Rachel Carson
1907-1964

The Environmental Protection Agency looks to her as a founding inspiration and the Fish & Wildlife Service as a source of agency pride. The EPA's official history site states: "There is no question...that SILENT SPRING prompted the Federal Government to take action against water and air pollution — as well as against the misuse of pesticides — several years before it otherwise might have moved."

But the battle itself had put the question on the table at the highest level. Specifically citing SILENT SPRING, the Kennedy administration ordered a study on the possible long-term effects of DDT and other pesticides. Carson herself testified in front of the Commission and Congress — and seven years later her request for a department to study man's effect on the ecology was fulfilled with the Environmental Protection Agency.