Book Cover

This was my FIRST book and I designed it and did the layout and really got involved with it. I had created Collin as a little cartoon character to bring the credits for a documentary about the city of Fort Collins, rather like the Pink Panther did for the famous movies by the same name. A lady realtor friend of mine encouraged me to write this book after I moved to Fort Collins from Portland, Oregon. I had witness traffic jams in the city of Fort Collins when traffic stopped to allow a mother Canada Goose and her babies to cross the road...many times.

One Christmas the front page of the local newspaper had the story of a goose that had to be killed by the Division of Wildlife, because a little boy had gotten a bow and arrow set for Christmas which he had used to attempt to dispatch a goose on a lake in city park. Geese mate for life, and the idea of a goose loosing its mate made me sad and the more I thought about it, having grown up on Walt Disney films, the story of Collin The Canada Goose just emerged from my thinking onto pages of notes which evolved into a book. My hope lays with our children so I made it a children's book, which could be colored, allowing them to put themselves into it. 

It is very difficult for even experts to tell one goose from another, or even males from females. So I had the task of making my Collin "different", so I had him survive an owl attach which ruffled his head feathers, and my character was born. I wrote the story with all the love I have for Fort Collins, Colorado State University and the city of Fort Collins, which truly is a wonderful place to call home.

"I remember my mother telling people about my early love for books, which I confused magazines for books, which should never be destroyed. My mother was a beauty operator, and her customers would read a woman's magazine and want to cut out a ad or an recipe and I would become emotionally upset. She would tell them about my love for books. I also collected comic books and often got coloring books which seemed to me to be a great tribute to the author, getting to color his pictures and make them my own. I wanted to write one, and so Collin was the first and Charlie was the second."

“I loved doing the research on this book!”

“I have worked as both a Larimer County Enforcement Park Ranger & a Colorado State Park Ranger protecting the area's natural resources like the Canadian Geese, I sometimes thought I was born to be a Park Ranger.”  

Rick Payne worked in both the state parks at Boyd Lake and the county parks at Carter Lake

In Collin The Canada  Goose, Rick Payne's education, experience and all of the things he truly love came together in one little book, which is at its heart a love story.

“I love the natural resources, and in Collin The Canada Goose I got to write about something I really love. 

That is why I make my home on the Cache La Poudre River, I seek to be as close to nature as I can be.

Richard Payne is devoted to the wild and scenic Cache La Poudre River and is interesting in sharing it with all of his friends & family

In the 1970s I was seriously into environmental science which is an interdisciplinary field that involves both the physical sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, geology, geography, resource technology and engineering) and the social sciences (resource management and conservation, demography, economics, politics and ethics). I love this because of the blend of so many different areas. It taught me much about life...in general. It encompasses the surrounding conditions that affect man and other organisms. Natural and human resources are interdependent and the use or misuse of one affects the other. I am a serious student and will continue studying and learning as much as I can still breath air.  

Rick Payne believes that all things in his environment are worth his time and energy

I wanted to be an environmentalist, or one who works to protect the environment from destruction or pollution. I supported groups like; The Center for International Environmental Law and the Sierra Club which has been working to protect communities, wild places, and the planet itself. They are the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States . The founder, John Muir, appears on the back of the California quarter and is a hero of mine I love groups like Ducks Unlimited, The Cousteau Society and groups like the Humane Society and the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to list just a very few.

Rick Payne loves animals, baby tigers to bottle feed & a doe Elk on the street in Estes Park, Colorado

 I gave serious thought to air and water pollution and the stewardship of the animals that share our planet. I felt I owed this to both my fellow man and future generations and the animals I so love. I had a great teacher named Dr. Peter Wyman at SFCC and other teachers that greatly inspired me. I got to meet Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Paolo Soleri and Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller who were all heroes of mine. They have had a big impact on me and how I think about the world I live in…and my responsibility to it.  There was a time when I really believed I could leave this planet when I died better than I found it. I did get to meet these heroes. I was amazed by most of what they shared with me.

In the dead of winter in Rocky Mountain National Park with a group of children to study how nature reacts to winter or on Horsetooth Reservoir above the city of Fort Collins, Colorado Rick Payne studies a lot to see how the seasons impact it.

Writing Collin The Canada Goose gave me a chance to revisit that part of my life. I really have not changed much in the last thirty years, except I am now positive I will likely leave planet earth far worse than I found it and that saddens me greatly. I am one who openly advocates for the protection of the biosphere from misuse from human activity through such measures as ecosystem protection, waste reduction and pollution prevention, because I believe that is “right”.

It was 1993 and I was finally getting a book published. I had been writing since 1973 and nothing had sold. This was a big deal for me. We had the first book signing at Bisetti's Italian Restaurant 120 S. College Avenue (at Mountain Avenue) downtown Fort Collins, Colorado, where they have very good food, an cozy atmosphere, some very nice wines and Mama Bisetti’s cheesecake is to die for.

Here, my illustrator, a young and very handsome Mickey Schilling and I are signing a book for a big fan of Collin The Canada Goose. Mickey Schilling was a talented and good natured guy, who really put out for this little book.

I check and double check everything I write and really try to make sure it is correct. Here I am signing a book for Bob Copeland, a reference librarian for the Fort Collins Public Library who was a big help to me producing this little book.

Here I am with Ed Stoner, who like his mother, Dorothy Stoner, was a realtor and Mayor of Fort Collins ; it was he who gave me permission to use the city logo in the little book. Mickey Schilling had produced some great Canadian Geese prints which we matted and framed and gave to those who helped us so much to produce COLLIN THE CANADA GOOSE.

Charlie The Shy Cowboy was the direct result of the governor of Wyoming seeing Collin and suggesting I do the same thing for  Cheyenne. COLLIN THE CANADA GOOSE is a book that anyone coming Ft. Collins should read and color.

Key Benefits 

• You will learn much about these wonderful creatures called Canadian Geese.
• You will learn much about Fort Collins Larimer County Colorado USA.
• You will learn something about the relationship of man and the animals God commanded him to be a good steward of. 

Art Work: Mickey Schilling, Illustrator

"I had to have a Collin that could be easily separated out from other geese, Mickey accomplished that very well. I wanted to include our new brewery Anheuser-Bush and their wonderful Clydesdale horses, I helped write the film that got the company to choose Fort Collins as the site for their newest brewery. I had in fact created the image of Collin to bring the credits on and off for that film, but he was rejected."

" I was needing to address the idea that there is a group of folks who really do not care very much for our Canadian Geese. People who own homes on one of our many fine golf courses. They are great habitats for the geese, but they poop on in water traps and on peoples patios who pay a great deal of cash for homes on the golf courses.  Too, I had to include Horsetooth Reservoir where I was once a Park Ranger for Larimer County."

I live in a beautiful cabin on the wild and scenic Cache La Poudre River, so I had to give it too a nice salute.

The truth is Mickey Schilling is a very talented artist and illustrator. He took to this project like a goose takes to water. I loved working with this creative and innovative young man. 

"I have to tell you producing this little book was truly a labor of love. I love the out-doors, I am a proud environmentalist, I love wild-life, especially Canadian Geese. I truly love Fort Collins, Colorado, it is home to a veterinarian hospital at Colorado State University, which is second to none in America, and the average resident of the city loves animals. You have to make this place home. This book is about both Fort Collins and the Canadian Geese that also call it home."

Richard A. Payne

Pricing

This book sold for $4.95, and I still have some, but the price has gone up and I sell autographed ones for $10 plus postage and handling which can be another $10 depending on when you want it and where it is sent. I am positive this book will one day be a great collector item.