author
Douglass H. Hubbard
1918–2011
A naturalist, park educator, and writer whose work helped generations of visitors notice the plants and wild places around them. His books range from field guides for national parks to a later-life memoir drawn from his years in naval intelligence during the Vietnam War.
1 Audiobook
Ferns of Hawaii National Park
by Douglass H. Hubbard
About the author
Born in 1918, Douglass H. Hubbard built a varied life around nature, teaching, and public service. He is remembered for writing accessible guides such as Ferns of Hawaii National Park and Wild Flowers of the Sierra, books that reflected his gift for helping ordinary visitors see more in the landscapes around them.
Hubbard also had deep ties to Yosemite and the wider national park world. Accounts of his life describe him as a longtime educator and naturalist whose work connected people with the Sierra Nevada and with conservation-minded outdoor learning. That practical, welcoming style carried into his writing, which focused on observation and curiosity rather than jargon.
Later in life, he published Special Agent, Vietnam, a memoir about his time in naval intelligence, showing a very different side of his experience. He died in January 2011 in Texas, leaving behind a body of work that spans both the quiet study of wild plants and firsthand writing about war and service.