Elizabeth Losey
American biologist and environmentalist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Elizabeth Brown Losey (née Beard) (December 25, 1912 – 2005) was an American conservationist who is recognized as being the first female refuge biologist.
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December 25, 1912
Refuge biologist
Elizabeth Losey | |
|---|---|
Betty Losey doing field work at Seney National Wildlife Refuge. | |
| Born | Elizabeth Brown Beard December 25, 1912 |
| Died | 2005 (aged 92–93) |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Occupations | Conservationist Refuge biologist |
Education
Losey was born in East Orange, New Jersey on December 25, 1912.[1][2] She went to high school in Lynn, Massachusetts.[1] She graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in wildlife management and conservation in 1946.[3] Initially, Losey could not find work because she was a woman.[3] She worked as a research assistant for the University of Michigan until 1952.[1] She created a series of teaching aids in wildlife management, including the Outline of upland game bird management (1947).[4]
Career
In 1947 she was employed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as a biologist at Seney National Wildlife Refuge.[5] Her assignment was to understand the importance of beavers in waterfowl management.[6] Losey was the first woman research biologist in the country.[1] She quit when she was told she was being transferred West, as by that time "romance had crept in".[7] She was only employed by the agency for three years, but built up a successful career as an ornithologist.[8] Rachel Carson recognized Losey's preparations for a manuscript on trumpeter swans as "an excellent job of organizing the material for an effective story".[8] In 1964 she published her observation of duck broods at the Seney National Wildlife Refuge.[9]
Losey travelled America and Canada taking photographs of fur trading posts and collecting Native American art, which was later donated to the DeVos Art Museum in Michigan.[10][7] Losey wrote two books. Let Them Be Remembered: The Story of the Fur Trade Forts, the story of the Hudson's Bay Company and the 1600 fur trade, was published in 1999.[11] Her second, Seney National Wildlife Refuge: its story, was published in 2003.[12] She remained a volunteer at Seney National Wildlife Refuge until her death in 2005.[3] She wrote her final peer-reviewed paper at the age of 92 on the history of the Sharp-tailed Grouse, which was published after her death.[13] She was a lifetime sponsor of Delta Waterfowl Foundation.[14] She is regarded as a pioneer in gender equality within fieldwork.[6]