Audubon announces new program on Edwin Way Teale

MOULTONBOROUGH ― The Lakes Region Chapter of the New Hampshire Audubon Society will present a New Hampshire Humanities program called "Returning North with the Spring: Retracing the Journey of Naturalist Edwin Way Teale," presented by John Harris.

The event will take place on Thursday, April 16, at 7 p.m. at the Loon Center in Moultonborough. 

In 1947, Edwin Way Teale, the most popular naturalist in the decade between Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson, followed the progress of spring over four months from the Everglades to the summit of Mount Washington. His best-selling book, "North with the Spring," recounts the epic journey he and his wife Nellie undertook.

In 2012, John Harris set out to retrace Teale's route, stopping at unfamiliar wild places on the same calendar date on which Teale visited. Using Teale's journal notes and photographs, Harris examined and compared changes in the flora, fauna, and lives of the people along the way. His account documents the losses, details the transformations, and celebrates the victories, for a remarkable number of east coast refuges have grown wilder during the intervening years.

Harris is currently an adjunct faculty member in environmental science at Franklin Pierce University. He holds a Ph.D. in British and American literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has taught courses in nature writing, environmental literacy, regional history, American literature, and composition at Franklin Pierce University. In addition, he has organized and helped to edit two regional anthologies, "Where the Mountain Stands Alone" and "Beyond the Notches: Stories of North Country New Hampshire."

The Loon Center is located on Lee's Mill Road; follow the signs on Blake Road from Route 25 near the Moultonborough Central School, or from Route 109, turn on to Lee Road and turn left on Lee's Mill Road.

For more information, visit loon.org.