Thank you, Eric Holle, for three decades of care and advocacy on behalf of Southeast Alaska’s wild and priceless environment: fisheries habitat, water quality standards, wolf, mountain goat, game and forest management, to name a few. Facing strong opposition from the preachers of quick cash, Eric has been eloquent and courageous on behalf of generations unborn. And increasingly people young and old express grave concern. Our modern lives are rife with contradiction, but the fundamental truth in the message, from voices like Eric’s, is now manifest: a warming planet, acidifying seas and weather events of increasing severity.
On behalf of the environment, Eric has brought ideas, policy and courage to the contest. At no charge against the future, as a board member of Lynn Canal Conservation, Inc, and on his own behalf, Eric has contributed to dozens and dozens of finely crafted, polite arguments promoting a deeply conservative idea: protect the earth’s natural systems, diversity and health. No paycheck. No trans-national billionaire “persons” paying chump-change to buy his speech and time. For a lifetime of passion, courage, and sharp thinking (and banjo), Eric Holle has my gratitude.
Burl Sheldon