The Talbot County Bird Club, Caroline County Bird Club, and Pickering Creek Audubon Center are hosting a special program about pathfinding environmentalist Rachel Carson on Saturday, October 14 2023.
Colleen Webster, Professor of English, Harford Community College, will give a Living History performance about Ms. Carson and her enduring legacy. The event is free and open to the public. It will take place at 10:00 AM at the Wharves at Choptank Visitors and Heritage Center, 3 Crouse Park Lane, Denton, MD.
Rachel Carson is best known for her 1962 book, Silent Spring, which raised public awareness about the pesticide DDT and its effect on birds, wildlife in general, and ourselves. The book was the catalyst for the creation of our most influential environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, led to the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency and, in 1970, to the first Earth Day.
But Ms. Carson’s writings were much broader, including her best-seller, The Sea Around Us (1951) and her subsequent ramblings in nature with her grand nephew Roger, The Sense of Wonder (1965). Professor Webster will allow us to eavesdrop as she walks the woods of her property at Southport Island, Maine, where she and 8-year-old Roger are joined by Stanley Freeman and his wife, Dorothy, as she looks for birds and reminisces about her career, writing, and life. The performance will bring Rachel Carson back to life, if even for just an hour, introducing her to a new generation of young people and re-connecting her with those not so young who have inherited her legacy and still care deeply about our natural world.
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