In my past 60 years of environmental work, I always saw hope and opportunity wherein people could make the difference on difficult environmental problems. I grew up in the time of Rachel Carson and read her book, “Silent Spring,” and witnessed the Isaac Walton League and others proclaiming that her concerns should be theirs. I saw the decline of songbirds and never saw an eagle or osprey along the Willamette because of the intensive use, at that time, of persistent pesticides. I read the Oregonian’s garden page religiously and wondered why every week’s work in the garden had to talk about inputs of insecticides and other chemicals that Rachel Carson and others were concerned about. I watched Colorado blue spruce — and saw a very beautiful tree suffering from huge attacks of red spider mites, when in the past that dense conifer would be attacked, not by mites, but by chickadees and other small birds that kept it clean. But in the 1960s chemical approaches and intensive management of the environment were the new idea.
It was “eco-babble.” Interesting ideas but not sustainable and more importantly impactful to people, the planet and the wildlife within.
Then come the 1980s and our organization began to do the first river education programs and tours to Willamette Falls and all the way into Portland. We saw, for the first time, sea eagles (osprey), real eagles (bald eagles) and the first sea lions that had begun to move upriver following the salmon runs. The songbirds were back — goldfinch, cedar waxwings, nut hatches — and importantly the insect eaters nighthawks and various swallows. They were back because “we got the message.” We stopped the use of persistent insecticides and only used herbicides sparingly and with care.
Eco-babble began to be: economy and ecology can maybe work together.
I met with important people in my life and one of them was civil engineer Dwayne Lee from Oregon City. Dwayne’s optimism that we could find solutions to continuing and emerging environmental problems gave me hope that people can do it if they’re serious and they work together. We were not discussing climate change in 1994, even though it had been forecast to be an issue by Oregon City resident and scientist Gerald Barney. His “global 2000 report” of 1986 looked at 64 governmental agencies and what they could do to work together to head off problems caused by population growth, resource depletion, poor agricultural practices, deforestation and yes … changes in the climate that would be projected back then to occur if we continued our ways.
His study was not eco-babble. It was projections of what to expect if we didn’t continue to address the environmental agenda in an interactive way, not just here in America but throughout the world.
Now we’re in the 2000s and most of what we hear is about the impacts of climate change. The change in our atmosphere cannot be denied, but the solutions need to be looked at carefully and most importantly they need to involve all of us, not just government. We also hear about the starving orcas in Puget Sound, the floating mass of debris including plastics in the Pacific, the attack on the tropical rainforests in our southern hemisphere and the loss of glaciers, snowpack and all the rest. It is not eco-babble. It is something we need to get our arms around at least in pieces and address the pieces each of us can have an impact on. We need to recognize that the most polluted river in the West, our Willamette, is now one of the cleanest. We did it. We need to recognize that the forest management practices of the past that were exploited are now far more carefully managed and eco-friendly. We did it. We need to recognize that the best gubernatorial leadership of our nation’s came from — in my opinion — Tom McCall. He gave us in Oregon a chance to succeed in practical responses to land use planning, waste management, protection of natural resources, while pursuing careful development.
Some would say that in the 2020s, it’s time to give up planning certain things because climate change is going to wipe them out. There are many strategies that nature demonstrates where assemblages of plants can protect each other through “companion planting.” In those ideas, western red cedar can still succeed when planted in thickets with other conifers and deciduous trees like big leaf maple. Nature has always shown the way and still shows the way if we look.
If we look, we should see there are opportunities to volunteer or assist in replanting projects, utilizing downed woody materials for productive purposes as nature does for nurse logs with each of us playing a role. Eco-babble would say there’s no hope. But the previously mentioned examples demonstrate they were big, big, big and they did work. Our soils in our homescapes and our rural properties and especially our farmlands need a new taste of nature. They are so effective at storing carbon when they’re healthy and yet our modern practices do not take this into consideration. A lawn is of course a lawn, but it’s also a biosphere where healthy sub training activity can be encouraged and the lawn still can be attractive. Who will leave a rotting log of some size in their yard? All should. That’s what modern forest practices are being told. Are we not to be considered to participate in supporting beneficial fungi, emerging native plants and soil activity that spreads for literally hundreds of feet in all directions? By the way, it is part of the healthy carbon cycle.
Government can give guidance but we citizens need to be involved and we need to be involved throughout the world in whatever way we can. Some of the past successes mentioned are just that — successes. They are not eco-babble they are the truth. When people got together, good things happened and it’s not eco-babble, it’s the truth. My dream is to see the Democratic committee of Clackamas County join hand in hand with the Republican committee of Clackamas County and work together on a project this fall involving those caring people and the community at large.
Is it eco-babble? I sure hope not.
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