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“…the most honest, unselfish, indomitable hellcat in the history of conservation.”  That’s how a New Yorker writer described Rosalie Edge in a 1948 article.  And, I might add, one of the least likely people to end up with that description.  Edge came late to her commitment to conservation, but she made up for it with the passion of a true zealot.

Mabel Rosalie Barrow was born in New York City on November 3, 1877 (died 1962).  She led an idyllic childhood, favored among her siblings by her successful father, educated in the best schools, enjoying the company of New York’s cultural elite.  She travelled widely as a young woman, meeting her future husband on a visit to England.  He was later posted to Japan as an engineer, and Rosalie joined him and they were married in Yokohama.  After three years in Japan and extensive travel throughout Asia and Europe, they returned to New York.

On her travels, Edge met several leaders of the suffragist movement, which became her first passion.  Starting in 1915, she became an active member of the suffrage movement, an unrelenting advocate right through to the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.  As a suffragette, she learned the basics of leading a social movement—organizing, writing pamphlets, staging protests, engaging other thought leaders.  The success of her work gave her an indomitable spirit and a bottomless well of self-confidence.  This work would be crucial to her later success as an advocate for conservation.

When her husband left her in 1916 for another woman (she never divorced him and kept his name), Edge found consolation in walks through Central Park.  She made friends with bird-watchers that she met in the park and became an avid amateur ornithologist herself (her life-list of species seen in Central Park surpassed 800).

Her life changed while staying in Paris in 1929.  The mail from home included a 16-page pamphlet, “A Crisis in Conservation.”  It was written by Willard Van Name, a marine invertebrate biologist at the American Museum of Natural History.  Among a variety of topics relating to the conservation of birds, the pamphlet described actions ascribed to the National Association of Audubon Societies (now the National Audubon Society) that Van Name thought were contrary to bird conservation.  AS Edge’s son, Peter, wrote, “It was this … charge that most aroused my mother as she read the pamphlet that afternoon in Paris, and again as she reread it, many times over, seated in her deck chair aboard the liner taking us back to New York.”

Once back in New York, Edge went to work to reverse the situation.  She formed the Emergency Conservation Committee, basically a one-woman advocacy organization (which she ran for decades).  Because Van Name had been forbidden by his employer to publish any more such pamphlets, Edge instead published what he wrote under her own name on behalf of the Emergency Conservation Committee.  She and her family raised funds, printed and distributed pamphlets to influential persons, a replication of her effort on behalf of women’s suffrage.  Over the next several years, Edge distributed more than a million pamphlets on conservation topics.

Her work had enormous and important results.  After suing Audubon for their mailing list—and winning—she sent pamphlets to the organization’s entire membership, resulting in changes in leadership and conservation policies (in later years, Edge became a supporter of the reformed group).  Again using the effective techniques that she had learned and honed, along with the access to national leaders that her social position allowed, she successfully lobbied the U.S. Congress to create King’s Canyon National Park and Olympic National Park and to expand Yosemite.

Today, however, her greatest legacy—and one she made happen almost single-handedly—is the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in southeastern Pennsylvania.  In 1932, Edge learned that hunters would travel to a certain mountain to shoot birds of prey as they migrated in the spring and fall.  The mountain was situated so that air currents encouraged the migrating raptors to fly along the ridge.  Thousands of birds were shot annually.

Edge visited the property and, with the passion of purpose that pervaded her life, she bought it—1,400 acres for the price of  $2.50 per acre.  She declared it a bird sanctuary and hired Maurice and Irma Broun to serve as on-site managers in 1934.  As Peter Edge wrote in 1994, “Since the day Maurice and Irma arrived at Hawk Mountain 60 years ago, not a single hawk has been shot.”  The Hawk Mountain Sanctuary is purported to be the world’s first preserve dedicated to birds of prey.  Today it covers 2,600 acres and has 60,000 visitors each year.

I said at the beginning that Rosalie Edge was an unlikely champion of conservation.  It is a nice lead to this story, but you know and I know that it isn’t true.  Conservationists come from every background.  How we get here is much less important than we arrive.  Let us all be like Rosalie Edge, using our innate skills and capabilities to make this world a better place, whether your preferred habitat is Central Park or the middle of nowhere.  Each of us matters.

