Rachel's Traces
This section will highlight the efforts of creative people who are writing, working,
and making a difference in how we think about the natural world and hence are following
in Rachel Carson’s footsteps. They describe their work in their own words.
Girl Scouts Western Pennsylvania
Girl Scouts Western Pennsylvania, one of the 100 or so local councils that make up Girl Scouts of the USA,
has worked to create a council-specific badge that encourages girls to explore the outdoors, learn how to study
environmental health through hands-on science, and discover ways to measure their own environmental impact.
This badge, called A Legacy of Conservation, was inspired by Rachel Carson, who grew up in western Pennsylvania.
As one of the prophetic voices of the modern environmental movement, she was an inspirational leader and excellent role model for girls.
Designed for girls in grades 6-8, the badge requirements ask girls to learn about Carson’s work, research her impact on the environmental movement,
and work to make their own environment happier and healthier. Each Girl Scout badge has five steps. In Step 1, girls create a work of art,
movie trailer, or diagram about the environment. Step 2 has girls visiting the Allegheny River, a site named in Carson’s honor, or a local park.
For Step 3, girls study the health of their local water, air, or forest. In Step 4, girls learn about their own environmental impacts and how
they can reduce that impact. Finally, in Step 5, girls are encouraged to Take Action, a hallmark of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience.
By spreading the word, rolling up their sleeves to do hands-on cleanup, or decreasing their water usage, girls are able to make a real difference.
GSWPA’s hope is that by helping to further Rachel Carson’s legacy, girls grow an appreciation for nature and discover a sense of stewardship for
the environment that Rachel Carson so cherished.
Contributed by Girl Scouts Western Pennsylvania, 2018
[Visit GSWPA Website]
Doing research for Rachel Carson
In 1958 between my junior and senior year in College, I had a memorable summer job as Research Assistant to Rachel Carson who was
gathering information for her book, Silent Spring. Doing library research in those days before the internet and zerox machines was quite different.
It required personal visits to numerous libraries and hand-written summaries of the articles Rachel required. I did not see how she would ever organize
so many different sources into a book. As a 20 year old, I was a child of my culture, used to a fast pace of work and to achieving goals quickly.
When the book was finally published, I was invited to the “publishing party” given in honor of Rachel by Houghton Mifflin in New York City.
I remember admitting to Paul Brooks, editor at Houghton Mifflin, “I didn’t think she would ever finish this book.” He smiled and responded quietly,
“you aren’t the only one.”
After College I continued work as a research assistant in biology, and later got degrees in English and Theology. I finally retired after serving as
Associate Pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church here in Madison.
Rachel’s legacy to me was her passion for nature, her devoted care for her family, her consideration for others,
and her courage to work for what she believed to be right regardless of the odds. When in my personal and professional life I face challenges,
I remember Rachel’s quiet and determined courage and it cheers me on.
Contributed by Bette Duff, 2017
Sherrida (Sherri) Woodley
Author of
Quick Fall of Light.
www.quickfalloflight.com
(See Books About Carson)
"Rachel Carson came into my life in my 12th summer. I can still remember my mother
and me reading Silent Spring together on a vacation trip we made that year
and thinking long and hard about the loss of songbirds because of man’s carelessness.
Her concern stayed with me over all the years, and when I wrote Quick Fall of Light,
it wasn’t just a pandemic I wrote about. Exploitation of an incredible bird took
the story very close to Carson’s warnings. Her work continues to inspire mine and
I suspect always will."
"The novel I’m working on now, though not as noticeably connected to Carson, is
still something I believe she might’ve challenged me to do. Again, I look at extinction,
this time of a giant breed of dog, the Molosser. Originally war dogs, they could
take on anything. In this novel one such animal baffles a family, then a medical
community, in its ability to remedy disease. It is the haunting whispers of a culture’s
history that remind me of Carson, this time in the form of a young girl who chooses
the healing power of a gentle dog over medicine’s indefinite cures."
( Woodley lives and writes just outside Spokane WA. near Turnbull Wildlife Refuge,
June 2011)
Judith Vose
Environmental activist and conservationist. Owner and restorer of the bird sanctuary
that once belonged to Olga Owens Huckins on Powder Point in Duxbury, MA.
copperfarm@comcast.net
"Stuart and Olga Owens Huckins had a bird sanctuary with three small ponds behind
their modest home in Duxbury, MA in the 1950s. Their bird sanctuary and ponds were
among those devastated by aerial spraying of DDT mixed in fuel oil by the State
of Massachusetts in the summer of 1957, after which their birds died terrible deaths,
the ponds were contaminated, and the mosquitoes were even more abundant than before.
Protests in the Boston newspapers against the aerial spraying prompted Olga, a writer,
former literary editor at the Boston Post, and a friend of Carson’s, to
pen a blistering letter published in the Herald in January1958 luridly describing
the death of her songbirds and the contamination of wildlife on her property. She
also wrote to Carson to see if she could find someone who could help `stop the spraying
of poisons from the air everywhere.’ Huckins’s letter helped convince Carson to
turn her literary efforts to alerting the public about the dangers of chemical spraying."
Judi and Terry Vose rescued the property from developers, renovated it, and have
renamed it "The Spring House" in honor of Carson. (June 2011)
"Rachel’s Traces"
John D. Juriga
As a teenage nature enthusiast in western Pennsylvania, John Juriga wrote his American
literature term paper on Rachel Carson. Little did he know at the time that a bond
with Carson would persist into his adulthood. An avid birder and observer of nature,
Juriga was the guest curator for two major exhibits that touched on Rachel Carson’s
work at the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art in Salisbury on Maryland’s Eastern Shore,
where Carson travelled on Audubon birding trips. He also guided the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service with "Awakening Nature’s Voice" (2007), the Rachel Carson centennial
exhibit held at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History. With the approach of the
Bob Hines centennial year, Juriga completed a full-length biography Bob Hines: National
Wildlife Artist, 2012.
A busy pediatrician, Dr. John Juriga and his wife, Fran, now live in New York state,
renewing their ties to the earth through birding, beekeeping, and gardening. He
advises young people to take their education seriously, "Your education may unexpectedly
carry you on a magic carpet ride."
Please send suggestions/nominations for inclusion to michael.friscia@yale.edu