[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 111 (Thursday, September 5, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1509]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


        HONORING THE 100TH BIRTHDAY OF MARGARET ``MARDY'' MURIE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JERRY F. COSTELLO

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 5, 2002

  Mr. COSTELLO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues to join 
me in recognizing the 100th birthday of Margaret ``Mardy'' Murie.
  Mardy was the prime mover in the creation of one of America's great 
treasures, the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. She was the first female 
graduate of the University of Alaska. Margaret ``Mardy'' Gillette grew 
up in Fairbanks during a time before airplanes and bush pilots, when 
one entered the territory by only boat or sled. Back then, Mardy 
relates, the territory was such an expanse that great spaces and 
wilderness were taken for granted. In 1921, she then met Olaus Murie, a 
Minnesota native who'd just been hired by the Biological Survey to 
study the Caribou population in Alaska. In 1924, Mardy married Olaus in 
the small village of Anvik.
  The couple spent their first days of their marriage on the upper 
Koyukuk River above the Artic Circle and later followed the Caribou 
migration through Brooks Range. Their honeymoon was a 550-mile dogsled 
ride across some of the most beautiful country in the world. Mardy took 
to the trail with Olaus, setting up field camps and assisting with data 
collection and photography. Olaus completed many paintings of the 
settings they traveled in. Camping from the Yukon Territory to the 
Teton Range, they raised three children. The family eventually settled 
in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It was then they traveled frequently back to 
Alaska to live and also to Washington, D.C. to speak out for 
conservation issues and wilderness preservation. During their travels, 
both Mardy and Olaus began to notice the impact that the spread of 
human habitation had on the natural world; they saw large areas of wild 
land begin to disappear.
  Over time, their commitment to natural area preservation increased. 
Even after Olaus` death in 1963 the commitment they shared never 
wavered. He is still remembered as one of the most important 
naturalists and environmentalists of this century. Mardy herself has 
become the elder stateswoman for the entire U.S. conservation movement.
  Though Mardy lives today in Moose, Wyoming, her spiritual home 
remains in Alaska. She still travels to Washington frequently and 
visitors to her home include a Who's Who in the conservation movement. 
Though she speaks more softly these days and doesn't pick up her pen to 
write as often, she continues to read the many letters she receives and 
to invite people to her home. Her home serves as a Mecca for the 
conservation movement, hosting the Murie Center, an organization 
dedicated to the conservation movement. The Center's purpose is to 
develop new constituencies for wilderness and to foster fresh thinking 
and sustain confidence in the conservation community.
  We owe much to the life's work of Mardy Murie, a pioneer of the 
environmental movement, who, with her husband, Olaus, helped set the 
course of American conservation more than 70 years ago. Her passionate 
support for and compelling testimony on behalf of the Alaska Lands Act 
helped to ensure the legislation's passage and the protection of some 
of our most pristine lands. A member of the governing council of The 
Wilderness Society, she also founded the Teton Science School to teach 
students of all ages the value of ecology. For her steadfast and 
inspiring efforts to safeguard America's wilderness for future 
generations, we honor Mardy Murie.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring the 100th 
birthday of Margaret ``Mard'' Murie.

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