Feature | Portland Monthly Magazine

From the same Maine shores that inspired the groundbreaking work of Rachel Carson, fellow female scientist Dr. Susan Shaw is battling at the frontline for our planet’s future.

On a small granite boulder at the edge of the water in Southport, a bronze plaque recalls the spot where Rachel Carson’s ashes were scattered in 1964, among ocean breezes and migrating Monarch butterflies. This quiet stretch of midcoast Maine had been a source of inspiration for the famed biologist and writer since she built a cottage on the rocky shores of Southport in 1953. Later, the coast became a refuge from the fierce backlash from chemical industries and politicians in the wake of Silent Spring(1962), her seismic, National Book Award-winning study on the destructive effect of synthetic pesticides on the environment. Over 9,000 acres of land have since been preserved in her name along Maine’s shores. A framed biography of Carson greets visitors at the entrance to the Shaw Institute in Blue Hill, formerly the Marine Environmental Research Institute, where it hangs opposite the seven-foot skeleton of a gray seal—a neighbor Carson would surely have appreciated. From this former farmhouse on Main Street, a new generation of female scientists continues Carson’s battle to protect the natural world…http://www.portlandmonthly.com/portmag/2018/08/silent-shore/

All images courtesy of Portland Monthly.