Jefferson Land Trust Natural History Society ‘s book club selection for March 2016 is Rosalie Edge, Hawk of Mercy: The Activist Who Saved Nature from the Conservationists by Dyana Z. Furmansky. We will meet on Monday, March 28, from 3:30 – 5:00.  Email Jean at jltnatural@saveland.org to RSVP and for the location.

Rosalie Edge (1877-1962) was the first American woman to achieve national renown as a conservationist.  She was a suffragist, an amateur birdwatcher, and a champion of the establishment of Olympic National Park.  She was an early voice against the indiscriminate use of toxins and pesticides, reporting the evidence about the dangers of DDT fourteen years before Carson’s Silent Spring was published.

In spite of her legacy of achievements (called “widespread and monumental” by the New Yorker), her name is not widely known.  Dyana Furmansky’s book will enlighten readers about the indomitable personality of Edge and her many accomplishments in the arena today known as “environmentalism.”