Author to Speak in Honor of Women Conservationists

Middletown, CT—The Rockfall Foundation is hosting an evening talk and reception with award-winning Colorado reporter and author, Dyana Furmansky, featuring her most recent book,  Rosalie Edge – Hawk of Mercy: The Activist Who Saved Nature from the Conservationists. Furmansky will speak September 20, 7:00 pm to 9:30 pm at the deKoven House Community Center. The program is part of national recognition for the 50^th anniversary of the publication of Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking book, Silent Spring.

Rosalie Edge (1877-1962) was the first American woman to achieve national renown as a conservationist. Passionate, outspoken and often controversial, Edge did not join the conservation movement until her early fifties, however her legacy of achievements forms a crucial link between the eras defined by John Muir and Rachel Carson. An early voice against the indiscriminate use of toxins and pesticides, Edge reported evidence about the dangers of DDT 14 years before Carson's Silent Spring was published. Today, Edge is most widely remembered for establishing Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, the world's first refuge for birds of prey, in 1934. Hawk Mountain was cited in Silent Spring as an "especially significant" source of data.

Dyana Furmansky's articles on environmental subjects and the culture of the American West have appeared in the New York Times, Audubon Magazine, American Heritage, High Country News, Wilderness and many other publications.  In 1986 she was part of the High Country News reporting team that won the George Polk award for Environmental Reporting. She is co-author of These American Lands: Parks, Wilderness and the Public Land with T.H. Watkins. Rosalie Edge received a 2009 Wormsloe Foundation Nature Award and the 2010 Colorado Book Award.

Seating is limited and advanced registration is required. Suggested donation: $20 per guest. For reservations: Call Tony at (860)347-0340; or email tmarino@rockfallfoundation.org.