moments in their lives. The thought of it, and the demise of it, are
bittersweet for Trush, and they elicit strong feelings to this day. But it is
clear that what he and his former colleagues are mourning is not simply
the job, but their youth. “My only regret,” said Trush, “is that I didn’t get
into conservation work ten or fifteen years earlier.”
Now Trush seems to be making up for lost time. In 2007, two new
federal parks were created in Primorye, Zov Tigra (“Call of the Tiger”)
and Udegheyskaya Legenda (“Udeghe Legend”). It is strangely
appropriate that Trush would have been made the deputy director of
Udeghe Legend, and that has been his title since 2008. However, there is
currently no salary for this position and so Trush must rely on Phoenix
Fund, a Vladivostok-based conservation group affiliated with the
Wildlife Alliance in Washington, D.C., which also funds a number of
inspection teams throughout Primorye. The park is medium-sized,
totaling five hundred square miles*; currently, Trush’s duties are focused
on protection and enforcement, the work he loves. In spite of its protected
status, a powerful logging company gained access to the Zov Tigra park
and ransacked it; they attempted this in Udeghe Legend as well, but Trush
intervened. “They thought that if they got caught, they would just pay a
bribe and be done with it,” Trush explained. “But the case received good
coverage in the media. I must admit I was very pleased. Because they
logged in a national park, the fines and damages were five times higher
than usual.”
Trush is an almost relentlessly positive person, and he is exhilarated by
this new challenge. “We are truly starting from scratch,” he said. “There
is nothing there right now, no buildings or anything, and there is still a lot
of lawlessness. We have to do enforcement work in order to create a
place for recreation, civilized fishing and hunting in the indicated areas.
We also have to create an infrastructure; we have to find a team of people
who would be genuinely interested in the job. We have to develop
tourism, create an ecological trail system, create ecological education
programs, etc. It will all happen.”
That said, funding remains a serious concern and tigers are still being