Frances Bear (1908-2000) - In 1979, long before farmland preservation became popular, Frances Bear approached the County of Lancaster and told them that she wanted to protect her 87-acre farm from development. Bear said, "I wanted to permanently and firmly limit the development of the property." A lifelong naturalist and conservationist, Bear also prohibited hunting on her farm and required that various environmental protections stay in place forever. In a handwritten 1994 inventory of her property, she counted more than 70 different species of birds, and 98 different types of plants.
Bear cared very deeply about all of her land – the woodland possibly more so than the farmland. She wanted it all protected. In 1995, just before selling the farm, Bear worked with Lancaster Farmland Trust and Lancaster County Conservancy to strengthen and re-record her original easement, making sure every paragraph was the way she wanted it.
Even after she left the farm, Bear remained very concerned about preservation. She delighted in attending Lancaster Farmland Trust functions and always wore a Lancaster Farmland Trust baseball cap. Her farm will remain preserved forever as her legacy.
Kristine M. Anderson (1961-1999) was born June 26 in Kersey, Pennsylvania. She was responsible for the development of a recycling program model in Elk County, which is a unique accomplishment for such a rural area. The programs she developed included backyard composting, business recycling, school recycling, newspaper animal bedding, used oil collection, parks recycling and a county-wide drop off program ensuring that all non-mandated areas would have access to recycling.
Kris also was involved in many diverse environmental projects beyond recycling. For the last two years of her life, Kristine served as co-chairperson of the Elk County Pollution Prevention Roundtable for Business and Industry where she helped to encourage and support local manufacturers in their efforts to reduce environmental impacts. Another significant environmental project heavily influenced by Kris’ energy and determination is the powder metal initiative, a highly successful pollution prevention project designed to reduce emissions from one of the largest manufacturing industries in Elk County. Kris also was instrumental in bringing together agency and industry efforts for the future remediation of the St. Marys Landfill site, an abandoned landfill with adjacent lands earmarked for recreational and educational reuse. She also was influential in moving forward plans for a regional composting, biosolids and organic recycling facility to divert tons of the area’s organic materials waste from the landfill.
In 1998, Kris won the prestigious Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence. Through the award, Gov. Tom Ridge gave recognition to Kris’ leadership in recycling and market development.
Richard James (1935-1998) was born on November 8, 1935 in Hanover, Pennsylvania. Mr. James earned a bachelor's degree in science from Shippensburg University in 1957 and for the next eight years taught biology at Radnor High School. He and his wife wed in 1956.
In 1962, he was awarded a master's degree in microbiology from Penn State and worked as a cellular biologist for Wyeth Laboratories. He then served as first executive director of the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in Philadelphia which he helped make a premier environmental resource facility in Philadelphia.
Mr. James was named director of the center in July 1965, when it was known as the Schuylkill Valley Nature Center. The original center consisted of 11 acres of farmland and through Mr. James' efforts, the center expanded to its current 500 acres. The center grew into a seven day a week operation, with the main building housing classrooms, library, laboratory, teacher resource center, computer learning center, offices, an auditorium, bookstore and gift shop, and the "Discovery Room," where exhibits were kept.
He helped establish assorted programs for visiting school groups and develop an environmental education curriculum for school districts. He mapped out more than five miles of trails through the center's grounds, landscaped four ponds and a wetlands area and set up a wildlife rehabilitation center to treat injured small animals. Under Mr. James direction, the center began adding courses to its environmental curriculum.
James was the recipient of a number of awards for his work, including seven National Science Foundation fellowships, the 1987 John N. Patterson Award for Excellence in Public Education from the Citizens Committee on Public Education in Pennsylvania and the 1995 Ruth Patrick Award as outstanding water conservation educator from the Delaware Valley Resources Council. He passed away on February 17, 1998 and is survived by a son, Andrew; a daughter, Deborah; and a grandson.
J. Horace McFarland (1859-1948) was born in McAlisterville, Juniata County on September 29, 1859. He lived most of his life in Harrisburg, and was the driving force behind bringing modern improvements to Harrisburg in the early 1900s including the City Island water filtration plant, Riverfront Park, Wildwood Lake and associated flood control projects and paved streets. This was at a time when city residents routinely dumped garbage and ashes into the Susquehanna River and died of typhoid fever. He was also a founder and president of the American Rose Society, which had an international impact on the propagation of roses. Both these national organizations were based in Harrisburg as a result of his involvement.