References:

Audubon Center for Birds of Prey.  Rosalie Barrow Edge – Feminist, Naturalist and Conservationist.  Available at:  https://cbop.audubon.org/news/rosalie-barrow-edge-feminist-naturalist-and-conservationist.  Accessed July 14, 2022.

Edge, Peter.  1999.  Rosalie Edge:  A Most Determined Lady (1877-1962).  Hawk Mountain Organization.  Available at:  https://www.hawkmountain.org/download/?id=5359.  Accessed July 14, 2022.

Hawk Mountain Sanctuary.  About Us.  Available at:  https://www.hawkmountain.org/about-hawk-mountain-sanctuary.  Accessed July 14, 2022.

Moag, Jeff.  2019.  How Socialite Rosalie Edge Became the Conscience of American Conservation.  Adventure Journal.  Available at:  https://www.adventure-journal.com/2019/11/how-rosalie-edge-became-the-firebrand-conscience-of-american-conservation/.  Accessed July 14, 2022.

Pennsylvania Center for the Book.  Rosalie Edge.  Available at:  https://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/literary-cultural-heritage-map-pa/bios/Edge__Rosalie_Barrow.  Accessed July 14, 2022.

It doesn’t make the list of the most visited national parks in the country.  Heck it is hardly even in the country, closer to land in Canada than in the U.S.  But among those who know and love our national parks most dearly, they all know that Isle Royale is someplace really special.

And so did Congress and President Hoover, when they authorized the creation of Isle Royale National Park on March 3, 1931, “to conserve a prime example of North Woods Wilderness.”  Authorized is a key word here, because it took another nine years before the U.S. government could get the rudiments of park establishment finished—defining the boundaries, acquiring the land, that sort of thing.  So, many people might say that the park wasn’t actually created until April 3, 1940.  But you could go even farther, because the advent of Work War II put the park on the back-burner for several more years, until it was dedicated on August 27, 1946.

We should be very grateful that they kept at it, because Isle Royale is a real gem.  The park consists of approximately 400 islands in the northwest corner of Lake Superior, officially in Michigan, but close to Minnesota and Ontario.  The main island is Isle Royale itself, about 45 miles long and 9 miles wide at its widest.  That makes the island the 4th largest island in a lake in the world (for you trivia fans).

Almost all of the park was declared a wilderness area in 1976.  In many ways, the park doesn’t fit the definition of a wilderness area, because people—both Native Americans and later groups—have used the island for hundreds of years, for mining, logging and fishing and have left remnants of their use all around the island.  But for nearly a century now, the park has been used for recreation and ecological preservation only—and that is what makes the place truly special.  Fewer than 30,000 people visit each year, a remarkably low number for a “national park,” especially one in the eastern half of the U.S.

So, nature gets to do its thing without much interference from humans.  And one story in the park is especially interesting and special:  the moose-wolf predator-prey interaction.  Moose and gray wolves both reached Isle Royale at various times in the early 20th Century, and because the moose is the primary prey of the gray wolf on the island, the changes in population numbers for both species is  a natural, large-scale experiment that scientists have been watching since the 1950s. And the results have defied the simple models of predator-prey interactions that we all learned in introductory ecology class.

At Isle Royale National Park, nature calls the shots.  Yea for nature!

References:

Global Alliance of National Parks.  Isle Royale National Park.  Available at:  https://national-parks.org/united-states/isle-royale. Accessed March 2, 2022.

National Park Service History eLibrary.  Isle Royale National Park.  Available at:  http://npshistory.com/publications/isro/index.htm. Accessed March 2, 2022.

Rock Harbor Lodge and Marina.  Isle Royale National Park.  Available at:  https://www.rockharborlodge.com/isle-royale-national-park. Accessed March 2, 2022.

Scapino, Philip V.  Isle Royale National Park:  Balancing Human and Natural History in a Maritime Park.  Available at:  http://www.georgewright.org/282scarpino.pdf.  Accessed March 2, 2022.

One of the crowning jewels of Sand Diego is Balboa Park, a 1200-acre expanse overlooking downtown San Diego.  Once the park, as well as most of San Diego, was mostly barren.  But not today.  The beautiful botanical gardens of the park are the work of a pioneering woman, horticulturist Kate Sessions, known as the “Mother of Balboa Park.”

Katherine Olivia Sessions was born in San Francisco on November 8, 1857 (died 1940).  Like her mother, she became an avid gardener, plant collector and flower arranger.  She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1881, having studied chemistry and agriculture.  Following the usual path of educated women of her time, she became a teacher and moved to San Diego.

