[TN-Bird] Richard Pough obituary from NY TIMES
- From: Dthomp2669@xxxxxxx
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2003 09:15:16 EDT
When I graduated from Winter Park High School in 1952, the then Executive=20
Director of Florida Audubon Society and his wife gave me an autographed copy=
of=20
Pough's AUDUBON WATER BIRD GUIDE which I still have. =20
Dee Thompson
Nashville, TN
----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
--
--
June 27, 2003
Richard Pough, 99, Founder of the Nature Conservancy, Dies
By STUART LAVIETES
=20
=20
ichard H. Pough, a founder of the Nature Conservancy whose many decades of=20
conservation efforts, initially undertaken as a concerned individual, led to=
the=20
establishment of nature preserves from Florida to Maine and as far west as=20
Arizona, died on Tuesday at his home in Chilmark, Mass. He was 99.
Through his long career, which included stints at the National Audubon=20
Society and the American Museum of Natural History, Mr. Pough (pronounced po=
e) also=20
wrote a series of Audubon guides on birds; helped to get a law banning the=20
sale of wild-bird feathers; became one of the first to warn of the dangers o=
f=20
DDT; established several important preservation groups; and inadvertently=20
established the house finch population of the eastern United States.
A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he began his career=
=20
in conservation in 1932 while living in Philadelphia, where he owned a camer=
a=20
shop. Hearing about a hunting spot near Reading called Hawk Mountain, he wen=
t=20
to investigate. What he found appalled him: hundreds of dead hawks.
Returning the next weekend with friends, he lined up the carcasses and took=20
pictures and set out to publicize what he called a massacre.
Two years later, he put an end to the hunting when he persuaded a New York=20
philanthropist to buy almost 1,400 acres of the mountain, establishing the=20
country's first sanctuary for birds of prey. His success using private money=
to=20
protect wildlife by buying habitats became a model for his campaigns.
In 1936, Mr. Pough was hired by the National Audubon Society to continue his=
=20
work protecting threatened species. Moving to New York, he found the city in=
=20
the middle of a fashion craze, with women's hats and dresses decorated with=20
feathers. When his wife came home wearing a new plumed hat, he recognized th=
e=20
feather as that of a golden eagle.
He found stores across the city selling items adorned with feathers of 40=20
other protected wild birds. He notified federal agents, who confiscated the=20
illegal articles, and helped to win stronger regulations.
Mr. Pough's efforts on behalf of a less exotic wild bird had unforeseen and=20
wide-ranging consequences.
Noticing a Macy's advertisement offering "California linnets," he went to=20
Macy's and recognized the birds as house finches, natives of the West Coast=20
protected by federal law. He again alerted federal agents, who began shuttin=
g down=20
dealers who supplied the birds to Macy's and pet stores. But agents could no=
t=20
act quickly enough; some dealers, hoping to avoid fines, simply opened their=
=20
windows and shooed the birds out. By 1941, the birds had spread across Long=20
Island and today inhabits areas from Mississippi to Canada.
While Mr. Pough was protecting birds, he was also writing about them. His=20
Audubon Bird Guide was published in 1946. Unlike the Audubon field guides by=
=20
Roger Tory Peterson, which bird-watchers use to identify birds in the wild,=20=
Mr.=20
Pough's guide provided information about behavior and arguments supporting=20
species protection.
The Audubon Bird Guide, which focused on small land birds of the East Coast=20
and Midwest, was followed by his Audubon Water Bird Guide in 1951 and Audubo=
n=20
Western Bird Guide in 1957.
While at Audubon, he spoke out against DDT, a pesticide then considered a=20
miraculous agent capable of wiping out typhus and malaria by killing their=20
carriers and of ridding farms and woodlands of destructive insects. In 1945,=
he=20
reported on tests by the Audubon Society and the United States Fish and Wild=
life=20
Service showing that forests in Pennsylvania had lost their birds after bein=
g=20
sprayed with DDT.
"If DDT should ever be used widely and without care," he told The New Yorker=
,=20
"we would have a country without freshwater fish, serpents, frogs and most o=
f=20
the birds we have now." Rachel Carson's more widely heeded warning, "Silent=20
Spring," was published in 1962.=20
Mr. Pough left Audubon in 1948 to join the American Museum of Natural Histor=
y=20
as the chairman of conservation and general ecology. He oversaw creation of=20
the Hall of North American Forests, with its realistic dioramas depicting th=
e=20
habitats of birds, mammals and reptiles.=20
The experience led him to join the Ecologists Union, which was dedicated to=20
saving threatened habitats. Believing that most people at the time had no id=
ea=20
what an ecologist was, he urged the group to adopt the name of a similar=20
organization in England, the Nature Conservancy. He also persuaded Lila A. W=
allace,=20
a founder of Reader's Digest, to set up the Land Preservation Fund, which=20
remains the organization's foremost conservation arm.=20
Mr. Pough was elected the Nature Conservancy's first president and served=20
until 1956.
He also increased the preservation activities of the museum, urging it to bu=
y=20
Great Gull Island near New London, Conn., a major seabird study area and=20
refuge.=20
To encourage greater awareness of the need for preservation, he set up a=20
series of round-table discussions, sponsored by the museum, for leaders of G=
arden=20
Clubs in the New York area. This outreach led to some unexpected successes.=20
When Mr. Pough wanted the state of New Jersey to buy unspoiled Island Beach,=
he=20
reached the governor through his mother, a Garden Club member. The purchase=20
went through.
His preservation activities =E2=80=94 including fights to stop the Echo Park=
Dam on=20
the Colorado River and Robert Moses' plans to extend an expressway through V=
an=20
Cortlandt Park in the Bronx =E2=80=94 eventually led to his leaving the muse=
um in 1956.
He established the Natural Areas Council and the Open Space Institute,=20
financed by a donation from Katharine Ordway, a Garden Club member and an he=
iress to=20
the 3M fortune. Using a book titled "Stewardship," written for the institute=
,=20
he urged landowners around New York to donate property to the public.
He also became the president of Ms. Ordway's Goodhill Foundation, serving=20
through 1984 and dispensing $55 million toward the purchase of land across t=
he=20
nation.=20
Mr. Pough helped preserve numerous areas of ecological importance, including=
=20
Corkscrew Swamp in Florida, Congaree Swamp in South Carolina, Little=20
Cumberland Island in Georgia, Aravaipa Canyon in Arizona, Troy Meadows in Ne=
w Jersey=20
and Devil's Den in Connecticut.
In 1981, he received the Audubon Medal in recognition of his achievement in=20
the field of conservation and environmental protection.
Richard Hooper Pough was born in Brooklyn on April 19, 1904. His father was=20=
a=20
geologist and his mother, an M.I.T. graduate. He is survived by a son,=20
Tristram, of Larchmont, N.Y.; two brothers, Frederick, of Reno, Nev., and Ha=
rold, of=20
Wynnewood, Pa.; and two grandchildren. His wife, Moira, died in 1986, and=20
their son Edward died in 2000.
On his 94th birthday, Mr. Pough told The New York Times about his first=20
experience as a preservation advocate, when, at age 18, he set out to save t=
he=20
largest Indian mounds in the Mississippi Valley from being plundered by souv=
enir=20
hunters. Taking an Illinois legislator to the site, he extracted a promise t=
o=20
save the mounds, but faced the obvious question: "What's in it for you?"
"I said, `Nothing,' " Mr. Pough recalled. "But it taught me a lesson I never=
=20
forgot. There was never going to be anything in it for me in any civic=20
activity I undertook, a principle I have adhered to all my life."
=20
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