Doug Seale will lead an exploration of how the idea of wilderness has changed over time in ideology and emotional impact, and how the resulting attitudes have shaped American interactions with nature. The thoughts of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, George Perkins Marsh, Theodore Roosevelt, Aldo Leopold, and a few others will help to guide the way.

Doug teaches at Framingham State College, where he developed a course in Environmental Ethics. His love of nature grew during boyhood tromps through the Appalachian Mountains of southwestern Virginia. He still remembers the feeling of simultaneous thrill and fear when, at age 12, he first saw the track of a bobcat in the snow. He now holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy and has a special interest in the philosophy and history of the environment. In the early 1980s, under a fellowship from the Kellogg Foundation, he helped create a program in Ethics and Agriculture at the University of Florida. Currently, he writes reviews of books on ethics and the environment for the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics.

Great Falls Discovery Center, 2 Avenue A., Turners Falls, Mass. 01376. Phone 413.863.3221