McFarland fought for the establishment of the National Park Service, worked hand-in-hand with John Muir on the preservation of Yosemite and Yellowstone parks, Niagara Falls and the Everglades, and promoted city planning and zoning to prevent sprawl. Parks were his particular interest. In 1904, he became the first president of the American Civic Association, an influential national group that became instrumental in promoting the improvement of cities and preserving America’s natural beauty. As president of the American Civic Association, McFarland took part in conservation conferences and was involved in developing policy positions on national environmental issues. In 1905 the American Civic Association asked him to aggressively seek support from the Roosevelt administration to insure protection for Niagara Falls, which was threatened by construction of hydroelectric plants that would divert water from above the Horseshoe Falls. McFarland led a successful campaign that culminated n the signing of a treaty with Great Britain in 1909, safeguarding the falls.
McFarland gave most of his life to educating the public and gathering support for programs of civic improvement and to insure the preservation of America’s natural beauty.
McFarland’s vision was grounded in his prophetic understanding that the planet and its people represent one single system. Long before the word "ecosystem" or the phrase "whole earth" became part of our everyday vocabulary, he understood our world to be part of an integrated system in which all forms of life are interdependent, and in which the destruction of one part threatens the survival of the others. The earth, he believed, belongs to each of us, and we, in turn, are forever responsible for its well-being. This, then, is the legacy of this extraordinary man.
Jim Brett was born December 7, 1939 in Shillington, Berks County and grew up in a home that prized knowledge and respect for people of all cultures. For a time Jim taught high school English and Biology in York County after graduating from Kutztown University, but in the late 1960’s his career headed toward the environment. In 1966, he founded the Oerwood Nature Center in York County where he designed and constructed Pennsylvania’s first nature trail for the blind.
Jim became the first formal head of environmental education programs in 1971 at the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Berks. Hawk Mountain was founded in 1934 by Rosalie Edge as the world’s first safe haven for hawks and other birds of prey. During his 25 years as curator of Hawk Mountain, he started a number of innovative programs, but one in particular grew from a fledgling effort in 1976 to an internationally recognized conservation education program under Jim’s leadership. The program began with students from colleges near Hawk Mountain, but the program soon expanded in scope and geography. Through the program Jim brought a student or two a year from other countries to Hawk Mountain to learn environmental education and research techniques and in the process learn about birds of prey, Berks County and one another’s culture. As the exchange program grew beyond what Hawk Mountain alone could handle, Jim formed Naturecorp, an ecoadventure company that would allow individuals from throughout the United States to meet the students Jim trained in their native countries. Since 1976, over 150 students from 26 countries have graduated from the program at Hawk Mountain and Naturecorp and many have gone on to hold leadership roles in their home countries
Jim plans to expand both the number of conservation students he brings to the United States and the countries from which they come, including expanding his work with Jane Goodall. In July 1999, Jim was appointed by Governor Ridge as his Sportsmen's Advisor advising the Governor on all matters concerning Pennsylvania's Wildlife heritage...for the hunter and angler as well as the wildlife watcher.
Joseph Timble Rothrock (1839-1922) was born April 9 in McVeytown, Mifflin County. Rothrock was energetic, persuasive, involved, and a lover of forests since childhood. He became known as "the father of Pennsylvania forestry," and was at various times (sometimes simultaneously) explorer, surgeon, botanist, professor, and Michaux Forestry Lecturer; Pennsylvania Forestry Association president, vice president and spokesman; editor of Forest Leaves; member of the Pennsylvania Forest Commission; and the Pennsylvania forest commissioner and administrator of tuberculosis sanitariums.
Rothrock was closely linked to the Pennsylvania Forestry Association throughout his career. He served it in many positions, but is also served as support and pulpit for him. He pushed for a series of lectures funded by PFA to call attention to forest conditions, to show people that much of the state's forested lands were becoming areas of desolation. He became the state's first commissioner of forestry in 1895 and set in motion the purchase of lands for State Forestry Reservations, the training of foresters for state service, the establishment of forest tree nurseries for reforestation, and the formation of a system of facilities and people to detect and extinguish forest fires. In 1902 while forest commissioner, he used his medical training to set up the first informal tuberculosis camp in Mont Alto State forest for the fresh-air cure of tuberculosis patients.
He died, at age eighty three, on June 2, 1922, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Numerous memorials recall his contributions to improving the state's environment. His name is carved in the gray stone of the formed education building in Harrisburg with other eminent Pennsylvanians. A plaque on a boulder at McVeytown commemorates his place of birth. An inscription honors his achievements in a corridor of the State Capitol. A state forest is named for him.
Mira Lloyd Dock (1853-1945) was born on Christmas Day in 1853 was a nurse, reformer, author, and woman ahead of her time. She entered the University of Michigan in 1896 to study botany, chemistry and geology. Being a woman at the height of the Victorian era nixed her chances of getting the needed endorsements for her works to be published in scientific journals and led her to the lecture circuit.
At the turn of the century there was great interest in beautifying communities throughout the United States. Parts of the city of Harrisburg in the late nineteenth century would seem uninhabitable when compared to today’s standards of living. Mira Lloyd Dock publicly challenged the horrible conditions and set out to motivate public sentiment in support of changing them. Dock was a well-educated and traveled woman. She represented the “new woman” at the turn of the twentieth century, college-educated with an eye for civic change and social activism.
