September 20, 2000
“Something Wild, Something
Managed: Wilderness in the Northeast Landscape” to be Topic of
Symposium Oct. 5-6
Bill McKibben, Author of “The End of
Nature,” to Give Keynote Address
MIDDLEBURY, Vt.Bill McKibben,
Adirondack resident and author of “The End of Nature,” will deliver
the keynote address when activists, land managers, and educators
gather on Oct. 5-6 at “Something Wild, Something Managed: Wilderness
in the Northeast Landscape,” a Middlebury College Bicentennial
symposium. Activities include three panel discussions, which will
take place in Dana Auditorium in Sunderland Language Center on
College Street (Route 125). McKibbens talk will be in Mead
Chapel on Hepburn Road off College Street (Route 125). The two-day
event is free and open to the public.
“In the last century, there has been
an explosion of green in the region as forests have
reclaimed abandoned farmland. Animals long gone from the area, such
as moose and beaver, are also returning,” said Chris McGrory Klyza,
Middlebury College professor of political science and environmental
studies, and the organizer of the symposium. “The time has come for
us as a society to think more explicitly about the opportunities this
largely unplanned recovery presents for the Northeast.”
Something Wild, Something
Managed will focus on the role of wilderness in the larger
Northeastern landscape. Three panels of speakers will explore various
topics the Northeastern landscape in national and historical
contexts; the values that flow directly from wilderness areas,
including efforts to protect and enhance biological diversity; and
how wilderness lands fit into the larger, sustainably managed
landscape. The conference will conclude with McKibbens keynote
address, “Notes on Restraint: The Northern Forest as Embarrassing
Example.”
The symposium will begin Thursday,
Oct. 5 with a panel discussion titled “Northeastern Wilderness in
Context” that will take place from 4:15-5:45 p.m. The panel will
consist of Emily Russell, an ecological historian at Rutgers
University; Paul Brewster, forest supervisor for Green Mountain
National Forest; and Nancy Smith, executive director of the
Boston-based Sweet Water Trust. Kathy Morse, Middlebury College
assistant professor of history, will serve as the
moderator.
Later on Thursday, from 8-9:30 p.m.,
“The Values of Wilderness” will be the topic of discussion among
panelists Elizabeth Thompson, an ecologist with The Vermont
Nature
Conservancy; Tom Butler, editor of
Wild Earth magazine; and Spencer Philips, an economist
with the Washington, D.C.-based
Wilderness Society. The moderator will be Steve Trombulak, Middlebury
College professor of biology and environmental studies.
The final panel discussion,
“Surrounding Wilderness with Sustainably Managed Lands,” will take
place from 4:15-5:45 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 6. David Brynn, a forester
with Vermont Family Forests; Vern Grubinger of the Center for
Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Vermont; and Joan
Roelofs, author of “Greening Cities” and a professor of political
science at Keene State College, will serve as panelists. The
moderator will be Nan Jenks-Jay, Middlebury College director of
environmental affairs.
McKibben will conclude the event with
the keynote address, “Notes on Restraint: The Northern Forest as
Embarrassing Example,” at 8 p.m. A reception, which is free and open
to the public, will follow the talk at 9:30 p.m.
McKibbens book “The End of
Nature” was the first account for a general audience of the practical
and philosophical problems posed by global warming. It was translated
into 20 languages and recently re-issued in a 10th anniversary
edition. McKibben has gone on to write many other books, including
“The Age of Missing Information” and “Hope, Human and Wild.” His
essays, reporting, and criticism have appeared in many publications,
ranging from The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books to
Outside and Natural History. Normally a resident of the Adirondacks,
McKibben is spending this year in Massachusetts as a fellow at
Harvards Center for the Study of Values and Public
Life.
“Something Wild, Something Managed:
Wilderness in the Northeast Landscape” is one of a year-long series
of academic symposia celebrating the 200th year of the
founding of Middlebury College.
All events, including the reception,
are free and open to the public. The three panel discussions will
take place in Dana Auditorium in Sunderland Language Center on
College Street (Route 125). The keynote address will be in Mead
Chapel on Hepburn Road off College Street (Route 125). The reception
is in the Redfield Proctor Room in Proctor Hall, across from Mead
Chapel on Hepburn Road. For more information, contact Chris McGrory
Klyza, Middlebury College professor of political science and
environmental studies, at 802-443-5309 or klyza@middlebury.edu.
A schedule of events
follows:
Environmental Bicentennial
Symposium
Middlebury College
Thursday, Oct. 5
4:15-5:45 p.m.
“Northeastern Wilderness in
Context”
Panelists: Emily Russell, Ecological
Historian, Rutgers University
Nancy Smith, Executive Director,
Sweet Water Trust
Paul Brewster, Forest Supervisor,
Green Mountain National Forest
Moderator: Kathy Morse, Middlebury
College Assistant Professor of History
Dana Auditorium, Sunderland Language
Center, Middlebury College, College Street (Route 125)
8-9:30 p.m.
