WOMEN IN CONSERVATION

            Celia M. Hunter was an environmentalist and conservationist, but none of that even compared to her love of adventure. In 1976, she became the first female president of The Wilderness Society and helped launch the Alaska Conservation Foundation (The Wilderness Society). She was a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II. At that time, the military would not allow women to fly to Alaska. In response, she and a friend flew to Fairbanks shortly after retiring from the military “to see what the fellows were talking about”. This trip took 27 days. They also spent a semester at a school in Sweden, completed a 10-month bicycling trip through Europe, then hitchhiked back to the United States on a tanker on the Atlantic Ocean, and  finally drove a jeep cross-country to Seattle (America's Wilderness). In 1952, she opened Camp Denali, the first eco-tourism venture in Alaska, which was only accessible by small plane or dirt roads. Meeting the Margaret Murie (formerly discussed in this paper) and her husband was what her inspired her conservation activism. In 1960, she formed the Alaska Conservation Society, which was Alaska’s first statewide conservation organization. She is referred to as “Alaska’s modern John Muir”, who is a conservationist and adventurer who founded the Sierra Club (Alaska Conservation Foundation).