The Heyday of the Environmental Movement, 1960–1979 137
Naturally, I wished to determine the rea-
son for this decline. Factors such as human and
animal disturbances and shortage of food did
not apply here; something else was causing the
lack of reproductive success. Then, in the early
sixties, Rachel Carson’s powerful and eloquent
indictment of the chlorinated hydrocarbon pes-
ticides burst into print [see Document 100], a
book that some critics claim will be recorded
as having a greater dramatic effect than almost
any other literary work of the century. Several
unhatched eggs that I brought back from osprey
nests on Gardiner’s Island confirmed her find-
ings. Gas chromatography revealed the presence
of high concentrations of DDT and its metabo-
lites; certainly >13 parts per million (ppm) was
sufficient to kill an embryo.* * *
Although some of the environmental prob-
lems resulting from the widespread use of DDT
were not yet known to us by the mid-sixties, we
had sufficient evidence to convince us that we
must act to bring about a curtailment in its use.
Not only the reproductive failure of ospreys, but
the almost total disappearance of the blueclaw
crab in our bays, the diminished populations of
reptiles, amphibians, many species of birds, but-
terflies, and honeybees—all were sounding the
alarm. The canary was far from well.
It was not difficult to point a finger at the
chief culprit. For the past 20 years, the Suffolk
County Mosquito Control Commission had been
aerially spraying DDT in its largely unsuccessful
efforts to reduce mosquito populations. From a
salt marsh at the mouth of the Carmans River
in Brookhaven, mud samples were found withDOCUMENT 114: Dennis Puleston on the Founding of the
Environmental Defense Fund (1971)Dennis Puleston, who for many years served as chairman of the board of trustees of the Environmental Defense
Fund, became an active environmentalist when he realized that the osprey were disappearing from Long Island,
New York, where he lived. As often happens, concern about a local environmental problem led to involvement
with much broader environmental issues.Coal miners working deep in the earth learned
long ago that one of their most treacherous ene-
mies was the colorless, odorless gas methane.
They also found that certain living creatures
were more sensitive to this gas than they were,
and thus could serve as an early warning system.
So they took a canary down with them, and as
long as the bird sang cheerfully they knew all
was well. But if it became silent they watched
it carefully, and if it rolled over dead the alarm
rang out and they made a dash for the safety of
the pit head.
In recent years many of us who are con-
cerned with the condition of our environment
have developed our own canaries. Mine happens
to be a large, regal looking brown and white bird
with strong, hooked talons and raptorial beak.... I can well recall my first visit to Gardiner’s
Island in 1948, when there were more than 300
active [osprey] nests, producing an average of
more than two fledglings per nest.... [S]ubse-
quent frequent visits there convinced me that
numbers were declining. By the mid-fifties the
number of active nests and also the number of
young per active nest were dropping steadily, and
by the early sixties the drop had reached collapse
proportion. On the mainland [of Long Island]
the situation was even more serious; the osprey
became a rare sight in places where formerly
they had been abundant, and few nestings could
be recorded.... [O]ne fact is sure; the osprey is
an endangered species in the Northeast.... And
whether we care for the osprey or not, surely its
tragic situation is a warning of something that is
of concern to our own health and welfare. Per-
haps the canary is not yet dead, but it has defi-
nitely stopped singing.