Visiting before the second History Center lecture Feb. 17 were LWVOC members Leesa Bainbridge, Dr. Leslie Poole, and Joan Erwin. Dr. Poole recounted tales of women heroes who fought to preserve Florida’s environment. The lecture series is co-sponsored by the History Center and the LWVOC History Committee. The next lecture in the series will be by Mary Adkins, University of Florida, about “Making Modern Florida,” on March 10.
Dr. Leslie Kemp Poole brought along a passel of “warriors” for her “Women: Fighters for Florida’s Environment” talk – the second of four programs in the Orange County Regional History Center’s Brechner Speaker Series, co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters Orange County.
Poole’s subject was a fitting one for the LWVOC. Celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, the League has long been involved in environmental-ecological-green causes.
The League has had legions of compatriots among the women (and men) of the Sunshine State, including the Florida Federation of Women’s Clubs, Friends of the Everglades, the Save the Manatee Club, local garden clubs and others.
Poole, an assistant professor of environmental studies at Rollins College, said she spent 15 years researching her book Saving Florida: Women’s Fight for the Environment in the 20th Century. Among her finds:
*Clara Dommerich (1857-1900) not only established a nature preserve on her estate in Maitland but also helped found the Florida Audubon Society in 1900. She and others in this early group were alarmed about the decimation of the bird population – in Florida, a lot of that was due to “feather robbing,” for the huge market of decorative plumage for women’s hats and accessories.
*May Mann Jennings (1872-1963) was president of the Florida Federation of Women’s Clubs and was instrumental in getting Royal Palm State Park designated as the first Florida state park in 1916 (it eventually became part of Everglades National Park in 1947). Jennings was called the “Mother of Florida Forestry” for her efforts in advocating replanting after deforestation.
*The “Marjories”: Although author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1896-1953) wasn’t an activist, Poole said, she was interested in Florida’s environmental beauty, evident in such Florida-centric books as The Yearling and Cross Creek. Marjorie Harris Carr (1915-1997) of Micanopy led a successful campaign to halt the Cross Florida Barge Canal being built by the Army Corps of Engineers, a project that opponents said would be devastating to the environment. And Miami’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1890-1998} wrote The Everglades: River of Grass, published in 1947. Poole said Douglas became an activist at age 79 when she was recruited to battle developers who wanted to build an airport in the Everglades.
Since the mid-20th Century, Poole said, women have been doing battle in various arenas, necessary because a booming population created air and water pollution. She mentioned Joy Towles Ezell, who is fighting a continuing battle to clean up the Fenholloway River in Taylor County (often called the most polluted river in the state due to industrial waste), and Jeannie Economos, who is helping farmworkers affected by the pollution in and around Lake Apopka.
It all takes constant vigilance, Poole said.
Submitted by Dean Johnson