Posted on 08/03/2004 7:00:57 AM PDT by CedarDave
Mary Wiper, the leader of the Sierra Club in New Mexico, died Sunday after being struck by lightning while hiking with friends in Breckenridge, Colo.
"This accident— it's just about as random as anything nature can serve up," said Lawson LeGate, the senior Southwest region representative for the Sierra Club and Wiper's boss. Wiper, 28, and two others were struck during a thunderstorm. The other two regained consciousness but were unable to revive Wiper.
Wiper took over last May as Sierra Club's associate field representative for the Southwest. She oversaw projects in New Mexico, including the Sierra Club's participation in campaigns against oil and gas drilling at Otero Mesa and coal mining at the Zuni Salt Lake.
She was widely respected in the state's environmental community and remembered Monday as dedicated, thoughtful and always upbeat. A public memorial service is planned for 7 p.m. today at La Posada de Albuquerque.
"Mary was a warm, wonderful, caring person," said Stephen Capra, executive director of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. "The whole situation is a tragedy and an enormous loss to the conservation community in New Mexico."
Jeanne Bassett, executive director of the New Mexico Public Interest Research Group, agreed. "Mary had only been in the state a short time and had already made tremendous contributions through her work to protect New Mexico's health and environment," she said.
Wiper was hiking with a group of friends from college and the Montana Sierra Club northeast of Breckenridge on Sunday. She and two others had split off from the main group when a thunderstorm hit about 3 p.m., said LeGate. The three hikers were in a stand of trees but not huddled under one tree, he said. "They were struck by lightning, all thrown to the ground, all unconscious," LeGate said. "Mary just never recovered."
When the two other hikers regained consciousness after an uncertain amount of time, one had a broken wrist and directed the other in CPR to try to revive Wiper, he said. They were unable to help her and got to a phone to call emergency personnel, but it was too late. The Summit County coroner planned an autopsy, LeGate said.
Wiper began working in the fall of 1999 for the Sierra Club in Montana, where she organized a successful campaign against oil drilling in eastern Montana's Weatherman Draw, a small valley with Indian petroglyphs, before moving to Albuquerque. LeGate said she was passionate about that issue and had a "deep and abiding interest" in working with Native American tribes on cultural issues.
"She's going to leave a big space in our hearts on a personal level, and she'll leave a hole in our organization that'll be hard to fill," he said. Wiper is survived by her mother, Sandra, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; her father, Ray, of Bowbells, N.D.; a sister, Ann Gerber, of Los Angeles; and a brother, Robert, of Minneapolis. A funeral will be held Saturday in her hometown of Bowbells.
Copyright 2004 Albuquerque Journal
PING
Nature is good. Lightening is Bad?
I think they should name an oil well in her honor.
Yikes! My daughter was hiking/camping in that area last weekend.
It seems mother nature is fond of irony.
John F'n Kerry would make lightning illegal. Also mountain lions, thirst, broken legs and everything else that kills environmentalists.
I am sorry for her familily's loss but it still is a lesson on how nature works.
Just mentioned this to a friend in an IM. He said "if there had been an oil derrick there, it would have attracted the lightning, prevented her from getting hit, and saved her life".
Reminds me of that granola pro-bear anti-human guy who was killed by a bear last year.
I'm sure I wouldn't have liked her if I'd met her, but prayers for her and her loved ones.
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
More likely a grove of trees.
Unless you believe in a higher source.
Howard Bogess of the Crow Tribe and Mary Wiper, conservation organizer for the Montana Chapter.
It would seem that Ms. Wiper recieved the ultimate ZOT!
More extreme irony on a day that seems to be producing more than its share of ironies.
Another result of Bush's ditching Kyoto: More lightning. Shark attacks are up, too. Man-eating cockroaches.....Dem convention was infested...
"You have failed me for the last time." - Gaea.
So I guess I won't.
I'd say she became rather disenchanted.
First Joe Biden's house, now this. Think God is trying to tell us something?
Reminds me of Jim Fixx dropping dead while running. Hmm.
There is a God...
Will NOT joke about her being warmer now. Will not!
"Mary was a warm, wonderful, caring person,"
Very warm, I'd say, after being zotted.
Or the environmentalist lawyer who was recently killed when the tree he tied his hammock to fell and crushed him
"I tried to warn you people... I've SEEN it raining fire in the sky!"
Although a high energy person, she was well grounded in reality.
I'll go hide now...
Jesus... was it a 'bolt-from-the-blue' when recieved by the club's members?
Too bad. It could happen to anyone.
I've been caught on a summit in a lightening storm, bolts visibly hitting the rocks every couple minutes. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, and not fun at all.
Nature has a sick sense of humor.
"Gaea..."
Hah, now that's funny. I'm ashamed to say I laughed.
Given her last name, I suspect the won't name a butte after her.
For instance more people die from lightning than snake bite.
Not a good shelter in a storm.
my daughter is on the colorado trail as we speak and has been for 5 weeks. She tells me they get up very early and hike before noon because the storms come up late. And yes, they get in a stand of trees if there is lightning. This report is scary to me and I take no pleasure in her loss. Lightning kills people on those mountains every year.
It's Bush's fault.
It's George Bush's fault!
ROFL. Very clever.
a stand of trees is preferable to one tree.
"Reminds me of that granola pro-bear anti-human guy who was killed by a bear last year."
Here in the Sheeples republic of FloriDUH, there have been many such examples "from the habitat", so to speak. Some have a delicious flavor of irony.
How delicious? Just ask the nice "large bodied predator" or continue reading and make your own decision.
Recently, the Ft. Meyers News-Press ran an article asking if Sanibel had a gator problem because of a recent death from an alligator. The article went on to mention that the last three years had produced an annual death or severe injury from gator attacks on humans.
Gentle Readers, please remember that the Sanibel Conservancy types won't allow any interference with "nature" so the gators have assumed that they are the top predator.
The Second Amendment, if allowed on Sanibel, would have prevented these deaths. The only good side to this is that those killed were the victims of their own 'philosophy'.
FloriDUH has lots of predators being coddled and cossetted by a wide assortment of Marxism addled agency and NGO scoundrels. Thanks to the tax supported efforts of such things, people have become 'critter delights' for large bodied predators.
Who said G*d doesn't have a sense of humor?
what did you do in that storm? Do you just lie down flat and pray?
I love gallows humor and yall are all funny but I take issue with God doing this. If my daughter or yours were killed by lightning, would you have the same view? I think we ought to stick with nature and irony and leave God out of it.
Or not.
Maybe Nature abhors a Sierra Clubber...
Could hardly have been more ironic if a tree had fallen on her.
Tips To Avoid Lightning StrikesJournal Staff Report
Lightning kills an average of 67 people a year in the U.S.— more than tornadoes or hurricanes, according to the National Weather Service. Last year, 44 people died from lightning strikes.Hundreds more are injured and some suffer long-term, debilitating symptoms, including memory loss, attention deficits, sleep disorders, numbness, dizziness, fatigue and depression, according to the weather service.
The agency recommends people take shelter in an enclosed building, hard-topped vehicle or cave whenever they can hear thunder. Lightning can travel sideways for up to 10 miles, and most people struck by lightning are not in the rain.
The service recommends the following:
--When trapped in a storm, try to be the lowest point in the landscape. If above treeline, quickly get below treeline and into a grove of small trees. In an exposed area, crouch down and keep twice as far away from a tree as it is tall.
--Get out of the water and avoid leaning against vehicles.
--Avoid metal by dropping metal-frame backpacks and staying away from fences.
--Stay several yards away from other people rather than huddling in a group.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.