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From the Director

 

The Oak Log: Summer 2007 

Download a copy of the Summer 2007 issue of The Oak Log (PDF, 786KB).

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The Oak Log / Summer 2007
by Bob Klein

Executive Director, Vermont, Bob KleinVermont’s chapter of The Nature Conservancy was launched in 1960 by a core group of activists who wanted to conserve this state’s wild places and special habitat areas. Nationally, the Conservancy itself wasn’t even ten years old at the time, but these visionaries were ready to bring the organization to Vermont. Most of these people have now passed on, but the idea into which they put so much faith has thrived, and the Conservancy’s basic approach is now widely used to conserve farms, working forests, rivers, recreation trails, and historic sites.

Bertha “Bird” McCormick, one of the last of the Vermont chapter’s founders, died last winter. This marked the passing of an era. Once Chair of the Vermont chapter’s board, Bird energetically promoted the Conservancy wherever she went. An avid birder and field botanist Bird was especially helpful in building the chapter’s membership base in southern Vermont. Now, The Nature Conservancy’s chapter in Vermont has more members per capita than sister chapters in any other state.

Seeing everyone so busy juggling work and family matters these days, I sometimes wonder if enough new conservation leaders are joining the ranks. Could it be that Bird McCormick and her generation’s conservation energies were unique? Was that just a mid-20th century fad?

The issues that dominate public discourse today--national security, economic security, and health care security--could suggest that nobody values the environment anymore. But I think the reality of climate change will translate to a renewed concern for the condition of the earth, its ecosystems, and nature in general. A new generation of conservation leaders, like Vermont’s Bill McKibben, for example, is leading the charge. And this 21st century wave of environmentalism cuts across political, religious, and economic divides.

We truly live in interesting times!

Return to Summer 2007 Contents Page

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Oak Log Cover Design: The Laughing Bear Associates; Cover Photos © Susan C. Morse (Bobcat and bear).