Her interest in plants never left her, however, and she left the schoolroom to go into the nursery and flower business with friends in 1885.  Her business flourished, as did her reputation as a botanist and landscaper.  In 1892, she formed a partnership with the City of San Diego in which she acquired rights to use a 32-acre tract within what was then called City Park as a plant nursery.  In exchange, she was required to plant 100 trees annually in City Park and supply 300 trees for other municipal lands.  That partnership lasted for a decade and began the lush landscape that the park—renamed Balboa Park in 1915—is known for.  

Sessions began to travel extensively—trips to Hawaii, Mexico and across Europe—to observe plants in their native environments and bring home seeds and specimens for introduction into the gardens of San Diego.  Many of the largest and oldest trees still surviving in Balboa Park were planted personally by Sessions (today, she gathers some criticism for having introduced non-native plants to southern California, but she also provided habitat for several rare Mexican species that might have disappeared without her intervention).

She was a founding member of the Sand Diego Floral Association and helped create the first Arbor Day in the city in 1904.  She was a prolific author, speaker and educator about plants, gardens and landscape architecture.  For decades, she taught horticulture to public school children and personally managed the landscapes around public schools in San Diego.  In her commercial nurseries, she grew test plots of species and cultivar for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  She won the Frank N. Meyer Medal of the American Genetic Association in 1939 for her work in plant introduction.

Sessions will always be most closely associated with Balboa Park.  In 1935, at the California Pacific International Exposition held in the park, she was formally crowned with the loving title of “Mother of Balboa Park.”  The park hosts nearly 5 million visitors each year, half of whom are local residents who use the park on average ten times per year—that makes over 25 million visitor days per year, generating an economic impact of $350 million annually.

I’m reminded of the sentiment by Margaret Mead, never to doubt that a few dedicated people can change the world.  Kate Sessions certainly changed hers, and ours, through the living joy of plants.

References:

Balboa Park.  Balboa Park History.  Available at:  https://www.balboapark.org/about/history.  Accessed March 2, 2022.

Carter, Nancy Carol.   About Kate..  Available at:  https://katestrees.org/about-kate/. Accessed March 2, 2022.

San Diego History Center.  Kate Sessions 1857-1940.  Available at:  https://sandiegohistory.org/archives/biographysubject/sessions/. Accessed March 2, 2022.

San Diego Natural History Museum.  Kate Sessions.  Available at:  https://www.sdnhm.org/blog/blog_details/kate-sessions-a-legendary-san-diego-icon/99/.  Accessed March 2, 2022.

Testa, Mark R., et al.  2017.  Balboa Park Benefits Study.  San Diego State University.  Available at:  http://balboaparkconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Balboa-Park-Benefits-Study-2017.pdf.  Accessed March 2, 2022.

Anglers are known to exaggerate the size of the fish they catch, but today we’re covering a fish whose size doesn’t need any help.  The whale shark is the world’s biggest fish, and August 30 is its own day.  Happy Whale Shark Day!

So, first off, let’s be clear—this animal is not a whale, but it is a shark.  That makes it a fish, not a mammal, and it is clearly the world’s biggest fish (in second place is the basking shark, barely half the size of the whale shark).  Mature whale sharks are the size of a school bus, as long as 50 feet and as heavy as 40 tons.  Big monsters, eh?

But, no, they aren’t monsters.  Whale sharks are gentle creatures—big to be sure, but docile to the extreme.  They live in tropic seas around the globe and generally inhabit shallow water and swim near the surface, frequently encountering humans.  A tourist industry has grown around seeing and swimming with whale sharks, which often enjoy a little scratch behind the, uh, gill slits.

Whale sharks are ancient creatures, based on the fossil record, but have been known as living specimens for only two centuries.  Females give birth to live young, dozens at a time.  Various descriptions state that the animals “migrate,” but it seems to me that a better description is that they swim continuously, often covering long distances.  Their lifespan mimics their physical size—up to 70 years. They filter small animals out of the water column, just like the baleen whales (and hence their name), eating as much as 50 pounds per day.  But unlike filter-feeding whales, whale sharks also can pump water actively through their gills, causing a suctioning effect to capture small fish and other organisms.

