U P S T R E A M • S P R I N G 2 0 0 0
Butterfly man for Joan Stroud lecture
Monarch chaser to speak
The critically acclaimed author who chased monarch butterflies across United States and Canada to their winter retreats in Mexico will give the spring Joan M. Stroud lecture this year.
Robert Michael Pyle, author of the recently published book, “Chasing Monarchs,” will speak at the Stroud Water Research Center on Tuesday, June 8 at 6:30 p.m.
Dr. Pyle’s lecture title is “The Riparian of the Heart: Reconnecting People with Their Rivers.”
Mr. Pyle gave a glimpse of his talk with this synopsis: “In these days of dramatic human expansion and contraction of natural systems, we stand to suffer gravely from a syndrome I call the “extinction of experience.”
This means, he wrote, that as common features of the countryside decline, so does common experience. Alienation, apathy and an accelerating cycle of loss follow.
“Nothing I know goes farther toward fending off the extinction of experience than our creeks, canals, rivers and shorelines. When children and others have local watercourses to intrigue, inspire and teach them, they are far more likely to care; and those who care conserve,” he wrote.
“As a biogeographer, I am also aware that our riparian passageways largely determine the ranges and viability of a multitude of species.”
We must, Mr. Pyle said, hearken to the words of Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road:’ “When you start separating the people from their rivers, what have you got?”
Besides “Chasing Monarchs,” which was published last fall, Mr. Pyle has written 11 other books including “Where Bigfoot Walks” (1995) and “Wintergreen,” which won the John Burroughs Medal for the best natural history book of 1986.
Mr. Pyle, who lives in Gray’s River, Washington, is a Guggenheim fellow. He holds a doctorate in ecology from Yale.
• Thomas P. Macaluso Rare & Used Books of Kennett will have “Chasing Monarchs” on sale and available for signing by the author. Macaluso’s will donate a portion of the signing proceeds to the Stroud Center.
