I've worked for National Wildlife Federation since July of 1976. Before coming to NWF, I obtained both my BS and MS degrees from Cornell University and served in the US Peace Corps as a wildlife biologist and naturalist on the Colombian Caribbean coast from 1971 to 1973.
Within months after being hired as NWF's assistant naturalist, my supervisor left NWF and I became NWF's Naturalist and began directing the
Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program(tm). At the time, there were just under 400 certified habitats. Craig and his staff also oversaw NWF's volunteer program and the two education centers NWF then had in the northern Virginia area.
Over the years, the Backyard Wildlife Habitat program grew to over 20,000 certified habitats and Schoolyard Habitats were formalized in the early 1990s in partnership with Project WILD. I wrote a nationally distributed newspaper column in the mid-1980s. Those columns were used extensively by some NWF affiliates and later were compiled into a small book titled
The Backyard Naturalist. In the mid-1980s, I appeared a number of times each year as the wildlife gardening expert on PBS'
The Victory Garden. Other television opportunities arose in the 1990s with the Home and Garden channel, two Turner Broadcasting System specials on wildlife in NYC's Central Park and on global concerns over pollinators and two seasons of a PBS birdwatching show.
I've always enjoyed assisting staff, the public and our constituents with their wildlife gardening and natural history questions. I was on faculty at over 25 NWF Summits, leading bird walks, teaching about Backyard Habitats, wild edibles, butterflies and moths, dragonflies and environmentally-friendly lifestyles. For the past 20 years, I've reviewed all NWF Christmas card designs and catalog designs and eventually, our offerings.
My wife Jean, a former NWF employee, and I live outside of Middleburg and have a certified Backyard Wildlife Habitat site and a large organic vegetable garden. I have two sons, Ben, a musician, just married and age 30, and Dan, age 25, who manages the original Sterling Buffalo Wing Factory. I'm an avid native plant enthusiast and founding board member of the Virginia Native Plant Society. I'm an enthusiastic birder, often identifying birds by their song while running and serve on the conservation Committee of the Virginia Society of Ornithologists. Butterflies and bees are two other natural history interest areas. I've fished since age three and I keep a small power boat on Virginia's eastern shore for cobia, flounder, rockfish and croaker fishing -- and birding. I have a strong interest in the genealogy of the Tufts family and Jean and I have recently taken on habitat restoration of a family-owned 20 acre property outside of Kennebunk, Maine.
Running....
There was a time eons ago now when I tried out for my high school track team. A couple of buddies suggested that I could be a jock. That lasted about two weeks. I ran a 6:18 mile. I despised running around ovals when I could be out fishing for sharks and bluefish. I didn't really run again for 30 years. Now I run because I can and because I love cruising through the woods and the dirt roads near our home putting in the miles. I like the camaraderie of those I run with. I'll even admit I enjoy the competition-- mostly against myself but increasingly with those I've met in races throughout the Northeast.
When cycling to work at NWF was no longer an exercise option for me, I decided to start running a mile or two a day to stay in shape and clear my mind. In 1995, a former NWF employee suggested that I try to run a 10k (just over 6 miles) race. Four of us did and I was able to finish. I felt pretty good. I set a life goal that I would always be able to run a 10k distance on any given day.
In 1998, two other NWF employees thought I should join them and others training with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to run a marathon to raise money for cancer research. A marathon is 26.2 miles--over 4 of those 10k races back to back. Seemed like one of those goals that stretches you but you never really expect to achieve. NWF staff and volunteers supported all three of us wonderfully in our fund-raising efforts to run the first San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon. We all finished. And two years later I married one of those people, Jean White, who encouraged me to try the marathon and ran it next to me. I finished my first marathon in June of 1998, in 4 hours and 53 minutes. I could check that off--been there, done that. I didn't need to do another one.
