She bought a Maine island to stop clear-cutting; 90 years after Audubon opened its first camp there

Deep in Maine's Muscongus Bay, a 330-acre island covered in spruce trees has survived a threat of clear-cut logging and, 90 years later, continues to serve as an international training centre for environmentalists and bird researchers. Hog Island Audubon Camp, near the coastal community of Bremen, marked its 90th anniversary in late August 2026. According to records from the National Audubon Society and the Seabird Institute, the island was saved from commercial logging in the 1930s by Millicent Todd Bingham and her mother, Mabel Loomis Todd. Today, the island is the National Audubon Society's flagship educational camp, welcoming hundreds of scientists, teachers, artists and nature lovers every summer.From timber threat to national sanctuaryThe island's modern conservation story began during the Great Depression. Landowners had planned to clear-cut Hog Island's thick spruce forest, which included centuries-old wolf trees, large trees that had been left behind by earlier farmers to provide shade for livestock. Mabel Loomis Todd, a writer and editor best known for publishing the poetry of Emily Dickinson, recognised the value of the untouched forest and tried to buy the property. Aft...