Statement of Mollie H. Beattie, Nominated to be Director, Fish and Wildlife Service, (28 July 1993) Washington, D.C.

Context

Mollie Hanna Beattie (April 27, 1947 – June 27, 1996) was an American conservationist and the first woman to head the United States Fish and Wildlife service (FWS). Born in Glen Cove, New York, Beattie earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Marymount College-Tarrytown, a master’s degree in forestry from the University of Vermont, and a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard.1 After graduating from Marymount College in 1968, Beattie spent four years as a journalist before moving to Colorado where she worked as a mountaineering instructor for two years.2 It was during this time in Colorado that Beattie realized her true calling was the protection and study of the environment.3

After earning her master’s degree from the University of Vermont in 1979, Beattie began her work in forestry, serving as a project forester for the University of Vermont and managing a 1,300-acre farm for a nonprofit educational foundation.4 In 1985, Beattie was appointed by Governor Madeleine Kunin (D-VT) as the Commissioner of Vermont’s Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation. Beattie served in this position until 1989, when she became deputy Secretary of Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources.5

In 1993, Beattie was nominated by President Bill Clinton to serve as the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. During her nomination hearing on July 23, 1993, Beattie delivered remarks before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. In the speech, Beattie acknowledged her differences from previous Directors of the FWS, specifically that she was a “forester,” “northeasterner,” “nonhunter,” and a woman. After acknowledging such differences, Beattie went on to argue for why her unique traits would “help [her] lead the service” during a time of “great changes in its focus, its goals, and its composition.”6 Rhetorically reframing her variations from the norm as strengths, Beattie highlighted her commitment to the preservation of natural ecosystems. Due to her work as a forester, Beattie stated, she had gained a rich understanding of “the forests as a whole” rather than a narrow focus on the timber industry. Beattie additionally confronted stereotypes about urbanized life as a New Englander. She disclosed that she and her husband lived in a house that they had constructed on their own, located only a “half an hour from [their] tiny village.” Due to this distance from urban life, Beattie stated, wildlife became her “constant companionship.” Beattie described the moose, geese, and wild turkeys that would often visit her property, bolstering her credibility by highlighting her first-hand experience with wildlife. Beattie additionally mitigated her identity as a nonhunter by emphasizing her common appreciation of wildlife with those who hunt. Finally, Beattie declared her commitment to the diversity of the FWA by stressing her previous work with government institutions as proof that she could help the service achieve its goal of “being a cohesive organization with a richness of gender, color, age and outlook.”7

Beattie was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 10, 1993.8 Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior at the time, wrote that he believed Beattie would be “the strongest protector of America’s wild creatures and the finest steward over America’s National Wildlife Refuges.”9 As the first woman to direct the FWS, Beattie inherited a department that was described as having a male-dominated “hook and bullet” culture.10 Beattie oversaw many projects during her three-year leadership of the FWS, including, but not limited to: the successful re-introduction of the Rocky Mountain grey wolf into Yellowstone National Park, the creation of 15 new national wildlife refuges, and the establishment of over one hundred wildlife conservation plans.11 The current generation of wolves that inhabit Yellowstone have been dubbed “Mollie’s Pack” by park rangers.12

Beattie also tenaciously advocated for the Endangered Species Act (ESA) during her tenure with FWS. Signed into legislation in 1973, the ESA’s purpose was to “provide a means whereby the ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened species depend may be conserved.” The ESA was also designed “to provide a program for the conservation of such endangered species and threatened species.”13 Beattie and her contemporaries succeeded in protecting the Act from an attempt to amend it in 1996.14 However, the ESA was later amended in the 2004 National Defense Authorization Act to place stricter requirements on the process of designating “critical habitats.”15

Mollie Beattie resigned as the Director of the FWS on June 6, 1996, after being diagnosed with brain cancer. Beattie passed away 19 days later at 49 years of age.16 In a statement on June 28, 1996, President Clinton stated that “America lost one of its great spirits” with Beattie’s passing.17 The 104th Congress honored Beattie by passing the Mollie Beattie Alaska Wilderness Area Act, which designated a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Wilderness in her memory.18

Endnotes

  1. Marymount College-Tarrytown is now known as Fordham University. William Dicke, “Mollie Beattie, 49; Headed Wildlife Service,” New York Times, June 29, 1996, https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/29/us/mollie-beattie-49-headed-wildlife-service.html?scp=1&sq=Mollie%20Beattie%20%281947%20%E2%80%93%201996%29%20American%20Forester%20and%20Conservationist&st=cse.
  2. Madelyn Holmes, American Women Conservationists: Twelve Profiles (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2004), 161.
  3. Holmes, American Women Conservationists, 161.
  4. Holmes, American Women Conservationists, 161.
  5. “Mollie Beattie,” Women in Exploration, n.d., accessed February 9, 2022, https://www.womeninexploration.org/timeline/mollie-beattie/.
  6. U.S. Congress, Senate, The Nomination of Mollie H. Beattie to be Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service. S. HRG. 103-182, 103rd Cong., 1st sess., July 28, 1993, https://archive.org/stream/nominationofmoll00unit/nominationofmoll00unit_djvu.txt, 24.
  7. U.S. Congress, Senate, The Nomination of Mollie H. Beattie, 26.
  8. U.S. Congress, Senate, Mollie H. Beattie, of Vermont, to be Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, PN 480, 103rd Cong., 1st sess., September 10, 1993, https://www.congress.gov/nomination/103rd-congress/480.
  9. “Champions of Conservation: Mollie Beattie,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, January 28, 2021, https://www.fws.gov/refuges/about/Champions-of-Conservation.html.
  10. Patrick Parenteau, “She Runs With Wolves: In Memory of Mollie Beattie,” The Trumpeter: Journal of Ecosophy 14, no. 4 (1997), http://trumpeter.athabascau.ca/index.php/trumpet/article/view/176.
  11. “Running With Wolves,” The Roberta Bondar Foundation, n.d., accessed February 9, 2022, https://www.therobertabondarfoundation.org/on-this-day-april_27/.
  12. “Running With Wolves.”
  13. “Endangered Species Act of 1973,” United States Fish and Wildlife Service, December 28, 1973, https://www.fws.gov/law/endangered-species-act.
  14. U.S. Congress, Senate, Examining the Expenditures of Agencies that Participate in the Efforts to Save Endangered and Threatened Species, H.R. 2275, 104th Cong., 2nd sess., introduced in Committee April 17, 1996, https://archive.org/details/endangeredspecie041796unit.
  15. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 (Public Law 108–136; 10 U.S.C. 5013), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-108publ136/pdf/PLAW-108publ136.pdf.
  16. Holmes, American Women Conservationists, 164.
  17. William J. Clinton, “Statement on the Death of Mollie Beattie,” The American Presidency Project, June 28, 1996, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/statement-the-death-mollie-beattie.
  18. U.S. Congress, House, Mollie Beattie Alaska Wilderness Area Act, H.R. 3706, 104th Cong., 2nd sess., June 24, 1996, https://www.congress.gov/104/bills/hr3706/BILLS-104hr3706ih.pdf.