Our November Annual Meeting (via Zoom) went great. One moment, more than any other, struck a chord with me:
When longtime FOC board member Al Espinosa received his Plank award for a lifetime of activism, he shared some wisdom to the online crowd:
“Keep fighting. Fight hard.”
Al didn’t mince words.
“Hearing Katie talk about the Lolo creek timber sale is disappointing. We fought against that very thing decades ago. Lolo creek was, and still is, some of the best steelhead spawning there is. Me and Harry [Jageman], we fought hard. We pushed back and reached out to everyone we could – hikers, anglers, didn’t matter. We won that fight forty years ago. …It’s sad, the Forest Service hasn’t learned a thing.”
Wilderness is not something that can be regained if it is lost. At least, not in the span of one persons lifetime.
So the legacy of our wilderness is also the legacy of our community: The men and women who have given their time, their energy, and their effort to the mammoth task of keeping ourselves from damming every river, trapping every fisher, or logging every last tree. Activists carry the baton of ecological unity from the past to the future.
“Conservation is a cause that has no end. There is no point at which we will say our work is finished.” — Rachel Carson
Thank you for keeping the fire of wilderness burning. We need it more than ever.
Please consider donating to Friends of the Clearwater this Giving Tuesday, or placing a final bid on our online auction, which ends Tuesday night.
Warmly,
Paul Busch
Membership and Development Director
Friends of the Clearwater
(208) 882-9755
paul@friendsoftheclearwater.org
