Article by Rich Donnell
Editor-in-Chief
A good friend of mine died on Labor Day. Forrest Bailey was recently retired, after 33 years as the natural resources section chief for the Alabama State Parks Division of the Dept. of Conservation. Forrest, so aptly named, was the epitome of an outdoorsman—a hunter, a fisherman, a forester, a botanist, a zoologist, a conservationist. He was a naturalist and a spiritualist rolled into one. He was passionate about land ethics.
I first met him in 1983, when my wife and I lived next door to him in Montgomery, Ala. My wife and I were commissioned to write a book about outdoors and hunting in the South. One of the chapters would be called “Land.” After one conversation with Forrest, I quickly picked up that this was the man I needed to converse with in depth.
Forrest took me to the 500 acres of land he and some others leased south of Montgomery. During the next few days we walked all over it. About all I did was turn on my tape recorder and let Forrest do the talking.
“It’s there for you to learn from,” Forrest said in his soft-spoken manner. “If you don’t learn what the land has to give or what the land is all about, you are missing a great deal.”
He said: “If you’re out alone in the woods, hunting, walking, if you’re there when the sun comes up and see things come alive around you, it’s a true experience, a religious experience.”
He said: “I see all of these things in the woods that come together for me—the pre-dawn, the dawn, a storm on a small pond, waiting under a tin shed until the storm goes over, the smell of bream in the backwaters, the silhouette of ducks flying overhead, the different calls of the birds in the morning, the hoot owl, the great horned owl. To be seeing and experiencing the forest coming alive gives you satisfaction of knowing things are right with the world.”
George Forrest Bailey III was a lifelong resident of Montgomery and a much adored husband, father, brother and friend. He was a graduate of Auburn University.
While establishing his career with Alabama State Parks, Forrest also served honorably for 23 years as an aircraft ordinance mechanic with the 187th Fighter Wing of the Alabama Air National Guard and was a decorated Gulf War II veteran.
Forrest also volunteered much of his time to educate children. “It’s very important in this day and age to create information that your children can understand and pick up on,” he said. “They’re going to be the key to the future of a good many things dealing with conservation principles.”
Forrest and I remained close friends through the years. I wish he could have shared his knowledge of the outdoors with youngsters and oldtimers alike for many years to come. I’ll always treasure that tape.