Banning DDT: How Citizen Activists in Wisconsin Led the Way

Bill Berry, author of In Banning DDT: How Citizen Activists in Wisconsin Led the Way, was invited to the speak at the Wild Center during the 2015 Fox Cittes Book Festival.  He introduced us to the many of the citizens, scientists, reporters, and traditional conservationists who worked to draw attention to the harmful effects of DDT being used to control Dutch elm disease.  Berry chronicled the efforts garden-club ladies like Lorrie Otto, founder of Wild Ones. He spoke of how members of the state’s Citizens Natural Resources and the former Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day 45 years ago, rallied to the cause. The resulting six-month-long DDT hearing in the late 1960s was an important stimulus for citizen activism in the modern environmental era. Bill challenged us to remember that individuals can indeed have an impact.