JOHNSON CITY – Dr. Anne LaBastille will describe her home and “big backyard,” the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, in a lecture and slide show entitled “The Adirondacks – The Beauty and the Peril” on Monday, Nov. 26, at East Tennessee State University.
LaBastille, an environmental consultant, photojournalist and author, works from a small log cabin she built herself in 1965 within deep, old-growth forest. She is a licensed Adirondack guide, specializing in wilderness trips, and for 17 years, she was a Commissioner of the Adirondack Park Agency, a land use planning agency for private lands within this oldest and largest park in the country.
In her lecture, she will share details of her simple, rustic life, doing without benefit of electricity, an access road or indoor plumbing. She lives alone, except for two German shepherds, her constant companions. Her home is reached by canoe or small motorboat in summer and by showshoe or toboggan in winter.
LaBastille will discuss the many recreational opportunities, as well as the main perils to the environmental health of these beautiful mountains, and their 6 million-acre park which attracts 10 million tourists a year.
The internationally known ecologist holds the ETSU Wayne G. Basler Chair of Excellence for the Integration of the Arts, Rhetoric and Science this fall semester.
She has written more than a dozen books, including her Woodswoman trilogy and Jaguar Totem, an account of her adventures as an ecological consultant. Her many awards and honors include being the first woman to receive a Citation of Merit from The Explorers Club.
The lecture on the Adirondacks is the final presentation in LaBastille's series of four lectures. In addition, LaBastille is teaching “Wilderness Literature and Writing” during the fall semester at ETSU.
This program, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 7 p.m., in the Martha Street Culp Auditorium, located in ETSU's D.P. Culp University Center. A book signing will follow the address.
For information, or special assistance for persons with disabilities, contact the ETSU department of biological sciences, (423) 439-5321.