Individual whale sharks are covered with light colored markings, mostly round,  in patterns that remain constant over time and allow individuals to be identified.  A catalogue of more than 7,000 individuals has been created, but overall population size is much larger, perhaps 100,000 or more, according to IUCN. 

However, IUCN also estimates that whale sharks have decreased in abundance from pre-exploitation levels.  Populations in the Indo-Pacific are down about two-thirds, and in the Atlantic about one-quarter.  Because the species likes shallow water and does not avoid humans, overfishing and vessel strikes have caused the population decline.  Therefore the species is judged as “endangered” by IUCN and classified as an Appendix II protected species by CITES.

I’ve looked extensively to find the origin of International Whale Shark Day, but with no luck.  The day, it seems, is much like the animal it honors—silent and mysterious.  Tired of the cliched expression “the elephant in the room”?  I recommend trying “the whale shark in the aquarium!” 

References:

Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.  Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus).  Available at:  https://www.environment.gov.au/marine/marine-species/sharks/whale-shark.

Pierce, S. J. and B. Norman.  2016.  Rhincodon typus.  The IUCN Red List of Threathened Species.  Available at:  https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/19488/2365291#text-fields.

World Wildlife Fund.  Whale Shark.  Available at:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/whale-shark.  

Tradition is important in England, and if it involves the Queen or King, then it is really important!  One aspect of royal tradition is now also important as a conservation and education tool—the annual “Swan Upping” on the Thames River.

Since the 12th Century, representatives of the British monarchy (today that’s Queen Elizabeth II) have conducted an annual census of the population of mute swans (Cygnus Olor).  The swans were valuable back then as a food resource, and, just like cattle in the American West, swans were “branded” so the owners knew which belonged to whom.   In mid-summer, the Royal Swan Marker and his crew rounded up families of swans by surrounding them with long, narrow row-boats (when they spotted a swan family, they cried “all up” and surrounded the bevy; hence the name swan “upping”).  They checked the birds for disease and injury, and they marked the young, called cygnets, with the same ownership brand as the adults.  In earlier centuries, the mark was a distinctive series of nicks cut into the birds’ bills; today it is a leg-band, just like those used throughout the world for scientific purposes.

The subject of all this effort, the mute swan, is a staple in European culture and history (for a long time, it was literally a staple on the dinner plates of hungry English families).  The birds feature in ancient cave art, and their mostly monogamous, life-long pairing has made them a symbol of love and faithfulness.  Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of The Ugly Duckling is about a mute swan.  

The species was introduced into North America throughout the late 1800s and 1900s as an ornamental bird for the ponds of wealthy landowners and parks.  It is now commonplace across the continent.  Despite its majestic beauty, the mute swan can be a nuisance, displacing native birds by its aggressive behavior and degrading native ecosystems by its voracious appetite.

Today, England’s annual Swan Upping occurs during the third week of July (in 2021, it started on July 20).  Although swan upping was once a widespread and economically important activity, today it occurs as a ceremonial event over several days on a 79-mile stretch of the Thames River north of London.

But it is perhaps more important today than ever.  Today Swan Upping is all about conservation and environmental education. The annual event continues to monitor the health of the mute swan population, providing an index of general environmental quality.  Associated events involve children in observing the birds and learning about their biology and the overall ecology of the Thames River, especially pollution and damage to birds from fishing lines and other litter.

But all in all, I think it’s great that we get “up” for conserving our natural resources.  Anyone ready for tea and crumpets?

References:

Cornell Lab of Ornithology.  Mute Swan.  Available at:  https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mute_Swan/overview.  Accessed July 21, 2021.

House of Windsor.  Swan Upping.  Available at:  http://www.thamesweb.co.uk/windsor/windsor1999/upping.html. Accessed July 21, 2021.

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.  Mute Swan.  Available at:  https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/mute-swan/. Accessed July 21, 2021.

The Royal Family.  Swan Upping.  Available at:  https://www.royal.uk/swans. Accessed July 21, 2021.

The Queen’s Swan Marker.  Swan Upping.  Available at:  http://www.royalswan.co.uk. Accessed July 21, 2021.

It isn’t often that the words “billionaire” and “environmentalist” are used in the same sentence, let alone to describe one person.  Add “young” to the list, though, and it describes Malaysian billionaire and environmentalist, the young Ruth Yeon.

