I need to finish reading The Journey to Malloryville Bog and write a proper review. So far, so great, if distressingly familiar.
This Sunday, Apr. 28, at 3pm, Buffalo Street Books will be hosting a discussion with Bob Beck, the author of The Journey at Malloryville Bog: Commitment, Teamwork and Tenacity in Defense of Land and Nature.
Faithfully relating a fifteen-year story in first person--an environmental case study of sorts, fully documented with letters and memos of the many participants--this is the author's personal narrative of his home and the collective effort to protect his cherished land. Here is his account of glacier-formed eskers, kames and kettles, of diverse woodlands, swamps, fens and bog, of mining applications and recurring environmental reviews, of uncertainty and long struggle, and of diligence, awesome teamwork and phenomenal land deals. Ultimately, this is a story of conservation success, culminating in the establishment and dedication of The Nature Conservancy's magical and treasured O.D. von Engeln Preserve at Malloryville, located in the picturesque Finger Lakes Region of upstate New York.
Bob Beck was raised on a dairy farm in Upstate New York, and he has been a teacher of biology, animal behavior, natural history, and general science, having taught at Cornell, Ithaca College and Sarah Lawrence College, as well as for docents' training at the Bronx Zoo and for middle-school students at a Montessori school in Ithaca. Bob was was a curator at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Library of Natural Sounds, and he was a founding board member and the first executive director of the Finger Lakes Land Trust. For his efforts in organizing and leading the defense of Malloryville Bog, he was honored with The Nature Conservancy's "Friend of the Land" award and a 50th Anniversary "Hero" award.
I posted pictures from the bog a few years ago, with an extra few in winter. It's easily one of my favorite places in Dryden.
Posted by simon at April 26, 2013 11:08 AM in