CONSERVATIVE CONSERVATION:

Wyoming doctor, 'extreme environmentalist,' recruits army in Africa to save animals from poachers (JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA, Oct 19, , 2002, AP)

Dr. Bruce Hayse doesn't look like a tin-pot dictator.

He favors tropical shirts and Western boots, not camo fatigues and a chestful of medals. He drives a muddy truck, not an armored limousine.

So why is this middle-aged family physician living on the summit of cowboy chic in Wyoming recruiting his own army 8,000 miles (12,900 kilometers) away in the remote and wretched Central African Republic? [...]

All he's trying to do — with, he emphasizes, the written blessing of the C.A.R.'s president — is save what remains of the country's magnificent wildlife and protect its remote villages from brutal gangs of poachers. [...]

In 2001, Hayse says, President Ange-Felix Patasse ceded authority over the entire Chinko River basin — 60,000 square miles (153,600 square kilometers) — to Hayse's paramilitary forces, some of them recruited from villages that have been terrorized by poachers. [...]

An article about Hayse in the October issue of National Geographic Adventure asserts that one patrol recently captured and executed at least three poachers, and that seven more were captured and turned over to the government. Hayse said he was aware of the incidents but still is seeking details.

Romain Gary would be proud. Posted by Orrin Judd at October 20, 2002 10:34 PM