100-year-old Alfred Larson has been through a lot in his lifetime, but one thing that keeps him going is bluebirds.
When Alfred retired in 1978, he wanted to find a hobby or something to do that would keep him busy and provide him with a sense of purpose. When he read a National Geographic article about crafting wooden nest boxes for bluebirds to help improve their populations, he decided to give it a try. Alfred explained that he started building nest boxes on his ranch (大牧场) using left-over pieces of wood.
More than four decades later, Alfred is still going strong and promoting bluebird conservation efforts. Alfred is now monitoring nearly 350 nest boxes on six different trails (小路) in Southwest Idaho. He said, "I settled on a simple design that was easy to build and easy to monitor. I kept adding more boxes on these trails, and these birds responded." Alfred's boxes give bluebirds a lot of help in survival. "Without his work, we can't see so many bluebirds now," said Pearman, the author of Mountain Bluebird Trail Monitoring Guide.
To celebrate his achievements, filmmaker Matthew Podolsky worked with Alfred for weeks to create a 30-minute documentary—Bluebird Man. The film explores how everything led him to the work he does today and his efforts in bluebird protection. "I remember the first trip I took to the bluebird trail with Alfred, and I was very surprised by the speed with which he moved from box to box," said Podolsky. "He was hiking across difficult and uneven terrain (地形). I often struggled to keep up with him. Sometimes we'd check more than 100 boxes and be driving home in the dark."
The impact he's had on the populations of bluebirds in North America will continue.