Running continued to be my exercise of choice. When NWF moved to our new Headquarters, the trails through Lake Fairfax Park, nearby Reston neighborhoods and the W&OD Trail gave me great opportunities to keep in shape for that 10k daily goal. And then as I do now, I track the plants, the birds and other wildlife that I see along the way. I began to run a longer race now and then. Another NWF person gave me an opportunity to run my second marathon. Her good friend in Colorado had been training for the Marine Corps Marathon but had pulled a muscle and couldn't run. Did I want to take on the identity of 26 year old Emily and give the MCM a try? With 6 weeks to train before race day? I did. "Emily" ran that race in 4 hours 3 minutes and came out with cramped legs and sore feet and, again, the marathon bug became dormant soon after.
There is a pattern here. Friends at NWF began to talk about running as a team in the 2003 Marine Corps Marathon to raise money for conservation work on the St. Lawrence River. Dave Strauss and I had been running together that year and we were talking BOSTON MARATHON for 2004. Together, those colleagues and a lot of training at longer distances got me to the starting line well-prepared. When that second MCM was over, I had run a 3 hour 29 minute marathon, felt terrific and had a Boston qualifying time as well.
I trained hard for my first Boston. Dave Strauss and I, often joined by Doug Inkley, covered a lot of ground near NWF's HQ. Dave and I also ran longer races to get ready-- 10 Milers, half marathons, and just three weeks before Boston, the HAT 50k trail run. Fifty kilometers is over 31 miles. We were ready. We were probably overtrained.
My first Boston Marathon race, in 2004, was blisteringly hot. That mid-April day in Boston, from the start in Hopkinton to the finish near the John Hancock building downtown, was never cooler than 80 degrees and the entire course averaged about 83 degrees. But I was able to finish. I did it-- heat, "heartbreak hill," and some very sore muscles that got increasingly ornery! Boston is not only the oldest US marathon, and one of the few for which you must qualify, it is generally considered one of the most difficult big marathons. When I completed the race that day, I set a new goal for myself: run the Boston Marathon for at least ten consecutive years. Since 2004, I've run Boston twice more, each time bettering the time I ran in that first hot one of 2004. With this year's race, my time qualified me for the 2007 Boston Marathon.
Someplace in the convoluted recesses of the gray matter we call our brain, there is the notion of trying something new and again pushing a little harder. There's the thrill of running over new roads, coursing through unknown forests and hearing new birds.
Dave Strauss returned to running regularly again earlier this year and suggested that we just think about doing something together bigger than a marathon. Bigger even than the 50k HAT race. How about the JFK 50 Miler?
About the time Dave mentioned this race-- the biggest 50 Mile race in the United States with over 1000 contestants-- a new NWF person, Andrew Pinger, mentioned that it was a good race and that he had done it twice. And he was willing to do it again to help out us newbies. So our team was launched.
Training is going very well. We've all joined Reston Runners, a great local running club that offers great support, training tips, a variety of runs and even race mentors who offer their knowledge of specific races. That marathon distance which once seemed so impossible and even recently was accomplished only at the end of a long training cycle has become a comfortable distance.
But 50 Miles is so different than 26 miles. The thought of completing a marathon and then going out and nearly running a second one is, well, awesome. And a little frightening. It's all relative though. I needed a very strong nudge just 10 years ago to attempt a 10k race. Then, a marathon seemed almost impossible. There are thresholds out there that I will never go beyond. Perhaps this 50 mile JFK race is my top but I know I'll continue to run until my legs just don't work well anymore. Perhaps I'm jinxing myself to think beyond this November 18th race but you know, I'll be 60 on November 22 and I'll be running Boston again next April. And I'll be running a marathon in the crater of Kileauea next summer. Always good to have a new goal! And always the best to have the support and friendship of those at NWF.
- Craig Tufts
September 20 marked Dave and Craig’s first digitally-imaged Green Hour training run. And the acronym for that is? Eight miles through Lake Fairfax Park in northern Virginia felt and looked just like a 16 mile run I’d done two weeks ago outside of Montpelier, Vermont. Cool. Breezy. A few trees beginning to color. Decidedly un-Virginia from a climate perspective. Just about perfect for running. Except for the day in day out natural hazards of trail running.
