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From My Perspective
By Doug Oberhelman, Illinois Trustee
It has been an honor to serve The Nature Conservancy since 2002 as a member of the Illinois Board of Trustees. I am proud to continue the 25-year relationship between The Nature Conservancy and Caterpillar, Inc., that has included work to restore Emiquon, a 7,000-acre floodplain area along the Illinois River south of Peoria. The relationship has most recently grown into the Great Rivers Partnership, an effort to protect large river systems on three continents. The Great Rivers Partnership brings together Conservancy programs and partners in the United States, Brazil and China around large river conservation and is a model for collaborative action and shared learning.
My love of nature and my appreciation for the Conservancy’s work began in South America in 1982, when I was enjoying my two favorite activities—my work with Caterpillar and fishing.
I was living in Uruguay and working for Caterpillar. We had decided to take some time for a fishing trip on the Paraguay River. As we traveled to the river, we drove through miles and miles of beautiful thick jungle, filled with leafy green plants. I never knew there were so many shades of the color green—it was stunning and unforgettable. Once we reached the river, I was bowled over by the abundance of plant life and wildlife in the river and along the shoreline. It was a real thrill when the first fish I caught was a piranha. The memory of that fishing trip has stuck with me ever since.
Five years ago, I took a holiday and went back to the Paraguay. I wanted to share with my wife the remarkable experience of driving through miles and miles of untamed land to the beautiful Paraguay. But sadly, my return to the river was very different from my previous visit. We drove through many miles of barren landscape before we began to see the beautiful foliage and rich jungle that I remembered from my visit 20 years before. And once we came upon it, it extended for just a couple of miles before we reached the river.
On the river I noticed changes as well. I didn’t see as abundant a number of aquatic plants floating on the water as I remembered, and we didn’t catch many fish. There were no piranhas. It was a wake up call for me to see such dramatic change between my visits to the Paraguay River.
I’ve always had an appreciation for nature and for The Nature Conservancy’s work to preserve the earth’s beauty and resources. But that trip back to the Paraguay brought home a sense of urgency, a sense that things are changing faster than I had imagined. I realized that we needed to do more as a corporation to save the great rivers of the world that sustain life on this  planet. I’m proud that Caterpillar is the kind of company that is responding to this urgent need by forming the Great Rivers Partnership.
Doug Oberhelman
Trustee, The Nature Conservancy
in Illinois |
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The Victoria, a floating store on the Paraguay River. © Scott Warren.
The Pantanal, Brazil, © Scott Warren
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