“The Values of
Wilderness”
Panelists: Elizabeth Thompson,
Ecologist, Vermont Nature Conservancy
Tom Butler, Editor, Wild Earth
magazine
Spencer Philips, Economist,
Wilderness Society
Moderator: Steve Trombulak,
Middlebury College Professor of Biology and Environmental
Studies
Dana Auditorium, Sunderland Language
Center, Middlebury College, College Street (Route 125)
Friday, Oct. 6
4:15-5:45 p.m.
“Surrounding Wilderness with
Sustainably Managed Lands”
Panelists: David Brynn, Forester,
Vermont Family Forests
Vern Grubinger, Center for
Sustainable Agriculture, University of Vermont
Joan Roelofs, Author of “Greening
Cities” and Keene State College Professor of Political
Science
Moderator: Nan Jenks-Jay, Director of
Environmental Affairs, Middlebury College
Dana Auditorium, Middlebury College,
College Street (Route 125)
8-9 p.m.
“Notes on Restraint: The Northern
Forest as Embarrassing Example”
Keynote Speaker: Bill McKibben,
author of “The End of Nature”
Mead Chapel, Middlebury College,
Hepburn Road off College Street (Route 125)
9:30 p.m.
Reception
Redfield Proctor Room, Proctor Hall,
across from Mead Chapel on Hepburn Road off College Street (Route
125)
All events, including the reception,
are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Chris
McGrory Klyza, Middlebury College professor of political science and
environmental studies, at 802-443-5309 or klyza@middlebury.edu.
Biographies of Panelists and
Keynote Speaker
Paul Brewster is forest
supervisor for the Green Mountain and Finger Lakes National Forests,
a position he has held since May 1999. A New England native, Brewster
has worked with the U.S. Forest Service for over 20 years, serving in
Minnesota, Alaska, and Missouri. In Alaska, he served as assistant
regional director of recreation for the wilderness and cultural
resources department.
David Brynn is Addison County
forester, a position he has held since 1990, and founder and
president of Vermont Family Forests (VFF), a green certified,
nonprofit family forest conservation organization. VFF is a national
leader in the move toward ecologically sustainable, community based
forestry and recently helped supply the wood for Middlebury
Colleges Bicentennial Hall, a new science facility that opened
in September 1999. Brynn was named Cooperative Forest Management
Forester of the Year in 1999.
Tom Butler is editor of Wild
Earth, a quarterly journal based in Richmond, Vt., that melds
conservation biology with grassroots wilderness activism. Butler held
a number of positions at Wild Earth before becoming editor in 1997.
He has worked on a variety of issues related to the ecological
recovery of the Northern Forest over the last 15 years.
Vern Grubinger has been the
director of the University of Vermont Center for Sustainable
Agriculture since 1995. He worked as a farm partner and a field
inspector for the New York Organic Farm Certification Program before
beginning work in the UVM Extension Program in 1990. Grubinger has a
doctorate in vegetable crops from Cornell University and is a
frequent commentator on agriculture issues for Vermont Public
Radio.
Bill McKibben is the author of
“The End of Nature,” the first account for a general audience of the
practical and philosophical problems posed by global warming. The
book was translated into 20 languages and recently re-issued in a
10th anniversary edition. McKibben has gone on to write many other
books, including “The Age of Missing Information and Hope” and “Human
and Wild.” His essays, reporting, and criticism have appeared in many
publications, ranging from The New Yorker and The New York Review of
Books to Outside and Natural History. Normally a resident of the
Adirondacks, McKibben is spending this year in Massachusetts as a
fellow at Harvards Center for the Study of Values and Public
Life.
Spencer Philips is a resource
economist with The Wilderness Society, a Washington, D.C.-based
organization dedicated to the protection of Americas wilderness
and public lands. His economic research, demonstration, and extension
projects, such as his three volume series
Northern Forest Strategies for
Sustainability, supports the Societys Northern Forest campaign.
Currently a doctoral candidate in the agricultural and applied
economics program at Virginia Tech, Philips lives with his family in
Craftsbury Common, Vt.
Joan Roelofs is professor of
political science at Keene State College, where she has taught since
1979. A leading thinker and questioner on sustainable cities, Roelfs
is the author of “Greening Cities” and serves on the editorial board
for the journal Capitalism, Nature, Socialism.
Emily W.B. Russell is research
associate professor in the department of geological sciences at
Rutgers University, Newark as well as associate of the Graduate
Faculties in Plant Science
and Ecology at Rutgers University,
New Brunswick. She is a leading expert in the historical ecology of
the Northeast and the author of “People and the Land through Time:
Linking Ecology and History.”
Nancy Smith is managing
director of Sweet Water Trust (SWT). Based in Boston, this foundation
is dedicated to the conservation of wild nature in New England and
New York. SWT uses its resources to help purchase land, and
development and timber rights for the creation of protected wildland
reserves. She has received awards from the Massachusetts Audubon
Society and The Nature Conservancy in recognition of her
work.
Elizabeth Thompson is an
ecologist with the Vermont chapter of The Nature Conservancy and
coordinates the Vermont Biodiversity Project. She is co-author of
“Wetland, Woodland, Wildland: A Guide to the Natural Communities of
Vermont,” recently published as part of the Middlebury College
Bicentennial Series in Environmental Studies. Prior to joining The
Nature Conservancy in 1995, Thompson worked as a community and plant
ecologist with the Vermont Natural Heritage Program.
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