The Dartmouth community will have an opportunity to explore environmental issues in depth when Joseph Sax, a consultant to the Department of the Interior, and George Woodwell '50, founder and director of the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts, visit the College this term as Montgomery Fellows.
The Montgomery Endowment was established in 1977 by Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth F. Montgomery '25 to enable visiting scholars to interact with students in the classroom.
Montgomery Fellows reside at the College for periods that vary from three days to three months, depending on how long the fellow can stay and the resources available to the endowment.
Sax will visit Dartmouth from Oct. 21 to 25 and Woodwell will be at the College from Nov. 4 to 15, said Barbara Gerstner, executive director of the Montgomery Endowment.
"Sax is the principal legal consultant for the Department of the Interior and is working on the Endangered Species Reauthorization Act," said Ross Virginia, chair of the environmental studies department.
"Obviously this is a very important opportunity for the program, faculty and especially the student to get an inside view of that process," Virginia continued.
Virginia said Sax is also a scientist, so he bridges the areas of science and society covered by the environmental studies department.
Sax has written extensively about western public lands and water issues, public parks and public trust doctrines, Gerstner said.
Gerstner said Sax will lecture in Environmental Studies 20: Conservation of Biodiversity, Earth Sciences 2: Earth as an Ecosystem and an environmental ethics class.
Sax will give a public speech titled "Owner as Steward: A key to the preservation of our heritage" on Oct. 22.
In addition to directing the Woods Hole Research center, which is an institute for global environmental research, Woodwell has written widely on the function of natural ecosystems and how humans affect them.
Woodwell was the first person to realize the dangerous affects of radiation in forest ecosystems, Virginia said.
Woodwell holds an honorary degree from the College and is one of our nations leading environmental scientists, Gerstner said.
Woodwell will speak in a government course about law and social change as well as in several environmental studies classes, Gerstner said.
Acknowledging that neither Montgomery Fellow will stay for the traditional term-in-residence, Gerstner said it is difficult to get people to come to the College as term-long Montgomery Fellows.
It is "very difficult to get people who are outstanding in their fields to commit more than a day," Gerstner said. "We have quite a challenge to get prominent people to stay here for more than two weeks when we would really like full-term residencies."
Gerstner said the College has to accept short-term residencies if it is unable to get fellows for the full term.
