What is your current role with the Surfrider Foundation?
I am a member of the Executive Committee of the Olympia Chapter. I coordinate our Blue Water Task Force program and help with other programs and campaigns as I am able.
When and why did you choose to get involved?
July 4, 2022. As a recent retiree to a new area, I was feeling patriotic and looking for a way to learn about my new community. The pandemic, coupled with ecological angst, had me eager to get out and do something positive. I found a notice online about helping collect water samples at a nearby beach. So, I showed up and got hooked.
The beach is beautiful and often serene in the early hours. I get to fulfill my ambition to be a citizen scientist. I have made good friends through the BWTF program, and the data my fellow volunteers and I collect is genuinely useful to policymakers.
What are some local environmental issues that you have witnessed?
About once a month our chapter organizes a cigarette butt pickup event in downtown Olympia, WA. The camaraderie is wonderful, and I have learned a lot about the evils of cigarette butts. Seeing toxic plastics wash directly down storm drains into Puget Sound drives home how interconnected our aquatic and terrestrial environments are. It is also amazing to me how many smokers are unaware that the butts they casually flick are made of plastics that don’t biodegrade.
What Surfrider projects have you been involved with? How have these projects impacted
your community?
One of the things about volunteering with Surfrider that I most appreciate is the variety of opportunities available. Before joining the local chapter, my environmental activism was mostly confined to signing petitions online and sending emails and letters.
Washington State has a generally progressive environmental governance. Through Surfrider, I have had the opportunity to meet with state legislators in their offices to lobby for bills that would establish extended producer responsibilities for goods and packaging sold in the Evergreen State.
Most recently, I learned how to effectively canvass door-to-door and make calls to voters as part of a successful campaign to stop a ballot initiative that would have repealed Washington’s pioneering and effective cap-and-trade law. The successes of this campaign ensured cleaner air, less greenhouse gas emissions and substantial funding for a host of environmental purposes.
Do you have any personal experiences where the social justice and environmental movements have intersected?
Orcas, perhaps the most iconic species of the Pacific Northwest, are facing starvation and extinction due in large part to dramatic declines in salmon, their main food source. Our chapter has sponsored educational events on the subject. My participation in these film presentations and meetings has sensitized me to the integral connection between saving the orcas and salmon by honoring treaty commitments with First Peoples of the region.
The civil disobedience protests by tribal leaders in the 1960s and 1970s — known as the ‘Fish Wars’ — culminated in a reaffirmation of the tribes’ rights to half of the fish harvest in Washington State and recognized their status as co-manager of the fisheries. This has led to changes in the management of natural resources in the region leading to a gradual restoration of salmon habitat and numbers.
What can Surfrider do to foster an inclusive and welcoming environment?
I think Surfrider does well in this regard. I very much appreciate the diverse ages of the folks that attend our events. I draw energy from our younger members and enjoy the insights I get from our more experienced volunteers.
What is the most important thing you tell others about Surfrider?
If you care about the planet and all its inhabitants we can find something that you can do! You don’t have to surf, just love the ocean and the coasts.
What has been the highlight of your Surfrider experience?
There have been so many positive experiences it is hard to pick just one; but if I had to, I guess it would be picking up cigarette butts on Halloween night with our whole group in costume. Last year I dressed as a match while my wife dressed as a cigarette. We made a smoking pair!
Thanks so much Joe! Is there anything else you would like to add?
I would like to thank the other members of our Executive Committee and the Surfrider professional staff who support us — they are fun and inspiring. I am proud to be a part of such a wonderful group.