Nature Writer Speaks to Packed Historical Hall

Writer, journalist, publisher, world traveler, musician and naturalist Alex Shoumatoff returned to his native Bedford Sunday to address a packed house at the Bedford Historic Hall.  The title of his talk was “Westchester, Bedford, and the Making of a Conservationist.”

The gathering, co-sponsored by and Lewisboro Land Trust, was part of the Leon Levy Environmental Symposium, an annual event created to honor the late Levy, a philanthropist and open space advocate who established the Jerome Levy Foundation, which provided the majority of the funding to create the Leon Levy Preserve in South Salem.

Shoumatoff began his presentation by saying “For every person, the place where you grew up becomes your inner universe, the focus of memories and dreams for the rest of your life. You take it with you, wherever you go, and my heart will always be in Bedford.”

He went on to tell of his idyllic childhood here. He spoke of days spent clambering through caves and down ravines, swimming in the quarry, fishing in gurgling brooks and simply reveling in the natural beauty that surrounded him.

“Forests are where we learn the magic and mystery of nature," he said. "The greatest gift a child can have is to wander around in nature. I grew up here before there were fences and security cameras.”

He noted that people in this area were environmentalists before there was even a word for it. Besides being the birthplace of The Nature Conservancy, Bedford was home to the first local chapter of the Audubon Society and the first chapter of Garden Club of America, he told his audience.

“This geographically small region contains more protected, undeveloped land than probably any other region of its size in the United States. People here seem to really ‘get it’ and have for a long time,” said Schoumatoff.

After graduating college, he worked briefly for the Washington Post but, in the “in the spirit of the times," he ‘dropped out’ and became the caretaker of an abandoned farm in New Hampshire.

It was then that he discovered the work of John MacPhee and Peter Matthiessen and decided to be a nature writer.

After a stint as resident naturalist and executive director of the Marsh Sanctuary on Route 172, Shoumatoff began writing for the Sierra Club and The New Yorker, where he was dubbed “the farthest-flung of the New Yorker's far-flung correspondents.”

He also wrote a piece for Vanity Fair, where he still works today, that became the well known story of the murder of Dian Fossey that was made into the movie “Gorillas in the Mist.”

Shoumatoff chronicled his travels to document ridley turtles of the Gulf of Mexico, ivory poaching in Asia and Africa, Mekranoti Indians of the Amazon and the Desertification of Mali.

Shoumatoff left his audience with parting thoughts on the importance of environmental education in preserving the natural world. “Biophilia, as the famed naturalist E.O. Wilson calls the love of nature, is something we are all born with. It just has to be brought out, which is why education is so important," he said.

He ended by saying “I will do what I can with my writing for the world's embattled biological and cultural diversity until I drop, (which will probably be in the next 10-15 years).”

According to Candace Schaffer, executive director of the WLT, the goal of the program was to give supporters and friends an entertaining and thought-provoking afternoon, and Shoumatoff delivered.

You can find out more about Alex Shoumatoff at www.dispatchesfromthevanishingworld.com.

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