WOMEN IN CONSERVATION

                Rosalie Barrow Edge was a suffragist and conservationist. She was credited with exposing the Audobon Society for renting their wildlife sanctuary to game harvesters instead of using that land for preservation (Rowland). In response, she created the Emergency Conservation Committee in 1929. She took a particular interest in birds of prey and, in 1934, founded the world’s first preserve for them, the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary (The Wilderness Society). Edge was instrumental in campaigning for the preservation of 8,000 acres of sugar pines on the southern edge of Yosemite National Park, which helped lead to the creation of Olympic and Kings Canyon National Parks. A quote of hers that has resonated with me is “the time to protect a species is while it is still common” (Ecotopia.org). Conservation biology, is based upon reacting to emergency situations or handling animals that have already become endangered or extinct, because that is just how humans and politics seem to work. We must change this mindset.