SAGUARO ECOLOGY CLUB

From 1971-1973 I was a member of the Saguaro High School Ecology Club, sponsored  by Beverly Byrd and Dennis Stadle. During the 1972-1973 school year I was club president.

The purpose of the Saguaro Ecology Club was to foment rebellion and anarchy.

No, I'm just kidding. We knew very well that we were the trailing edge of a rapidly fading era. What we didn't understand, however, was that we were the vanguard of the succeeding age in which the new principles of life and morals and experience explored in the 1960's began to assimilate throughout modern American society. (...well, I didn't realize it.)

The Club was involved in numerous conservation and environmental preservation activities in the Southwestern U.S. and in Arizona particular. We attended meetings and public hearings on the most important environmental issues of the day. Many of us spoke at these hearings, distributed flyers and posters, and worked directly and indirectly with many established and newly forming environmental organizations. We submitted official position statements and we dialoged with public officials and bureaucrats at many federal, state, and local agencies.

By late 1971 and early 1972, the Club had become most interested in wilderness preservation. We developed a wonderful working relationship with Peggy Spaw, then the Southwest Representative of the Wilderness Society. Many of us came to look upon her as a mentor.

We are not getting any younger, of course, and we prefer to flatter ourselves by thinking it would be a good idea to commit our experiences and memories to digital immortality in cyberspace. These pages are intended to preserve and organize these experiences for personal enjoyment (as we are now scattered throughout North America), and to serve as a resource for understanding (or, possibly, confusion) for those who might follow.

Horse Camp Canyon, March, 1973