Elizabeth Putnam
This fragile earth is hurting. Young people today have so many serious challenges that need to be faced head on. I believe it is vitally important for the young to realize they can each do something positive with their lives––that they can go for their dream whatever that is. This world needs their help more than ever before. We all are needed to work together for the future of this planet.
–Elizabeth Titus Putnam (p. 65)
While dealing with the huge influx of visitors following World War II, the extremely few National Park Service rangers on staff lived in leaky tar paper shacks built as temporary shelter by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s. Something had to be done to awaken the American public to the plight of the parks. In October 1953, Bernard DeVoto wrote “Let’s Close the National Parks,” an article in a Harper’s Magazine proposing that Army personnel be placed around Yellowstone and several other large national parks to keep the public from entering them until Congress appropriated sufficient funds to protect them. The article fascinated Elizabeth “Liz” Cushman Titus Putnam. But she felt there might be another way.
Putnam grew up on Long Island in a small, close-knit family. Her ethical, caring parents loved the outdoors, and the family often hiked and canoed to her father's log cabin deep in the heart of Canada’s north woods on a pristine lake, Lac à Moise. Their Native guides showed the value and importance of conserving wilderness through their lifestyles. These trips profoundly affected Putnam's love and great concern for the preservation of nature. As a freshman at upstate New York’s Vassar College, an inaugural offering of the interdepartmental course “Conservation of Natural Resources” introduced her to conservation as a field of study. (Putnam, Interview: Elizabeth C. Titus Putnam and the Student Conservation Association, 2004).
Both of Putnams’s parents had potentially debilitating challenges she explains in this way: "The physical challenges with which my parents lived never deterred them from living a full, active life. There never was a complaint! They believed that you did the best with what you were given. I was brought up with the feeling 'If there are things to be done, you don't back out of doing them. Physically or mentally you can work out ways to accomplish things and if something needs to be done, then do it!'" (p. 8). Putnam inherited their tremendous sense of determination.
After she read DeVoto’s fascinating article as junior, Putnam couldn’t stop thinking about what the CCC accomplished in the 1930s. She envisioned a modernized CCC-type organization with a mission to keep up with the demands of the times. When she added this to what she felt was a significant need for volunteer opportunities for young people, it all came together. Why not let them help combat the problem of insufficient government funding? The result: Putnam’s senior thesis "A Proposal for a Student Conservation Corps," the genesis for today's Student Conservation Association (SCA) (Putnam, Interview: Elizabeth C. Titus Putnam and the Student Conservation Association, 2004).
To Dr. A. Scott Warthin, Jr., Vassar’s Geology chair, Putnam’s concept warranted exploration; he was pivotal in its development. Putnam changed her major to Geology to write her thesis with Dr. Warthin, as her advisor. She made the switch late in her junior year and was unable to attend the required Geology summer camp in Wyoming. Dr. Warthin arranged a unique volunteer position for her that summer helping establish the Upper Hoosick Valley Watershed Association in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where she experienced both helpful and counterproductive methods for creating a new organization (Putnam).
Under Dr. Warthin’s recommendation, Putnam contacted the National Park Service (NPS) and the National Parks Association (NPA–now the NPCA) during the fall of her senior year for more information for her thesis. Both organizations requested she share her proposal with them upon completion. In November, Putnam attended the First National Watershed Conference in Washington, D.C. and met with NPS personnel and Executive Secretary of the NPA, Fred Packard. (Putnam, Interview: Elizabeth C. Titus Putnam and the Student Conservation Association, 2004).
Later that month, Putnam met Bertha E. McPherson, daughter of the late founder of the NPS, Stephen Mather. After hearing the concept of her thesis, McPherson recommended she share it with McPherson's godfather, Horace M. Albright, former director of the NPS. Albright had assisted Mather in founding the NPS in 1916–because of Albright's continuing love, passion, and dedication to the agency he was also known as its "godfather." Albright provided Putnam with a letter of introduction, suggesting she visit some national parks that summer. She could share her concept with the superintendents and staff to find out if they would be interested in such a program.
Martha (Marty) Hayne Talbot joined Putnam as a colleague in August 1955, and they visited the four national parks suggested by Albright–Olympic, Mount Rainier, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton. Talbot and Putnam compiled a report on their findings and as requested, gave it to Albright and others. The trip was fruitful. Both Olympic and Grand Teton National Parks requested SCA trial projects. In 1957, a total of 53 high school, college, and graduate-level volunteers assisted rangers and naturalists in both parks with three different program types. (Putnam, Interview: Elizabeth C. Titus Putnam and the Student Conservation Association, 2004).
The SCA was incorporated on June 10, 1964. Today, it provides over a million and a half hours of voluntary environmental service for the United States' public lands–including wilderness–and wildlife per year. It offers opportunities each year for more than 3,500 high school, college, and graduate students to perform service on public lands. These volunteers complete otherwise neglected essential duties, and in the process, gain invaluable field experience. (Putnam, Interview: Elizabeth C. Titus Putnam and the Student Conservation Association, 2004).
The high school-age program affords opportunities for boys and girls, 15-18 years of age, to live for four to five weeks in one of the national parks or forests. Each group consists of six to eight members as well as one or more supervisors, also called "crew leaders.” The students perform needed duties, then go for a week-long recreational backpack trip. SCA interns (participants who are 18 years or older) also contribute immensely wherever they are working. Interns engage directly in assisting rangers and naturalists in parks, forests, and wilderness areas. They have unique opportunities to work with endangered species, perform geographic information system (GIS) work, conduct mapping or monitoring projects, or act as interpreters and environmental educators. Internships are three to twelve months long, provide interns with a wealth of experience, and can serve as a steppingstone into a professional conservation career.
Talbot remained active in the program until 1959, when she married Dr. Lee M. Talbot and joined him in his ecological research in East Africa and elsewhere. She later became an SCA Board Member and is currently an Honorary Director (Putnam, Interview: Elizabeth C. Titus Putnam and the Student Conservation Association, 2004).
Today, Putnam is still actively involved with the SCA, serving as its Founding President and Honorary Director. She works with her husband, Bruce Putnam, on projects for the Merck Forest and Farmland Center and the Bennington Museum. Putnam has been honored with numerous awards for her vision and dedication to the SCA. Among them, Garden Club of America's Margaret Douglas Medal in 1966 and the US President's Volunteer Action Award in 1982. The Department of the Interior presented her with the Conservation Service Award in 1974 and, in 1987, with the Secretary's Commendation as part of a joint ceremony in which Talbot received the Conservation Service Award and Dr. Warthin was given the Public Service Award.
In 1989, the NPS acknowledged Putnam as an Honorary Park Ranger, and in 2003 she won the Chevron Texaco Conservation Award (Putnam, Interview: Elizabeth C. Titus Putnam and the Student Conservation Association, 2004). More recently, Putnam received two honorary Doctorates, one from the University of Vermont and one from SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry, as well as the Rachel Carson Leadership Award and the Society of Women Geographers (SWG) Outstanding Achievement Award for her work.
References
Putnam, E. T. (1997, December). A Conversation with Liz Titus Putnam. (T. InSight, Interviewer).
Putnam, E. T. (2004, June). Interview: Elizabeth C. Titus Putnam and the Student Conservation Association. (N. S. Roberts, Interviewer).