The politics of ecology

I just got back from a gig at Seth Lewelling School in Milwaukie, the 4-H Wildlife Stewards Summit, where I listened to and evaluated the presentations on environmental issues and projects by elementary students from throughout the state.

I was blown away by the sophistication and depth of knowledge of what I heard, all from public school students in grades three through six. A group from Warrenton on the Oregon coast, for example, shared an exquisitely rendered map of an "enclosed ecosystem" salmon habitat under construction
on the K- 8 school campus. Their work has earned them federal grants worth $13,000.

Another group from Lookingglass School near Roseburg, in the heart of timber country, is in its ninth year of an environmental restoration and study project. They used a Power Point presentation plus a a pictorial display to augment their incredibly articulate oral explanations of what they had acomplished. And what they had learned.

I told a colleague afterwards that it would be a good thing if our local politicians got their larded "behinds" into the public schools more frequently to see what was actually going on, much of it good, despite the ever decreasing financial support they receive from the government.

I figured it was also a good time, after this morning's experience, to revisit the disastrous environmental policies of the Bush Administration, starting with this letter to the Oregonian a couple of days ago:

Look at Smith's role with salmon

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Oregonians opposed to the Bush's administration's effort to reduce protection for our endangered wild salmon by inflating their surviving numbers with their hatchery cousins ("U.S. backs protecting wild runs of salmon," May 15), should direct their attention to Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore.

It was Smith who proposed Portland attorney Mark Rutzick to be senior legal adviser to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

As The New York Times (May 15) editorialized, "(I)n drawing up the new policy, the (National Marine Fisheries Service) ignored scientists who urged that the [distinctions between wild and hatchery salmon] remain in place. It relied instead on a Washington-based political team whose key player was Mark Rutzick, a former timber industry lawyer."

Rutzick's record as a hired gun for lumber companies and other opponents of environmental protection explains why he was appointed to his current position of power, and voters should hold Smith accountable for the consequences.

That's from Michael Munk of Reed College (the son of a former political science professor of mine at PSU).
His letter adds credence to my post about the wholesale assault of the Bush Administration and members of Congress, including Smith, on the Endangered Species Act. Here's an article on Mark Rutzick in the Tacoma News Tribune which accuses Rutzick of being "anti-Endangered Species Act", not surprising since Rutzick "has frequently represented the American Forest Resource Council, a Portland-based timber industry group that has filed a steady stream of
lawsuits challenging federal forest policy."

I can only take solace in the hope that our future leaders will be more environmentally intelligent. Based on what I saw this morning, I think that hope is entirely justified.

Comments

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