eastern Region Forester of United States Forest Service, seeking a temporary restraining order and injunction halting the trail use.[12]

The American Motorcycle Association joined the lawsuit on the side of the Forest Service, while The Sassafras (the Indiana Chapter of the National Audubon Society), the National Audubon Society, the Indiana Conservation Council, the National Wildfire Federation Affiliate in Indiana, and the National Wildlife Federation all joined the Ferguson, Izaak Walton side.[13][14][15]

Don Girton informed Ferguson that he was being detailed to Milwaukee for three weeks in November 1974 and on March 3, 1975, Ferguson received notice that he was to be permanently transferred to Milwaukee which he declined after the Forest Service denied his spouse's request to also be transferred with him to Milwaukee.[16] John A. Sandor, deputy regional forester at the time said "We had an opening in Milwaukee for somebody of his qualification and we sent him" according to forest service officials sworn statements; however, Girton said Ferguson's actions were the reason for the transfer.[17]

Ferguson was suspended for two weeks without pay and was then notified that he would be removed from office effective February 15, 1976, for participating in a lawsuit in which the government had an interest and for conflict of interest.[18][19] He was eighteen months away from full retirement. Newspapers and environmental groups rallied behind Ferguson and commended him for outstanding service, loyalty, and devotion to conservation in Indiana.[20][21][22]

Ferguson claimed the Privacy Act of 1974 rules were broken when his personal medical history was included in a sworn written statement that Sandor gave to a US government special agent on June 18, 1975. The agent later testified that he had not requested any of Ferguson's medical information from Sandor, and Ferguson and his doctor at Washington University Hospital stated that Sandor neither asked nor received permission to use any part of Ferguson's medical records. Ferguson claimed harassment and unlawful termination and on December 20, 1976, a civil servant hearing on his firing commenced and ended on the same day with Ferguson being allowed to retire with full and retroactive benefits.

The ORV court challenge continued with a trial date set for December 5, 1977, however, a few months before it was to begin the Forest Service reversed their decision and completely terminated the policy of allowing the use of ORVs in the Hoosier National Forest.[21][23][24]

Ferguson's case was given to a US Senate subcommittee, chaired by Senator Edward Kennedy, which drafted a freedom-of-information bill providing protection for government employees who disclose information in disagreement with department policies. Reps. Mo Udall and Paul Simon, along with Senator Patrick Leahy introduced bills in the US Congress to create review boards to investigate worker complaints about improper government actions. The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 cemented this protection for all government employees.

A. Claude Ferguson Environmental Awards[25]

• National Wildlife Federation, Outstanding and Distinguished Service in the Field of Natural Resource Management; June 1976
• Indiana Conservation Council, Outstanding Service to Conservation in Indiana; June 1976
• Izaak Walton League of America, Conservation Award presented in Baltimore, Maryland; July 17, 1976
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Quality Award; August 12, 1976[26]
• Sierra Club; 1976
• Hoosier Environmental Award; Lifetime Environmental Service Award; October, 1990
• John James Audubon Society, Career-Long Demonstration of the Preservation of our Natural Environment; May 1975

Service

• State of Indiana Outdoor Education Research Advisory Committee for the creation of the Indiana University School of Outdoor Education, 1968–1972
• Indiana State Forest Planning Advisory Committee
• Advisory Committee for Conservation and Outdoor Education to the Indiana State Superintendent of Public Education 1968–1972
• Indiana Region 10 Planning Council by Appointment
• Hoosier Trails Council, Boy Scouts of America Advisory Council
• Charter Member of the Conservation-Outdoor Education Association in Indiana
• Past-President of the Indiana Wildlife Federation
• National Interagency Forest Fire Management Team
• National Youth Conservation Interagency Team

Ferguson was instrumental in establishing the Charles C. Deam Wilderness Area in 1983. Following his death in 2006, his Deam Wilderness papers and maps were donated to the Indiana Forest Alliance and are now housed at the Indiana University Lilly Library. A Celebration of the Deam was held at IU Lilly Library April 20, 2011.[27] Rosemary O'Leary included Ferguson's story in her book The Ethics of Dissent. Ferguson performed musical spoon playing. He was featured in the July 2007 issue of the Highlights Magazine "Spoonful of Music" and in 1995 he published a booklet on musical spoons, "You, Too, Can Play the Spoons". Claude‘s musical spoon booklet was a Jeopardy question on March 23,2001. www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=1513

• O'leary, Rosemary (October 12, 2009). Riccucci, Norma M. (ed.). "When a Career Public Servant Sues the Agency He Loves: Claude Ferguson, the Forest Service, and Off -Road Vehicles in the Hoosier National Forest" (PDF). Public Administration Review. Wiley-Blackwell. 69 (6): 1068–1076. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6210.2009.02064.x. ISSN 0033–3352 Check |issn= value (help) – via University of Dayton's Faculty web server.