July 05, 2001 - Remembering Dennis PulestonJuly 5, 2001 • The Suffolk Times
Remembering Dennis Puleston
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
Dennis Puleston was one of Long Island's great naturalists, a true adventurer,
a skilled artist, a leader for a better environment, a humble teacher, a.loving
father and a most wonderful friend.
SOME OF YOU MIGHT HAVE read in
Newsday last week the obituary of
one of Long Island's greatest natural-
ists, Dennis Puleston. They devoted a
full page to a photograph of Dennis,
plus two more pages telling of his fas-
cinating life. It traces his travels from
England, where he was born, across
the Atlantic in a
Focus small sloop only
to be ship-
ON wrecked off
Ce NATURE He then acontin-
by Paul ued his trip
StoutenbuMh through the
Caribbean and
across the Pacific to Japan and
China, all the time being fascinated
by the world around him. On that
trip he made contact with head-
hunters in New Guinea and was tat-
tooed by one of them.
He became involved in World War
II as a young lieutenant working on
perfecting the amphibian DUCK. He
saw action in Burma from where he
carried a piece of shrapnel in his
back until the day he died. He loved
America and soon became a citizen.
While he was teaching sailing at the
prestigious New York Yacht Club he
met his wife- to -be, Betty, who lived
in _Brookhaven. They married and
had four children; all were schooled
in the excitement and wonder of the
natural world their father knew so
well.
Over time Dennis become con-
cerned about DDT being used to
spray the marshes and creeks, all in
the name of getting rid of mosquitoes,
He spearheaded the fight against its
use and, with the help of others, cre-
ated the Environmental Defense
Fund (EDF), which is now an inter-
national organization fighting for the
environment using scientific evidence.
Painter and author
All the time he painted in water-
colors the many birds and flowers
that surround our Long Island. I
remember years ago seeing a three -
page spread of his paintings in Time
magazine. He was a precise and exact
painter and I cherish a small painting
of an osprey fledgling on Gardiners
Island he sent me one Christmas.
I knew Dennis 50 years ago when
we were both young and thought the
natural world, with all its bounties,
was the most wonderful place to be.
We often traveled with groups of
youngsters to Montauk to see the
seals and the sea ducks that visit the
point during the winter. We took
tri s to Jamaica Bay, Cape Ma,
Hawk Mountain, you name it; he was
always there as one of the leaders.
How those young people adored him.
I really got to know Dennis on
starry nights when we would camp
out on one of the islands in
Shinnecock Bay, where we went to
photograph the terns, skimmers and
gulls that nested there. We'd wake at
three in the morning and marvel at
the birds still working and calling
around us.
Other times we went to Warbler
Woods in Yaphank to check out the
annual migration of warblers as they
passed through in May. Again Denni
would be there with two or three
other adults and a cluster of young
people, all with binoculars, eager to
see those colorful little warblers as
they flitted above in the trees and
below in the shrubbery.
It was partly because of his inter-
est in the Yaphank woods that they
were later preserved. Also through
his efforts and the efforts of others,
great sections of the Carman's River
have been saved. Much of the marsh-
land of his mother -in -law's property
has also been saved by giving it to
the Fish and Wildlife Service.
The good times
There were so many wonderful
imes we had together. Probably the
,nes most cherished were ones on
iardiners Island, where each year
re'd go and take a survey of the
,spreys. In the early days we'd walk
he entire length of the island to
ount the various nests, some on the
round, some on rocks, some in the
rees. Those trips to Gardiners Island.
rere most memorable. When it was
Do hot, we'd strip off our clothes and
o skinny dipping. How refreshing
he Gardiners Island waters were.
It was here on Gardiners Island
hat Dennis and others determined
hat the ospreys were in trouble.
'hey were not reproducing. Their
gg shells would break when the
dult bird sat on them. This thinning
if the shell was eventually traced to
)DT. The results of these investiga-
ions would have far - reaching effects
in the natural world. The result was
complete ban of the use of DDT
ationwide, and to think it all came
bout through a small, determined
roup of local citizens. How wonder -
ul it was years later, after the ban on
)DT became effective, to see how
he ospreys slowly came back. A trib-
ho fou¢ht for. the elimi
This is a
sample of
Dennis's
artwork that
he sent me
in the form
of a Christ-
mas card
many years
ago. It has
hung on my
office wall
ever since.
LJU 1 as a spray on our Lana.
I spent many happy yours with
Dennis photographing the birds of
the pine barrens. We'd always have a
makeshift blind or hide, as they call it
in England, which is nothing more
than a cloth covering over an enclo-
sure that we'd sit in. We'd poke our
camera lenses through it and hope-
fully the bird, not knowing we were
there, would come to its nest or
perch so we could photograph it. The
trick was to have two people go to
the blind; one would go inside and
the other would walk away. Birds
can't count so when one person left
the blind they thought it perfectly
safe to return to their nest.
Dennis wasn't a tall man but when
he walked in the room everyone
seemed to know who he was and
waited for him to speak. He spoke
softly and lovingly about his beloved
world of birds. He was so passionate
that he had a following that flowed
out from Brookhaven throughout the
whole land. In his later years he led
natural history tours all over the
world. He visited Antarctica 27
times.
When we went to the celebration
of his life, the lawn was filled with
hundreds of people of all ages, all
who had been touched by him. It is
hard to grasp just how much good he
did for the world that you and I take
for granted.
P.S. Two of Dennis Puleston's
books may be available at the
Cutchogue library soon: "Blue Water
Vagabond" and "A Nature Journal."
We know you will enjoy reading
them.