More women environmental leaders

For too long there have been too few women in leadership positions in the Adirondack conservation movement, but Olivia Dwyer’s important story in the March/April issue (“Where are the women?”) reveals how this historical imbalance is being rectified. I was surprised, however, to see some notable achievements missing in Dwyer’s account.

To name a few omissions: Barbara Glaser not only served on the board of the Adirondack Council for twenty-five years, she was also chairwoman of the council’s board during an earlier stage of the council’s development. Frances Beinecke also chaired that organization in its early days and later went on to the top spot at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), regarded by many as the country’s most effective environmental organization.

In discussing the national movement that gained prominence with the first Earth Day in 1970, Dwyer might also have mentioned that Rachel Carson had ignited that movement with her book Silent Spring, which documented the ecological devastation caused by the indiscriminate use of pesticides.

Dick Beamish, Middlebury, VT

Editor’s note: Beamish launched the Adirondack Explorer in 1998.