Ruth Yeon was born on December 22, 1982, in Kuala Lumpur into one of the wealthiest families in Malaysia.  Her grandfather founded the construction company YTL, and her father built it into a global conglomerate that still focuses on infrastructure, defined quite broadly.

But her family’s wealth has always been accompanied by care for the environment.  “Ultimately, my father always taught me and my siblings to believe everything has to be earned through diligence, perseverance, grit, commitment and dedication. Being genuinely caring and compassionate is a strength. My father taught me that sustainability should become a legacy.”  She remembers planting seeds and trees with her father, where he taught her that everything depends on sustaining natural resources. “He wanted to instill in us the importance of protecting the environment from a young age.” On business trip to New Zealand with her father, she saw how New Zealanders integrated nature into their daily lives. “It was then that I learnt to appreciate nature and the environment.”

Under Yeoh’s leadership, YTL established an entire Sustainability Group that now oversees efforts for environmental improvements across the corporation.  She also runs a subsidiary that offers consulting on sustainability to companies around the world.  She started an annual Climate Change Week, an opportunity for the general public to learn about their common responsibilities for the environment.  “…I believe that if you persevere and persist in doing the right thing, there will eventually be a positive outcome. I have faith in making a good future happen.”

The list of sustainability-related organizations that she supports is long, and the list of her awards for that work is impressive.  She is also author of the 2007 book, Cut Carbon, Grow Profits: Business Strategies for Managing Climate Change and Sustainability. “We are fully committed to being a responsible corporate citizen and we strive to bring positive changes as a force for good and making a good future happen by protecting the environment, improving the lives of communities, empowering our people and embracing the marketplace where we operate.”

Yeoh also works to encourage girls and women in business and the environment.  From her current home in Singapore, she leads groups that have a “mission to unite women in Singapore to empower them and build a pipeline of women leaders for the future across sectors of society with the vision of realising a gender-equal society.”  With her sister and other colleagues, she founded the clothing company “Recyclothes,” that embraces the idea of a closed loop in fashion, developing markets for used clothes and recycling materials. 

YTL’s slogan is “A Steward of Our Good Earth.”  Ruth Yeoh is the person most responsible for keeping that slogan an operational force throughout the company’s expansive business empire.  And she means it:  “The core of our sustainability mission is to conserve and protect the environment we have been blessed with for generations to come. This should touch the lives of all communities and not just our own children; they deserve to inherit a healthier earth from us.”

References:

Prestige.  2019.  Change-maker:  Ruth Yeoh.  Available at:  https://www.prestigeonline.com/id/profiles/interview-change-maker-ruth-yeoh-head-sustainability-ytl-group-companies/.  Accessed May 13, 2021.

Simon, Audrey.  2021. Sustainability As A Legacy.  Woman, By The Edge.  Available at:  https://woman.theedgesingapore.com/ytl-singapore-executive-director-ruth-yeoh-is-passionate-about-the-environment/. Accessed May 13, 2021.

YTL Corporation.  2013.  Growing a green legacy:  Interview with YTL Group’s Ruth Yeoh.  Available at:  https://www.ytl.com/sustainability/shownews.asp?newsid=4163&category=inthenews. Accessed May 13, 2021.

Asia is an important hub for environmentalism, according to Yul Choi, one of South Korea’s environmental leaders, because it contains 60% of the earth’s human population and contains many rapidly expanding economies.  As the saying goes, Choi has “walked the talk,” including going to prison on behalf of this idea.

Yul Choi was born on January 19, 1949, in Daegu, South Korea.  He was a student activist in college, which led to a six-year prison term.  During his imprisonment, he read extensively about the environment, realizing that the lives of Koreans were compromised by rapid economic growth without adequate environmental constraints.  Upon release, he created the first environmental non-governmental organization in his country, the Korean Research Institute of Environmental Problems.  His environmental activism began “in earnest,” he claims, when he established the Korean Anti-Pollution Organization in 1982.

He has been particularly concerned about the effects of nuclear energy and the ensuing radioactive wastes on human health.  He formed another organization, the Korean Anti-Pollution Movement, in 1988, using it to tell the general public about nuclear waste.  This led to another arrest (this time only house arrest), but that did not stop the growing concern about nuclear waste.  In 1990, he led 20,000 Korean citizens in a protest that stopped the construction of a nuclear waste facility on Anmyeon Island, the home of several national parks and recreation areas a little south of Seoul.

