By Kate Bartlett
On Thursday, May 25, the Western New York Land Conservancy will host world-renowned author Tony Hiss, one of the strongest advocates for land protection in the United States. Tony will discuss his influential book Rescuing the Planet: Protecting Half the Land to Heal the Earth. The free event will be held at 7pm at the Montante Cultural Center at Canisius College. It will also be livestreamed, but registration is required.
The event is part of the Land Conservancy community’s efforts to save the unique Floating Fen in Chautauqua County and create the Western New York Wildway, an ambitious long-term plan to protect and connect the largest of our region’s remaining forests. Once the Floating Fen is protected, it will combine with the College Lodge Forest to form nearly 400 acres of connected forest, making it a significant addition to the Western New York Wildway.
“The floating fen property is at the heart of one of the most spectacular wetland complexes in the region,” says the Land Conservancy’s Stewardship Coordinator and naturalist, Erik Danielson. “Even there, its sphagnum fen covered in irises and carnivorous sundews is unique in its beauty and ecology.”
Western New York is a wonderful place to live. It’s home to a vast amount of fresh water, our forests teem with incredible wildlife, and we are the stewards of some of the world’s most fertile soils. But the region has also witnessed tremendous sprawl over the past fifty years, resulting in the development of large stretches of land.
Thankfully, communities are beginning to recognize the critical importance of saving our forests, meadows, wetlands, lakes, and rivers for the health and wellbeing of every living creature. Copies of Rescuing the Planet can be purchased at Talking Leaves Books in Buffalo, or wherever books are sold.
Tony Hiss is the author of fifteen books, including the award-winning The Experience of Place. He was a staff writer at The New Yorker for more than thirty years, a visiting scholar at New York University for twenty-five years, and has lectured around the world. He lives in New York with his wife, young-adult writer Lois Metzger.
“Tony Hiss lays out what can—indeed must—be done to slow the tide of extinction. Rescuing the Planet is at once sobering and joyful—a celebration of life and the many people working to save it.” —Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Under a White Sky
For more information, visit https://www.wnylc.org/tonyhiss for in person registration, or for livestream registration visit https://www.wnylc.org/tonyhisslivestream.