By CelinaScott-Buechler
In school, students learn the names Henry David Thoreau, John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt; and are taught they are the men who led the American conservation movement.
But they weren’t alone.
Women have played a key role in conservation science since its founding, and in the past century few played a larger role than author and scholar Anne LaBastille. In addition to receiving her B.S. in conservation (’55) and Ph.D. in wildlife ecology (’69) from Cornell University and authoring dozens of scholarly articles, the late LaBastille’s Thoreau-inspired “Woodswoman” series of books helped inspire generations of women to enter the natural sciences.
And now, one more gift from LaBastille will help assure female scholars can pursue their dreams.
Late last fall, professors, students and admirers gathered in Fernow Hall on Cornell University’s Ithaca campus to commemorate the life of LaBastille and announce the creation of the Woodswoman Scholarship Fund. The $300,000 self-sustaining scholarship fund was established by the estate of LaBastille, who was also an adjunct professor in Cornell’s Department of Natural Resources, to provide financial assistance to female doctoral students with a demonstrated need who are studying conservation or natural resources. One scholarship will be awarded each year by a special committee of Natural Resources professors, with the first award expected for the 2005-16 academic year. Additional details will be announced this spring.
“She was truly a trail-breaker, a fiercely independent woman who could never sit still. Whenever she hit a wall, she broke right through it,” said keynote speaker Leslie Surprenant, the director of the Office of Invasive Species Coordination at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, as well as close friend of LaBastille. “It is my great honor to be in front of you today, announcing the endowment left by Anne to fund female graduate students in natural resources and conservation.”
Surprenant noted the road to publication, much less recognition, was paved with difficulties for young women scientist in mid-20th century America. Upon graduating from college, LaBastille discovered the only jobs available to educated women such as herself were clerical positions.
“But Anne wasn’t going to accept that she couldn’t work in the field, which is what she loved,” Surprenant said. “Her life goal became ensuring that she and other women would have the opportunities of outdoor field work in the sciences. She was either going to accomplish it or die trying.”
LaBastille accomplished this, and much more. She became the first female Audubon Society tour guide, a position for which she refused to conform to gendered dress code; she said skirts got in the way. She operated one of the first eco-tourism businesses in the United States. She was the first Adirondacks Park Agency Commissioner of any gender to have a scientific background. LaBastille also created a natural wildlife reserve surrounding Lake Atitlan in Guatemala to protect the flightless Giant Grebe, for which she was awarded the World Wildlife Fund gold medal in 1974.
In spite of all these accomplishments early in her career, early on LaBastille had to assume the pseudonym “Al” to be published in an outdoor magazine.
“It can be easy to forget how much resistance she met throughout her life because she was able to accomplish so very much,” said Catherine Smith, a staff member in Natural Resources and one of the organizers of the event. “Anne had always been one of my role models, so when I joined the department and my supervisor asked if I wanted to help with this event, well, it was serendipitous. Anne’s inspiration is part of the reason I’m where I am professionally today.”
Before her death in 2011, LaBastille published more than a dozen books, 150 popular articles and 25 scientific articles. In addition to endowing the Woodswoman Scholarship, LaBastille left $300,000 in her will for the creation of the Anne LaBastille Memorial Writer’s Residency Program, which hosts writers for weeklong summits. Her own Thoreau-like cabin in the Adirondack Mountains has been donated to the Adirondack Museum along with a $300,000 endowment to cover all expenses of the move, reconstruction and exhibit. Her land will be donated to New York State to be added to the Adirondack Forest Preserve.
“I think her greatest legacy is to the women in natural resources and conservation,” said Gemara Gifford, a current graduate student in Natural Resources. “I see a lot of aspects of what I’m trying to do in the work she did, and know that I probably wouldn’t be here if she hadn’t paved the way for women.
“Anne LaBastille made incredible progress in opening up the field,” Gifford added, “but there is still a lot of work to be done. I hope I’m as successful as she was in making a difference.”
- Anne LaBastille’s papers are available through the Division of Rare Manuscript Collections of Cornell University Library.
- Video of the Anne LaBastille tribute and Woodswoman Scholarship Fund dedication can be found online on CornellCast and YouTube.
Celina Scott-Buechler is a student writer in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
