Merilyn Simonds speaks about Louise de Kiriline Lawrence

JAY THIBERT, North Durham Nature Club

SCUGOG: Author Merilyn Simonds will introduce us to amateur ornithologist and nature writer Louise de Kiriline Lawrence, Canada’s Rachel Carson. Through the mid-1900s, de Kiriline Lawrence tracked the sharp decline in warblers and flycatchers in northern Ontario and linked it to the roadside spraying of toxic chemicals. A decade before, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring sounded the same alarm. Louise emigrated to Canada in 1926, setting up a Red Cross Outpost in Bonfield, Ontario, where she later became nurse-in-charge of the Dionne Quintuplets. Disturbed by the media circus around the infants, she built a log cabin on the Mattawa River. She spent the next 50 years studying birdlife and writing almost a hundred articles and six books about species which were diminishing before her eyes.

Merilyn Simonds is the author of 18 books, including the non-fiction classic The Convict Lover, Gutenberg’s Fingerprint, Refuge and most recently, Women Watching. She is the founder and first artistic director of the Kingston Writers Fest.

All are welcome to come to hear Merilyn speak at the Scugog Memorial Library on Tuesday, June 28th, starting at 7 p.m. The library is located at 231 Water Street in Port Perry.

To become a member of North Durham Nature, you can apply online at www.northdurhamnature.com.

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