Leaving Home for a Second Time
by Larry J. Schweiger

Almost eight years ago, I returned to my boyhood home after a quarter of a century. I came back to western Pennsylvania to lead one of the most unique and effective regional conservation organizations in the country and to reconnect to a community that I love.

One of the aspects that attracted me to Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC) was the organization’s mix of programs. I have always admired its solid board leadership, committed donors and members. Western Pennsylvania Conservancy is the second oldest and one of the most effective conservancies in America with a powerful record of land conservation. WPC is an important regional asset.
When I look at the bottom line, I am inspired by the return on investment in every program area. Western Pennsylvania Conservancy staff delivers. This is not an organization that depends on the government to cure problems. Often choosing direct action, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy gets things done through partnerships with other organizations and public agencies. The broad scope of WPC’s vision, mission and daily efforts:

• Assist hundreds of watershed restoration projects;
• Protect the most important ecological habitats;
• Bring ecological science to public planning agencies;
• Secure sustainable forestlands;
• Advance conservation on farms;
• Beautify historic towns and cities;
• Foster community engagement by connecting people to nature;
• Care for Falllingwater as a special home in nature that inspires millions of guests to our region;
• Protect lands including the creation of six state parks and nearly a quarter million acres of protected lands where people and nature can meet.

It is in witnessing the tireless dedication of Cynthia Carrow and so many other inspiring and committed conservationists who populate every facet of WPC that I take comfort as I leave my post there. I know that with the board leadership of Mike Boyle and other outstanding volunteers and staff that this organization will continue to be the leading force to protect my boyhood homeland.

In recent months, I have derived enormous satisfaction watching outstanding staff like Michelle Chapkis negotiate the purchase of what will soon become the sixth state park that WPC has created. The recent announcement of the Ohio Basin CREP program brings $146 million to Western Pennsylvania farmers providing sixty-five thousand acres of streamside buffers and conservation reserve lands. This simply would not have happened without the great efforts of Tolif Hunt and Katherine Smitherman. They drafted the CREP proposal and navigated this project through the maze of agencies that had to sign off. With the depth of talent, staff dedication and the exhilarating outcomes that happen when the WPC team works together to make something good happen. I wish every WPC donor could experience these moments with me as I watch talented staff make a measurable difference in our shared future.

Six generations of Schweigers have called Western Pennsylvania home and I trust that WPC will continue to guide stewardship of this special region for the next six generations of Schweigers yet unborn. I will continue to be a committed donor to WPC because I know my dollars will produce enormous intergenerational dividends saving the place we care about.
I have long been troubled by the enormous ecological threat presented by global climate change to my children’s children. I am also frustrated and angry by the complete lack of progress on conservation policy in Washington DC. Instead of showing global leadership, our nation has become, under the influence of powerful lobbyists, a global environmental scofflaw on climate change failing to do our part to address this global threat.

Meanwhile, numerous conservation organizations have been forced to spend unproductive time and energy preventing repeated attempts by our National government to roll back critical conservation policies. This distraction has prevented Americans from recognizing the profound threat presented by the billions of tons of greenhouse gases emitted annually into our atmosphere over time. Through the burning of oil, coal and other fossil fuels, we are liberating carbon, methane and other greenhouse gases that have been sequestered for millions of years. We are surely changing our climate in ways that will have profound impacts on the lives of our children’s children.
Our oldest daughter Della is pregnant with my first grandchild. I have a new understanding of the obligation for all good people to leave an inheritance to our children’s children.

Using widely accepted predictive climate change models, nineteen of the world’s leading ecological scientists studied six eco-regions covering 20 percent of the land area of the world. They published a peer-reviewed study in the January issue of the magazine Nature. The study concludes that unless we cut greenhouse gas emissions significantly, between 15 and 37 percent of the living resources of this planet will become extinct by 2050. That hits home for me. Della’s child will be a 46 year old witness to a global catastrophe unprecedented in human history.

I simply can no longer stand by watching governmental inaction in the light of these and other important scientific findings. At the urging of many former colleagues and with the inspired wisdom of long-time friend and WPC Board member Dr. Coke Blakesley, I decided to seek the presidency of the National Wildlife Federation to confront this and other troubling challenges to wildlife and to the quality of future human existence.

My lifelong childhood mentor Ralph Abele encouraged me to “fight no little battles.” He urged his listeners to be “stubborn” fighters for the cause of conservation. Coming from Ralph, these words had deep meaning for a teenage follower. Here was a man who was in the first wave of landing crafts confronting the dreadful beaches of Normandy. He was the only soldier from his craft to survive that ordeal. Ralph knew what courage meant and he understood its full cost. As I hear his gravelly voice egging me on, I suffer no illusions about the challenge before us all and I know that we will be standing against keepers of status quo who will fund a counter campaign to stifle this effort.

Having left my post at WPC with a lump in my throat, I leave with the knowledge that WPC will continue to be an organization of committed friends and colleagues who are embracing an incredible opportunity to secure sustainable stewardship on as much as a half million acres of outstanding hardwood forests, to restore Pennsylvania’s polluted rivers and to protect and restore Pennsylvania’s most unique places for future generations.

Innovation is no stranger to Pittsburgh. This city has been home to numerous energy firsts. The Pittsburgh region now has an important globally-important role to play in addressing global warming by being a pioneering community committed to advancing energy-efficient transportation systems using the Maglev technology. I hope the leadership of Southwestern Pennsylvania does not back down or lose focus from pursuing this important technology. We can and must transition our fossil-fuel based economy towards efficient systems that use other sources of energy, creating jobs and ensuring profits while protecting the nature of tomorrow.

John A. Brashear, one of Pittsburgh’s earliest scientist/educators, once wrote, “the science most worthwhile in this world is that which takes sunlight from behind the clouds and sprinkles it on the shadowed pathways of fellow travelers.” When I arrive at my new post as head of the National Wildlife Federation in April, I hope to help clear away the clouds of confusion so the sunshine of ecological truth can enlighten the pathway to our common future. For the sake of our grandchildren, please join with me in this effort.

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