Environmental pioneer to talk about Everglades at Graham Center

October 1, 2009

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Fall 2009 Samuel Proctor Florida History Lecture Series continues Oct. 8 with a lecture by Joe Browder, an environmental consultant and former conservation director of Friends of the Earth.

Browder will present “Everglades Visions, Revisions, and History,” at 7 p.m. in the Pugh Hall Ocora. It is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required.

Browder began his career in environmental activism and policy as an officer in the Audubon Society’s chapter in Miami in the 1960s. From there he served in national offices with the Friends and the Earth and the League of Conservation Voters before serving in President Jimmy Carter’s administration from 1977 through 1980. Since 1981, he has served as a consultant on national and global environmental and water management policies. He is a principal in Dunlap and Browder, an environmental consulting firm in Washington, DC.

“Joe Browder emerged from the grassroots in the early 1960s to help save South Florida’s most precious natural wonders from unrestrained forces of growth,” said Jack Davis, associate professor of history at UF. “He served as a principal figure in campaigns to establish Biscayne National Monument, win a federal mandate to prevent water diversion away from the dying Everglades National Park, stop the construction of the biggest airport in the world in the heart of the Everglades, and create Big Cypress National Preserve.”

The lecture is the second in this semester’s series on “Florida’s Environmental Politics.” The series is sponsored by the Graham Center and the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program.

The lecture series is made possible by generous donations from the Proctor family and alumni members of the Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity.

The Graham Center provides students with opportunities to train for future leadership positions, meet policymakers and take courses in critical thinking, language learning and studies of world cultures.