Rosalie Edge, 1877-1962:
Hellcat of Conservation

With Author and Journalist Dyana Furmansky

Wednesday, March 12, 2025 at 7:00 pm
Register for Zoom Presentation

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Dyana Furmansky

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Friends of Merrymeeting Bay’s (FOMB) sixth presentation of their 28th annual Winter Speaker Series, Rosalie Edge, 1877-1962: Hellcat of Conservation features Author and Journalist Dyana Furmansky. Winter Speaker Series presentations are held via Zoom and accessible via hyperlink at the top of the FOMB web page: www.fomb.org. This event takes place Wednesday, March 12th at 7 pm.

Rosalie Barrow Edge “The time to protect a species is while it is still common,”

Rosalie Edge, 1877-1962) once famous, then forgotten, and becoming famous again, is the godmother of the modern environmental movement. She was the ‘Hellcat’ who turned the conservation movement upside down. From her earlier activities in the women’s suffrage movement and after learning about the corruption amongst directors of the National Association of Audubon Societies--including their collusion with commercial wildlife harvesters--Edge, along with Irving Brant and Willard Van Name, created the Emergency Conservation Committee (ECC) to reform the Audubon Association. As part of her work for the ECC, of which she was chair for thirty years, she campaigned to preserve 8000 acres of sugar pines on the southern edge of Yosemite National Park, campaigned for the creation of Olympic and Kings Canyon National Parks, and created a wildlife sanctuary at Hawk Mountain in eastern Pennsylvania. Edge biographer Dyana Furmansky, will talk about the rise of Rosalie Edge, her numerous accomplishments in conservation, and her disappearance from history.

Dyana Furmansky wrote for The New York Times, Audubon, High Country News, Sierra, and other publications as a journalist. Her series on water issues in the West with a small team of writers from High Country News won the prestigious George Polk Award, the first given for environmental writing in 1985. In addition to the Colorado Book Award winning 'Rosalie Edge, Hawk of Mercy: The Activist Who Saved Nature from the Conservationists,' Dyana wrote 'These American Lands,' which is a history of public lands. She lives in Colorado and Arizona.

FOMB hosts their Winter Speaker Series October-May, on the second Wednesday of each month. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic and ability for participants to attend from out of the area, the series continues via Zoom. The FOMB April 9th presentation: BNAS & its Superfund Legacy features David Page and Suzanne Johnson of the Brunswick Area Citizens for a Safe Environment. This event takes place at 7:00 pm with the Zoom registration link available at www.fomb.org a week or so prior to the presentation.

Speaker Series presentations are free, open to the public. Visit www.fomb.org to see speaker biographies, full event schedules, video recordings of past presentations, become a member, and learn more about how you can help protect beautiful Merrymeeting Bay and the Gulf of Maine.

For more information contact FOMB at 207-666-3372 or edfomb@comcast.net.