Month: December 2011

Dick Anderson, Eddie Woodin, Don Hudson, and Walter Anderson

On Sunday, December 18th, long-time friend and champion of the International Appalachian Trail Eddie Woodin made a $1,000 contribution to the Maine Chapter for the Annual Fund. Eddie’s gift was accepted by Maine Chapter President Don Hudson, along with Treasurer Dick Anderson and Chief Geologist Walter Anderson, in Yarmouth during halftime of the Patriots football game. Eddie has supported the Maine Chapter for over a dozen years and his gifts have allowed us to make great headway in a variety of activities, especially trail building and maintenance. Eddie is an avid birder and lover of the outdoors, and he appreciates the efforts of the Maine Chapter to promote appreciation of the common natural heritage of Maine and Canada’s Maritime Provinces. The Maine Chapter is just one of many organizations and causes supported by Eddie, among which youth sports and the Audubon Society stand out. With Eddie’s generous gift in hand, the Maine Chapter capped another successful annual fund, raising over $4,000 for chapter activities.

Richard Anderson has enjoyed an illustrious career during which is constantly sought to protect Maine’s natural resources. He has quietly, but effectively, enhanced Maine’s natural resources and wildlife habitat for the past 50 years.

Working as a fisheries biologist for Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife in the late 1950’s he studied the effects of pesticide use on Sebago Lake salmon populations, advocating successfully against the use of DDT. From 1969 through 1972, he served as conservation director and eventually executive director for Maine Audubon Society where he worked to assure the passage of Maine’s "Bottle Bill," the ban on highway billboards, the establishment of the Maine Board of Pesticide Control, and the improvement of environmental conditions in the Presumpscot River estuary. He also was instrumental in the acquisition of the property that is now the Maine Audubon Headquarters at Gilsland Farm. He also was involved in the development of the Scarborough Marsh Nature Center.

In the 1980s, he served as the Commissioner of Maine’s Department of Conservation, leading the Department as it oversaw legislation to protect Maine’s natural resources, most notably, securing the consolidation of the State’s more than half million acres of Public Reserved Lands, producing the legislation that protected the States most valuable rivers and writing the legislation that resulted in the Land for Maine’s Future Program. He was also a key person in the establishment of the Saint Croix International Waterway Commission.

Mr. Anderson was co-founder, board chair, and executive director of the Coastal Conservation Association. He was appointed as a member of the Maine Board of Environmental Protection by Governor Curtis. Governor John Baldacci appointed him to be Chairperson of the Maine

Outdoor Heritage Fund Board of Directors. He is founder and President of the Maine Chapter of the International Appalachian Trail/Sentier International des Appalaches, a trail that connects the bioregion of the northern forest from Maine to Newfoundland and Labrador. This

project connects two countries, two major watersheds, the English and French cultures and seeks to foster international cooperation.

Mr. Anderson’s career has been one of high-minded, continuing and truly outstanding contributions to the health of Maine’s environment, the improvement of Maine public policy, and the well being of all Maine people.

The University of Southern Maine is honored to award Richard Anderson a Distinguished Achievement Award.