JACK GREENE: Hi, I'm Jack Greene.
KENDRA PENRY: And I'm Kendra Penry. I came to Logan and I started immediately at Stokes Nature Center. And clearly very unusual nonprofit — I wanted to take some time to just find out what it took to make Stokes Nature Center a reality.
JACK GREENE: Getting these things up and going, a lot of it's luck. And it's interesting, having a place is really critical. You'd think, "Well, you just sell a program," because the heart of Stokes is education. But yet if you don't have a place and a building, it just doesn't attract funding.
So we had a former Nunnery for the Catholic Diocese in Logan Canyon — lot of buildings, they had cottages cabins; it was gorgeous. So we were ready to purchase that and make that our nature center place. We had someone with the financial means to make it happen.
Unfortunately, when he was pen in hand, ready to write the check, one of his attorneys who was with him had just got off his telephone and came over and whispered in his ear, and he said, "Oh, sorry, I can't do this." And he folded his checkbook and walked away. The tax law had changed. He'd thought he was was gonna get a significant tax break. That didn't work.
So later, I was working with the Scout Council that had acquired the main building that we're in now in Logan Canyon, and it was falling apart. The building had a big hole through the roof, a big campfire built in the center of the floor of the main room in the building. It was literally going to burn down if something didn't happen. And I had my eye on it. And I was able to convince two of my sons who were at Utah State University at the time, along with a couple of their friends to move into the building. Which was weird because the building was ready to collapse.
KENDRA PENRY: Yeah!
JACK GREENE: And this was midwinter. Fortunately, somebody forgot to turn off the electricity. So they were able to plug in some space heaters, and they moved in, in one of the back rooms — had some cots. So when the partiers would show up at the building ready to party on, my children and their friends, were able to convince them to go somewhere else to party. So! Able to hang on to it long enough to work out a partnership.
KENDRA PENRY: Did you ever have to spend the night in the building?
JACK GREENE: I did not. No, I sacrificed my children for that.
KENDRA PENRY: What do you think is going to be the magic key to get people both to want to protect nature, as well as experience it?
JACK GREENE: Well, I think Stokes Nature Center is a big player in this. I think that it's a major major education piece here in the valley, because it is live, so to speak. I mean, you're there. You're in that natural environment. And I'm very excited for your other property in Nibley, Utah, right next to the Blacksmith Fork flood plain. Plus you have some —
KENDRA PENRY: — fireflies, which makes us very excited.
JACK GREENE: Oh, yes!
KENDRA PENRY: And I was out there a couple of weeks ago and we found we had a nesting pair of sandhill cranes with two eggs.
JACK GREENE: Oh, excellent. Remarkable birds,
KENDRA PENRY: Yes.
JACK GREENE: Not only from their beauty and their haunting calls. They're one of more ancient birds, but also they love to dance. Even when they're not in courtship, they will dance and sing. They are monogamous. They both take care of the young and they like to paint their bodies.
KENDRA PENRY: Oh!
JACK GREENE: If they can find some reddish colored earth. They will actually preen with it to go from gray to this beautiful reddish brick red color. There's so much like us so many ways.
KENDRA PENRY: Thank you for interviewing with me today.
JACK GREENE: Well, thank you. It's my pleasure and my joy always.
