 From the Chair:
Political Biology
by Mary Nichols
In July I hosted a press conference with federal, state, and local officials celebrating the acceptance by the federal government of a new state program to clean up and prevent polluted runoff. California is unique among all 50 states because this plan targets both inland sources of non-point source pollution and those along the coast. The plan encompasses all of California. Speakers included private sector representatives, including land developers and environmental activists. What is unique among the other states is now commonplace for those of us who work in the environmental field in California. When it comes to dealing with the environment and resources, the State of California is indeed thinking big. We're dealing with resources management in terms of much larger natural geographic units such as watersheds. CALFED—the joint state and federal partnership to ensure California's water quality and reliability for the next century—is the largest ecorestoration project on the planet. We're beginning the exciting first steps toward mapping and analyzing multiple layers of data about all of California's resources with CCRISP - the California Continuing Resources Investment Strategy Program and we're including more different stakeholders in the process. And yet paradoxically—and perhaps inevitably—in every case as our programmatic vision grows larger, our project focus grows more local. Take CALFED, for example. In dollars and issues it is a massive project. But CALFED is really not on entity, but scores of separate projects each of which has a specific local focus, engaging and depending upon local groups, knowledge, and contractors. CCRISP will have a tiny core staff. Its vision depends on the efforts of dozens of local groups, and hundreds of cities, town, and all of California's counties. California's conservancies provide a good model for this new way of doing conservation. State funding and technical expertise join with the good offices and knowledge of local government and citizens working in their own landscape. That's also the way successful partnerships like SB1086 work— representatives from state agencies thinking in terms of the Sacramento River as a massive unit working hand-in-hand with local elected representatives, farmers, and nonprofit groups to develop very specific and localized solutions and projects. Weaving together those projects we hope to create a tapestry of environmental restoration on a much larger scale. This, the, is the shape of the future of California - a partnership between the state agencies on the one hand and the concrete expertise and knowledge of the local political, environmental groups and business organizations. Using biological terms, this state/local nexus is a sort of symbiosis—a relationship where both sides benefit and prosper because of their shared and intertwined roles. In other words, we need each other. I look forward to many more meetings such as the upcoming joint CBC and RCRC gathering in Rohnert Park where we can move beyond rhetoric and explore in greater detail some of the work that we can and must do together. Yes, we operate from different perspectives but ultimately we are guided by a similar vision of a better future for California's environment and the species - human and otherwise - who share its magnificent resources.
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