When exploring the great outdoors, one must remember Mother Nature is the boss, said Tosh Black, Durango open space park ranger.
Whether it’s a rattlesnake bite, a fractured bone or the strike of lightning, the knowledge of how to respond and the foresight to properly prepare make for essential tools when surviving in the wild.
Last month, Black was standing before a room of 20-some children, parents and seniors at the Durango Community Recreation Center. They had gathered for the first of a two-part lesson on wilderness first-aid in what the city of Durango calls the Live & Learn Series.
The series launched last year. It struggled to attract interest in the beginning, but by the end of the first year it had a strong attendance of about 45 people, he said.
This fall, Black taught attendees the dangers of lightning, how to perform CPR and how to wrap wounds and tend to fractures with splints. He talked about backpack etiquette – what supplies and gear to bring on single-day hikes and longer excursions. He reviewed bear, mountain and general wildlife safety.
Black, with his wealth of expertise as a wildlife biologist, college professor, state forest ranger, firefighter and emergency medical technician, has a commanding but welcoming presence. He doesn’t shy from cracking jokes, nor does he hesitate to describe the dire seriousness of a particular situation one might encounter when adventuring in the mountains.
At a Sept. 25 class, he talked about prairie rattlesnake, a venomous pit viper species common to the wildlands of Southwest Colorado and northern New Mexico.
While humans have hydrochloric acid in their stomachs to digest food, prairie rattlers rely on hemotoxin in their venom. When a snake bites a mouse, the mouse flees and the snake follows. The snake is allowing its venom to take effect before it swallows its prey, he said.
“They don’t have hydrochloric acid. Isn’t that interesting?” he said, drawing his audience in.
He said a prairie rattler’s venom is not meant for humans, but for prey. It can take two to three weeks for a rattler to develop more venom – weeks it will go without food if the venom was wasted on a human passerby.
The proper response to a prairie rattler’s bite is not to suck the poison out like John Wayne, which risks self poisoning, nor is it to ice the bite area or to put a tourniquet on the limb, he said. The response is to clean the wound with fresh water and get moving to a clear area where a rescue helicopter can safely land.
The majority of rattlesnake bites are not deadly, he said. Those who die from rattlesnake venom often do so because their bodies go into anaphylactic shock.
Black told The Durango Herald he has a talent for getting to know people and a love of teaching, and he is particularly passionate about teaching people things that can impact – and even save – their lives.
He owes his appreciation for the wilderness to his father, who took him on summer camping trips and hikes through the California wilderness at a young age. Sleeping under the stars in silence, alone with his thoughts, was therapeutic, he said.
“We live in such a hustle and bustle world that all of us need time to get out alone,” he said. “And that’s why I love programs like this, where it teaches people to become competent, to not fear the wilderness, to embrace it, to go out with confidence to say, ‘I know what to do. I know how the wilderness is going to treat me.’”
He said one of the neatest things is hearing from someone who applied one of his lessons to save another person from a dangerous wilderness scenario.
Embracing nature – not fighting it – is how to get through a wilderness scenario, he said.
“Be able to sleep on the ground, be able to eat uncomfortable things,” he said. “Be able to become one with the wilderness. It’s going to be uncomfortable, but by God, it will embrace you if you have the (open mind) for it.”
If one is willing to learn from Mother Nature, she will teach and show care. If one fights against Mother Nature, he or she will always lose, he said.
Black offers an energetic and engaging class with firsthand training. He said people learn in different ways. He relies on hands-on learning, and he includes that in his class.
Black enjoys mountaineering with his daughter, Jasmine, who attended some of his classes and served as his patient for demonstrations about how to wrap wounds and apply splints.
He said his proudest adventure wasn’t besting any specific mountain or wilderness outing, but raising his kids and sharing his passion for nature with them.
“My personal triumphs are raising kids that love the wilderness, raising a daughter that now has the absolute same love that her dad does,” he said.
He said he never had the money to take his kids to Disneyland, but he has taken them on plenty of outdoor adventures. Jasmine followed in his footsteps, becoming a wildlife biologist who is now pursuing a doctorate.
The Live and Learn series is held at the Durango Community Recreation Center at 5:30 p.m. Thursdays. The series has nearly reached the end of its cycle with just a few classes left to go. But the series will restart on Jan. 15 with classes every following Thursday.
cburney@durangoherald.com
