author
Douglass H. Hubbard
1918–2011
Best known as a Yosemite naturalist and writer, he helped turn the park’s plants, stories, and human history into books that welcomed curious readers of all ages. His work ranged from wildflowers and ferns to ghost mines and old stage-driver tales, always with a park interpreter’s eye for detail and wonder.
1 Audiobook
Ferns of Hawaii National Park
by Douglass H. Hubbard
About the author
Born in 1918 and remembered as Doug Hubbard, he built a long career with the National Park Service and is especially associated with Yosemite National Park. Sources about his life describe him as Yosemite’s Chief Naturalist in the 1950s and 1960s, a period when he became known for lively interpretive displays and for sharing the park’s natural and human history with visitors.
Hubbard also wrote and edited a number of accessible books and guides. His works include Wild Flowers of the Sierra, Ghost Mines of Yosemite, and, with Laurence V. Degnan, The Old Stagedriver’s Yosemite Yarns. Earlier in his career he also wrote about Hawaiian national parks, including plant guides such as Ferns of Hawaii National Park.
He died in January 2011 at age 92. Even now, his writing stands out for making national park history feel friendly, vivid, and close at hand — the kind of work that helps readers notice a landscape more carefully the next time they walk through it.