August 18 – Happy Birthday, Margaret "Mardy" Murie

nPosted on August 18, 2020

nDo you know “the Grandmother of the Conservation Movement”?

nThe Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society call today’s famous birthday, Margaret Thomas Murie, nickname “Mardy,” by that esteemed title. Murie was made an Honorary Park Ranger by the National Park Service, and she won the Audubon Medal, the John Muir Award, and the highest honor of the National Wildlife Federation. (She won the latter just before her 100th birthday!) Finally, Murie won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest civilian (non-military) honor awarded by the U.S. government.

nBorn on this date in 1902 in Washington State, Murie moved with her family to Alaska when she was just five years old. She went away to college – but then moved back to Alaska to become the first woman to graduate from the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines. (It’s now the University of Alaska Fairbanks!)

nAlaska is, of course, huge – apparently with some slicing and dicing, you could fit Texas, California, and Montana into Alaska! Alaska is also mostly wild. What a place to grow up – it seems pretty natural to me that someone growing up there would be into the outdoors, wildlife, and environmentalism.

nMurie met her husband at the university in Alaska, and they spent their honeymoon traveling 500 miles by dogsled while conducting research on caribou!

nAt age 25, Murie and her husband moved to Jackson, Wyoming, and they stayed in Wyoming the rest of their lives. Murie’s husband studied elk (he’s “the father of modern elk management”), and Murie accompanied him on expeditions, helped his data gathering, and studied other animals in addition to elk. The couple camped a lot, did backpacking trips, and tracked wildlife. They kept it up even when Murie was nursing babies and as they were raising their three children.

nBoth Murie and her husband became officers in the Wilderness Society. Murie helped pass the Wilderness Act and helped create and pass the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She wrote books and articles, she attended hearings and testified on behalf of wildlife and wild spaces, and she gave speeches to groups.

nWhen her husband died, Murie traveled to Alaska, Tanzani, and New Zealand as she worked to protect wildlife and wilderness, consulted with officials about which areas to preserve, and consulted with lawmakers on policies and regulations that help conserve the environment.