For immediate release

Contact:           Dr. Kent Curtis
                         The Walden Woods Project 
                         (781) 259-4721
                         education@walden.org                     

LINCOLN, MA; February 13, 2004 – Donald Worster, professor of environmental history at the University of Kansas, internationally known speaker, and award-winning author of more than a half-dozen books on the subject of nature and culture in American and world history, will present a talk entitled “John Muir and the American Passion for Nature” as part of the Walden Woods Project’s Stewardship Lecture series on Thursday, March 4, 2004.  Worster’s most recent book, A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell, explored the way in which Powell, the first American to successfully float the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon and a key nineteenth century land use thinker, was a product of the ostensibly open meritocracy in American culture.  Worster is currently completing work on a biography of John Muir, an intellectual descendant of Henry David Thoreau and the founder of the Sierra Club, which will explores similar themes.  His talk will draw from his recent project.

“Donald Worster is an intellectual giant in the field of environmental history.  His writings have forced us to rethink our relationships to land around us and think hard about how American culture has produced a unique form of environmentalism that begins with Henry David Thoreau and runs right up to present day environmentalists,” said Kathi Anderson, executive director of the Walden Woods Project.  “We are delighted to be hosting his talk.”

Dr. Worster’s lecture is the second in a new six-part annual lecture series being launched by the Walden Woods Project entitled the Stewardship Lectures.  This series highlights and celebrates innovation and creativity in environmental stewardship in a forum designed to share ideas and inspire action.  To this end, the lectures include authors, policy-makers, scholars, and activists who have taken unique and effective approaches to identifying, understanding, and contributing solutions to today’s environmental problems.

On February 5, 2004, former secretary of the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, Bob Durand, presented a well-received panel discussion about conservation in Massachusetts.  This year’s other speakers will include Jeffrey Hollender, President and CEO of Seventh Generation, Inc., Jeffrey Cramer, curator of collections at the Walden Woods Project’s Thoreau Institute and editor of the forthcoming Walden: The Fully Annotated Edition (Yale, 2004), Allen Hershkowitz, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council and author of Bronx Ecology: Blueprint for a New Environmentalism, and Kathi Anderson and Anne Anderson discussing the challenges surrounding the Woburn hazardous waste cleanup.  Each event will take place at the Walden Woods Project’s Thoreau Institute in Lincoln, Massachusetts, beginning at 7 p.m., and will run approximately two hours.

“This series is a great opportunity for our organization to provide information about and strategies for undertaking sound environmental stewardship,” says Kent Curtis, the Walden Woods Project’s director of education.  “Good stewardship can take place in a variety of contexts and venues, ranging from the arena of politics to business practices to academic scholarship, as well as among environmentalists themselves.  Dr. Worster adds a much-needed historical perspective to this discussion.”

Reservations for the March 4th event can be made at (781) 259-4707 or by sending an email to education@walden.org.

About the Walden Woods Project

The Walden Woods Project is a national conservation, education, and research organization committed to preserving the land, literature and legacy of Henry David Thoreau. Founded in 1990 by recording artist Don Henley, the organization uses the land it has protected in Walden Woods to foster an ethic of environmental stewardship and social responsibility, both cornerstones of Thoreau's philosophy. In 14 years, the Project has protected nearly 140 acres in and around Walden Woods and provided educational programming for hundreds of teachers, students, and life long learners. The Walden Woods Project also administers The Thoreau Institute, a research center near Walden Pond that houses the world’s foremost collection of Thoreau-related materials.