Pioneering conservation women created a legacy of action
In the year 676, a monk in the Kingdom of Northumbria acted to protect sea birds on the Farne Islands, marking the world’s first known environmental regulation. Like this man of the cloth, most environmentalists that immediately come to mind are, well … men. Henry David Thoreau, John Muir and Aldo Leopold all came equipped with a Y chromosome. Yet, one of the books that was most influential for me in my formative years was Rachel Carson’s “The Sea Around Us”, and that got me thinking about the influence of women on the conservation movement.
“The Sea Around Us” was published in 1951 and remained on the best-seller list for 86 weeks. (For the record, I read it many years later in high school.) It is an ode to the oceans, and still considered a classic. The Guardian wrote a review of the book as recently as 2014, calling it “a masterpiece of ecological writing.” I still have my original paperback copy. It cost $2.25.
Carson followed that in 1962, while she was battling breast cancer, with “Silent Spring.” She had become aware of the harmful effects of agricultural pesticides, which had become widespread following World War 2, while working at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Enamored of the newly-developed chemicals, the federal government tried to use them to eradicate everything from fire ants to gypsy moths.
In doing so, some birds were directly poisoned. On the campus of Michigan State University in the late 1950s and early 1960, robins were dying in prodigious numbers. At the time, DDT was being sprayed indiscriminately in an attempt to control Dutch Elm Disease. It was getting into the soil, consumed by earthworms, which were then eaten by robins and other song birds. An ornithologist at MSU found more than 80 species of birds with signs of poisoning.
Carson also learned that DDT was harmful to crayfish, sea shrimp and other fish, many of which were food sources for bald eagles, peregrine falcons and brown pelicans. Bioconcentration of DDT in these birds of prey, being higher up the food chain, affected their calcium metabolism, resulting in thinner eggshells. Brown pelicans and eagles often inadvertently crushed their own eggs as they tried to incubate them in the nest. By 1963, the national symbol of the United States was in danger of extinction. There were only 400 nesting pairs of bald eagles left. Brown pelicans nearly disappeared from North America, and peregrine falcons vanished from the eastern U.S.
Igniting the modern environmental movement
“Silent Spring” helped to ignite the modern environmental movement and set the stage for the first Earth Day in 1970. The U.S. Congress — back when it was a functioning legislative body — banned the sale of DDT and put the Environmental Protection Agency in charge of regulating pesticides. Today, brown pelicans are numerous, with almost 200,000 breeding pairs in the United States. Bald eagles have bounced back as well: 10,000 nesting pairs in the lower 48 states. Reintroduction of peregrine falcons into their former range in the east has shown enough success to enable removing them from the endangered species list.
Long before that, even before Rachel Carson was born on a small farm in Pennsylvania in 1907, two ladies from Boston left a conservation legacy that is still significant today.
In the latter part of the 19th century, the whims of fashion turned to bird feathers for women’s hats. Terns, herons and egrets were slaughtered in huge numbers. In 1886, five million birds of 50 different species were killed just to supply the plume trade in North America. Good Housekeeping magazine reported that 40,000 terns had been killed on Cape Cod in just one season by one hunter. Mother birds would be grabbed right off the nest, leaving the chicks to starve or be eaten by predators.
While it was women who were following the fashion to wear bird feathers, it was also women who led the fight to stop the avian slaughter. In 1886, at a time when women had little political power (they would not receive the right to vote until 1920), Harriet Hemenway became incensed after reading an article describing the vicious aftereffects of a plume hunt.
Hemenway was steeped in the social circles of Boston and was the wife of Harvard-educated philanthropist Augustus Hemenway. She quickly connected with her cousin, Minnie Hall, and together they orchestrated a series of socialite tea parties — specifically inviting women who were likely wearers of feathered hats. Nine hundred of these women joined the cause, vowing to protect birds and discourage the feather fashion. A Florida writer for Forest & Stream magazine, Minnie Moore Wilson, lent her voice by publishing a piece admonishing women to stop wearing feathers in their hats.
And here’s what they accomplished: Harriet Hemenway founded the Massachusetts Audubon Society in 1896. One year later, Massachusetts outlawed the wild bird feather trade. In 1900, Congress passed the Lacey Act, which prohibited interstate trade of illegally captured birds. The law remains an important tool in conservation enforcement today.
Perhaps the greatest result of the efforts of these women came in 1913 with the passage of the Migratory Bird Act, considered a landmark in American conservation history. It formed the basis for the 1916 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which established uniform protection goals and was signed by the United States and Great Britain on behalf of Canada. Later, those countries were joined by Mexico, Japan and Russia.
One hundred years later, during Women’s History Month, we should honor these pioneering women of the conservation movement who set an example for the power of individual action. The efforts of Rachel Carson, Harriet Hemenway, Minnie Hall and their friends left a long-living legacy that continues to protect our natural world.
— Dan Zukowski, DBZphoto.com