Choi was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1995 for his efforts in grassroots activism.  In characteristic fashion, he used the monetary award accompanying the prize to found the Korean Environmental Center, with the mission of “providing environmental education for children, diverse environmental information for Koreans citizens, and networking opportunities.”  This center morphed into the Korea Green Foundation.  Today that foundation has broadened its scope to represent all of Asia, serving as an educational and leadership portal for environmental activists across the region.

Choi’s activism resulted in another prison stay, this time for one year during 2013-2014.  He was leading efforts to stop the Four Rivers project, a huge modification of waterways and ecosystems in Korea.  Once again, he was true to his principles: “If being part of the environmental movement makes me guilty, then I gladly agree to my sentence. I leave my true judgment in the hands of the environment itself, which is the court of the future.”  I’m pretty sure the environment would vote to acquit.

References:  

Korea Green Foundation.  2018.  Korea Green Foundation Brochure.  Available at:  http://www.greenfund.org/en/board/board.php?bo_table=bogo_en.

The Goldman Environmental Prize.  2013.  1995 Prize Recipient Yul Choi Sentenced to One Year in Prison.  Available at:  https://www.goldmanprize.org/blog/1995-prize-recipient-yul-choi-sentenced-to-one-year-in-prison/.

The Goldman Environmental Prize.  1995.  Yul Choi, 1995 Goldman Prize Recipient, Asia.  Available at:  https://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/yul-choi/.

The biodiversity of the Philippines is extraordinary, and that of Sibuyan Island especially so.  The island, known as the Galapagos of Asia, supports one of the densest forests in the world and is home to Mt. Guiting-Guiting National Park.  One man who knows the island well is Philippine environmentalist Rodne Galicha.

Galicha was born in the town of San Fernando on Sibuyan Island on June 2, 1979.  He studied to be a priest as well as an environmental activist, and the combination of spiritual and scientific thinking is a hallmark of his vision.  “I just want to sit down on a rock, look at the horizon, close my eyes while feeling my breathing in and out — best to enjoy the orchestra of the gentle waves weaved in to the noise of chirping birds of the Sibuyan Sea.  From the seashore, {I take} a little walk to the mountain side and give respect to the majesty of Mt. Guiting-Guiting….”

Galicha knows, however, that positive action is needed to bring about a sustainable world.  Consequently he has worked for and organized a variety of non-governmental environmental groups.  He was a Philippine leader of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project and represented his country at UN climate meetings in Morocco and Germany.  He worked with the Filipino Youth Beyond Paris and Campus Corps, understanding that the sustainability message must be routed through children.  He recounted his best speaking opportunity as a chance visit to a small village school.  “Since there was no electricity, I managed to use chalk and illustrated the basics of the climate crisis on the blackboard — the greenhouse effect and the carbon cycle, among others. The children were so receptive and they committed themselves to make a change in their own homes and schools.”

He is a founder and leader of the new organization (founded in 2018) Living Laudato Si’ Philippines, an interfaith movement arising from Pope Francis’ encyclical about sustainability and the climate crisis. The group advocates a strategy of “telling appointed stewards of our financial resources to withhold deposits, investments, and loans to institutions that are engaged in or enable the growth of businesses and ventures that harm the environment.”  He has led several successful efforts to control mining in both the Philippines and Australia. Most recently, Galicha has been fighting to preserve the integrity of Mt. Guiting-Guiting National Park through another organization he leads, Bayay Sibuyanon, Inc.  The park continues to be threatened by road-building proposals.

Galicha is an advocate of the “8R” approach to sustainable living:  reduce, reuse, recycle, repair, refuse, rethink, rainforest and recollect.  For his efforts, he was chosen in 2018 as one of the Philippines Outstanding Young Men and Women.

References:

Climate Reality Project.  Meet the Presenter:  Rodne Galicha.  September er 06, 2011.  Available at:  https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/meet-presenter-rodne-galicha. Accessed May 8, 2021.

Gen-T List.  Rodne Galicha.  Available at:  https://generationt.asia/people/rodne-galicha. Accessed May 8, 2021.

Living Laudato Si’ Philippines.  Available at:  https://livinglaudatosi.org.ph. Accessed May 8, 2021.

Manila Standard.  2020.  NGO: Halt Romblon road project.  The Manila Standard, June 21, 2020.  Available at:  https://manilastandard.net/mobile/article/326618.  Accessed May 8, 2021.