Giving Thanks -- Western Pennsylvania Women Conservationists
We close our Thanksgiving weekend with a tribute to two women: Rachel Carson and Ruth Scott. While only one name may be familiar to some, both made a strong impact on environmental issues and on western Pennsylvania.
Rachel Carson
It has been said that before there was an environmental movement, there was one brave woman and her very brave book.
“Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species —man—
acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world.” - Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson was born in 1907 in Springdale, Pa.to humble circumstances. She wasthe youngest of three siblings. Growing up, Carson acquired a fascination with the natural world. She graduated from Chatham College, then went on to receive an M.A. in zoology at Johns Hopkins University. Carson began her career at the United States Bureau of Fisheries as a writer for the radio show “Romance Under the Waters.” In 1936 she became a junior biologist and the first woman to pass the civil service exam. In the 1950s she published two books on the oceans, The Sea Around Us (1950) and the Edge of the Sea (1955). The early 1960s brought her most lauded accomplishment with the publication of Silent Spring, a book which exposed the degradation of the environment by harmful chemicals such as DDT. The book and her later presentations to Congress led to restrictions in the use of chemicals in the environment and the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Not long after, in 1964, Carson died of breast cancer. Carson is memorialized in Pennsylvania at her homestead museum – the Rachel Carson Homestead – in Springdale and the Rachel Carson State Office Building in Harrisburg. more information ....
Ruth Scott
Ruth Scott dedicated her life to conservation and was one of those people who lived what she preached. She was not only a member of WPC since 1958, but also served on the WPC Board of Directors from 1970 to 1973. She and her husband conducted youth education programs from 1964-1969 at Powdermill Nature Reserve in Ligonier, a facility operated by Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Following her husband's death, Ruth continued with adult education programs at Powdermill until 1979. Ms. Scott served on local, county and township boards (including the WPC Board from 1970 to 1973) and was appointed by the governor to the State Air Pollution Commission. She held many posts in local, state and national organizations, including president of the American Nature Study Society.
Her greatest tie to national issues came from her close friendship with Rachel Carson. Ruth met Carson in the late 1950s when both were fighting for restrained use of DDT and other pesticides. They corresponded and visited over the years, and during the Kennedy Administration, both served as delegates on the White House Conference on Conservation.
Ruth became the leading force in preservation of the Carson Homestead in Springdale, Pa. Her lifelong dedication to conservation was recognized in 1991 when she was named the Women in Environmental Science Award winner by the Rachel Carson Institute. In accepting the award for Ruth, Linda J. Lear, historian with the Smithsonian Institution and formerly of Pittsburgh said, “I doubt if many of you know that Ruth was for several crucial decades of this century conservation's one woman task force, organizing quietly behind the scenes for almost every significant environmental and conservation cause or natural resource onslaught. I have it on good authority from some of her fellow workers in Washington, that Ruth literally invented the idea of networking. She was the captain of a lot of nationwide teams, and her strategies were responsible for some major victories in the tough times before being an “environmentalist” was popular or appreciated.”
In 1994, Ruth Scott donated her 67-acre undeveloped property in Butler County to Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.
Today's photo is of Ruth Scott (right) with Rachel Carson and her adopted son, Roger Christie taken at Carson's summer home at Southport Island, Maine, and is courtesy of the Lear/Carson Collection, Connecticut College.
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