In 1900 at the age of 47, Dock presented a speech to the Harrisburg Board of Trade on December 20. Her speech, titled “The City Beautiful,” or “Improvement Work at Home and Abroad,” was the starting point for Harrisburg’s city improvement. Dock’s contemporary and closest ally in her crusade for urban beautification was J. Horace McFarland, president of the American Civic Association. Together they spurred the process of municipal improvement for Harrisburg by convincing influential community leaders to donate money, and by garnering the support of the majority of citizens.
At a time when women were expected to remain in the background and certainly not participate in the debates of the day, Dock had the courage and determination to step forward and make a difference. Unfortunately, she received very few accolades during her lifetime. Dock passed away in 1945 and was laid to rest in the family plot with her parents and grandparents in Harrisburg Cemetery.
Rachel Louise Carson (1907 - 1964) was born on May 27th in 1907 in Springdale, PA, just up the Allegheny River and Pittsburgh. She was an American marine biologist and nature writer whose writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement. Her interest in nature and writing began at a very young age, she studied the 65 acre farm on which she was raised on and had her first short story published at age eleven. In 1925, she graduated from high school at the top of her class in Parnassus, PA. Shortly after, she began her studies at the Pennsylvania School for Women, today known as Chatham University. Due to financial constraints and deaths in her family, she was unable to fully dedicate herself to her studies, but continued her education part time and acted as the sole breadwinner for her mother and two nieces.
She was the second woman to be hired at the U.S. of Fisheries, and was responsible for analyzing field data of fish populations and writing brochures. Her essay, “Undersea” in the Atlantic Monthly caught the eye of Simon and Schuster; it was then that her writing career took off. She become concerned by DDT and other pesticides in the 1940’s , but the 1957 USDA Fire Ant Eradication Program is what spurred the four year research project that would become Silent Spring. Silent Spring has been regarding as one of the major catalysts of the environmental movement and the subject of much debate. Unfortunately, Carson was diagnosed with breast cancer during the writing of Silent Spring, and she died just two years after its publication on April 14th, 1964. Since Carson’s death, the environmental movement has continued, her most direct legacy being the movement to ban the use of DDT. Today, a number of conservation areas are named in her honor, as is the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Building in Harrisburg, PA.
Gertrude Fox (1916-1995), affectionately known as Gertie or Mrs. Monocacy, was a tireless environmentalist, educator and biologist who devoted decades of her life to improving the quality of life for Lehigh Valley residents. Born in Boston, Ms. Fox held a Master’s degree in Education from Lehigh University and worked for Bethlehem Steel immediately after World War II as an industrial biologist and metallurgical investigator. She taught mathematics and chaired the mathematics department at Moravian Preparatory School in Bethlehem for 12 years.
Fox became a guardian of the Monocacy Creek that runs through Bethlehem, teaching area children, public officials and real estate developers the importance of protecting water quality in that watershed years before many other individuals or groups. She was also an advocate for the restoration of the historic Burnside Plantation in Bethlehem.
Referred to as "Mrs. Monocacy," Fox served as president of the Monocacy Creek Watershed Association from 1983 to 1987. She then served as secretary and board member for the group for many years. In 1987, Northampton County Council named a conservation site for her efforts at environmental preservation and education. The Gertrude Fox Conservation Area is an approximately four-acre site along the Monocacy Creek in Bethlehem and Hanover townships.
Gertie Fox was truly a Pennsylvania environmental hero and trailblazer. Her concern for the environment and activism to protect her treasured Monocacy Creek watershed are her legacy throughout the Lehigh Valley and the Commonwealth as a whole.
Bruce A. Yount (1948-1997) was born November 24, 1948 in Erie, Pennsylvania. He received his education from Edinboro State College, focusing on biology, environmental science and chemistry. He later became known as a tireless public servant, working to improve the environmental quality of Presque Isle Bay, Presque Isle State Park and Lake Erie.
He used his position as operator of the only wastewater treatment plant within the Erie metropolitan area to improve the environmental quality of Presque Isle State Park and Lake Erie. Bruce’s demeanor, vision, love for the environment and knowledge of the region’s sanitary sewer systems were instrumental in his coordination of eight municipalities to make major infrastructure improvements. Those improvements led to improved water quality in numerous streams, Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie.
Bruce was a valued member of numerous environmental organizations: the national Water environment Federation, the Presque Isle Bay Public Advisory Committee, the Presque Isle Bay Remediation Committee, the Presque Isle Advisory Committee, the DEP Northwest Regional Citizens Roundtable, the Erie County Resource Commission Water Quality Study Committee and the Erie Metropolitan Sanitary Sewer Task Force.
