Opening
Remarks by President Martha Wingfield
Virginia Environmental Assembly October 25, 2003
Good Morning. I am Martha Wingfield the new President of
The Virginia Conservation Network. I am really quite honored
to serve VCN in this capacity. I appreciate the confidence
of the other VCN Board members in electing me to this position.
I hope that I can carry out my role as president adequately
so as to avoid a recall election down the road - although
they can be highly entertaining.
Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I live in Hanover
County Virginia on a farm with my husband 3 cats, a dog
and nine goats. I also have a teenage daughter who is in
residence with us off and on. And if you have a teenager
you know what I mean. I have been on the VCN Board since
1999. I have served on the board as the representative of
the Garden Club of Virginia. My credentials, if that is
the appropriate characterization, for this job besides being
an avid gardener include being involved in local land use
and land conservation issues for almost 20 years. Outside
of Hanover County’s planning staff, I am probably the only
other person who has a complete set of Hanover County’s
comprehensive plans and all their amendments for the past
15 years. In other words I am actually one of those grass
roots workers. I know all to well the difficulties of having
an impact at the local level much less trying to influence
the environmental agenda at the state level. But I know
if it can be done and it can be done because of the coalition
of groups that are represented here this morning.
And I am optimistic about the future. The future for Virginia’s
air, land and water is a hopeful future. When I look out
and see all of you that are here on a Saturday morning in
Roanoke from all across Virginia how can I be anything but
hopeful. I know that our numbers are great and that we are
committed to having air that is breathable, water that is
drinkable and swimable and land that it is protected and
preserved. But I also know as Kermit the Frog said “it ain’t
easy being green”. Especially here in Virginia when almost
half of our streams and rivers do not meet water quality
standards and this is with only about 20% being monitored,
when almost three million Virginians live in areas where
ozone pollution has exceeded federal health standards, and
it ain’t easy being green when Stafford County, where I
grew up, has only three major farms left and we continue
to see farm land developed at a rapid pace. In Hanover County,
my home, over the past 8 years we have lost 40 acres of
farmland per week, and it ain’t easy being green when the
2001 forest inventory shows that we are losing approximately
50,000 acres of forestland per year and with all of these
distressing statistics, it ain’t easy being green because
Virginia spends a little more than a paltry ½ cent
of every dollar on protecting and preserving our natural
resources. Even with these distressing statistics I can
still be hopeful about the future because I see the accomplishments
of the many organizations represented in this room in protecting
Virginia’s natural resources. I am also hopeful because
of what VCN has done: Our Education programs like the Virginia
Environmental Assembly, the legislative forums and legislative
workshops we sponsor. The Environmental Road Shows and Capacity
Building Workshops we have help carryout across Virginia;
the dissemination of information through e-news, newsletters,
our website and other Alerts and the tracking, monitoring
and briefings we do with the environmental and conservation
community during the legislative session. I know we are
making a difference.
We have come together today because we know that Preserving
what is best about Virginia will take all of us here continuing
to work on Virginia’s environmental agenda and enlisting
our many more Virginia friends to join us in this effort.
We know this can happen because according to every opinion
poll on the subject, vast numbers of Virginian’s clearly
want environmental progress to continue. Let me use one
poll I am very familiar with to illustrate this point. It
is one that was done in my home county of Hanover. Let me
take a minute to tell you about this poll. As I said earlier
I have been involved at the local level of environmental
and land use issues for over 20 years. Recently my husband
and I have worked with a group of friends and neighbors
in Hanover to start Hanover Conservation Voters. One of
the first things we decided to do was engage a research
firm to conduct a community issues poll. We did this because
after being in the trenches for a long time you are not
sure if you are reading your community accurately or if
you have hit that brick wall of opposition to change so
many times you vision of reality has become blurred. So
we commissioned a poll. And what we found was astounding
even to us. Nearly every one surveyed (90%+) believes that
development and growth in our county needs to be managed
in a way that protects the County’s environment and historical
resources or stopped altogether. The poll further found
that those Hanover voters surveyed are as concerned about
the County’s environment and history as they are about such
hot button issues as crime and drugs and traffic congestion.
So I know from personal experience that there is not only
support for a sound environmental agenda in Virginia but
that Virginians want to see something done about protecting
the natural resources of this state.
We also know that our work does not lend itself to simple
solutions and we can not continue to accept the outdated
solutions of the past. And speaking of outdated solutions,
it reminds me of the old medical technique of blood letting.
In case you are not up to date on this technique, in colonial
times it was believed that bad blood was the cause of most
illnesses and therefore the way to treat an ailing patient
was by draining him of his “bad” blood. We know this intervention
usually resulted in hastening the death of the patient.
But so convinced were the medical authorities at the time
that this was the correct treatment that as a patient’s
condition worsen more blood was let. Now we know that it
wasn’t a matter of improving the technique. To have had
better trained doctors in the art of blood letting, or to
have a better breed of leeches or even to have better blood
letting facilities would not change the mortality of the
patients because the basic premise of bloodletting was flawed.
And that my friends is often the problem with the methods
used today to address the serious, negative impacts of outdated
thinking on our natural resources.
This analogy proves, as Will Rogers said “It ain’t what
you don’t know that hurts you; it’s what you know that ain’t
so.” We know that monitoring only 20 % of our water bodies
is not enough, that our air pollution standards ain’t going
to clean up our air and that the old way of grappling with
the impacts of sprawl will only continue the “blood letting”
of our ailing natural, historic and cultural resources.
We must challenge ourselves to try novel approaches, form
alliances that cross traditional barriers, break the mold
of old thinking, we can’t keep bleeding the environment
thinking it will make it healthier….. We can’t continue
to let rampant sprawl and unsound environmental policy continue
to suck the vitality out of our communities and fill millions
of acres of farmland with soulless subdivisions. We must
speak to the challenges of preserving and protecting Virginia’s
environment constructively, consistently and frequently.
VCN has been, is and will continue to play a leadership
role in making these issues a priority. VCN has demonstrated
this commitment through our efforts over the past years.
But there is obviously much more to do to provide a healthy
environment for us and our children and grandchildren. I
will end with a quote from that great lady of the civil
rights movement Rosa Parks who said “It is always the right
time to do the right thing.” Now is the time for Virginia
to do the right thing to protect the Commonwealth’s air,
lands and water for the benefit of her people and VCN with
your help and support will try to do the right thing.
Thank you for being here this morning and once again welcome
to VCN’s 2003 Virginia Environmental Assembly. |
