Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

August 13, 2012

Three stories: Carson's words inspired environmental activism

Second in an occasional series on Rachel Carson a half-century after the publication of 'Silent Spring.'

By North Cairn ncairn@pressherald.com
Staff Writer

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"It was," Aldridge said, "the best we could do.

"We encouraged conventional people to keep their minds open" about the benefits of organic farming. "What I'm doing and what impact I'm having, how I'm changing the landscape, and me, for good or for ill -- that came from Rachel Carson, I think."

"It's a much different mindset when you stop being an owner of property and become instead a caretaker," Aldridge said. And though "nothing can undo" what she observed that day so long ago in the woods with her family, the spark of consciousness that was fanned to a lasting fire in her remains profound and energizing.

Other changes -- or restorations -- have taken longer.

"It's only been in the last five years," Aldridge said, "that I've noticed the birds have come back."

PATTY BAILEY

'The things that she wrote rang true; they echoed in me.'

"RACHEL CARSON was ahead of her time," said Patty Bailey of Gouldsboro, who served for most of her career in the Maine Department of Conservation as a nature educator. "The things that she wrote rang true; they echoed in me -- the beauty of her writing, her way of engaging people and keeping them engaged. I always felt bad that she didn't get the recognition and support she deserved."

From Carson's words in "Silent Spring" and, even more so, in "A Sense of Wonder," Bailey was inspired by a single idea that ran like a tributary through her life and work: "First and foremost, to know that we are all connected and that everything we do has an impact."

"The things we think and feel make a difference, too," said Bailey, now retired. Helping to mold ideas and raise consciousness -- especially among children -- became for her a driving force, compelling further study, leading to public service in the state parks system and spurring her to create an informal nature-education curriculum.

A series of her guided walks for young people bears names that are titles of books by Carson or resound with her ideas: The Edge of the Sea, for example, or Secrets of the Shore.

For nearly 20 years, Bailey communicated those lessons and values through her work as an interpretive guide at Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park in Freeport. There she was able to hold on to -- and share with others -- a love of nature she attributes to time spent as a child with her father, canoeing through a bog in the evening to check for ducks.

She remains deeply influenced by Carson's last book, "A Sense of Wonder," which was published posthumously but remains one of the author's signature works. In it, Carson displays a different voice than the one that carries "Silent Spring."

In that later, shorter text, the language of the reformer settles to a nearly maternal, comforting whisper.

Carson aimed her gentle persuasion at parents looking for ways to help their children appreciate the natural world and retain the sense of awe and wonder that, she felt, is so often lost or discarded in adulthood.

And though Bailey has changed in focus in retirement, now devoting herself to practicing methods of alternative healing, the walks she designed are still offered every week at Wolfe's Neck.

And though the children who visit the park now and learn about the forest and shore might not know it yet, they are part of a whole new generation who are being transformed. Scientists say these young people already bear at a cellular level the imprint of persistent pesticides, but they are being changed by something else as well, the lasting legacy of Rachel Carson.

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