PORT TOWNSEND — The director of the Jefferson Land Trust — dedicated to preserving open space, working lands and habitat — was recognized Thursday with an award named for a Port Townsend environmentalist.
Sarah Spaeth received the 2010 Eleanor Stopps Environmental Leadership Award in a ceremony attended by about 150 at Fort Worden State Park.
The keynote speaker for the Port Townsend Marine Science Center fundraiser was former Washington Secretary of State Ralph Munro.
The award is given by the Port Townsend Marine Science Center in honor of Stopps, who is credited with the establishment of Protection Island as a wildlife refuge in 1982.
Stopps, 90, attended the event, but did not speak to the crowd.
Later, she met quietly with several grade school students and encouraged them to get involved in environmental causes.
Spaeth was lauded for her accomplishments, which included securing more than $4 million worth of successful land acquisition proposals and the preservation of more than 8,400 acres in Jefferson County during her 15 years at the land trust.
“There is still a lot of work left to do,” Spaeth said after receiving the award.
“We want to make sure that the area retains its scenic beauty of our farms and rivers, and bring together a diverse group of people to support this.”
Spaeth led the development of the land trust’s Jefferson County Conservation Plan and is now working with other organizations to develop a conservation plan for the entire Olympic Peninsula.
Most recently, her efforts resulted in the purchase of Tamanowas Rock near Anderson Lake State Park.
Spaeth said the poor economy has provided challenges for environmentalists, but feels that it is possible to encourage people to contribute money and volunteer time.
“We have to get creative in providing solutions,” she said.
“But I feel we will be able to get the support from the community.”
Munro said that when he was growing up on the west shore of Bainbridge Island, “when you saw a whale you would shoot it.
“I even shot at them, but as time went on my attitudes changed.”
Munro said that he and several others were on a boat near Olympia in 1976 when they witnessed an Orca roundup in which representatives of Sea World herded, killed and captured a pod of whales.
He contacted the press, and that led to several stories that exposed the cruelty of the practice which was then legal.
He contacted then-Attorney General Slade Gorton, who later became a U.S. senator, and began a legal process that led to Sea World’s banishment from state waters, he said.
Munro — who served five terms as secretary of state, leaving in 2001 — said that the Port Townsend Marine Science Center is directly connected to whale conservation.
“We didn’t know then what we know today,” he said. “We didn’t have the science back then to understand anything about whales.
“Today, the marine science center provides that information, showing young people what they need to know in order to develop an interest in marine science into a career.”
He urged people to consider their effect on the waterways, and how their actions can damage the environment.
“My father lived on the west side of Bainbridge Island all his life in the same spot,” he said.
“He said that things changed when people started using plastic products and leaving them around, which caused a tremendous amount of damage.”
Munro said that lawn care products are also harmful, that “people pour every kind of poison on their front lawns and it runs into the bay.”
Munro said the Marine Science Center is essential to the learning process and the survival of Puget Sound.
“The work here represents the future of our children,” he said.
“I get a thrill when I see what you have done, and how you continue to help save all of our resources.”
Attendees contributed more than $20,000 that will go to the operations of the marine science center.
Not all of the contributions had been tallied on Thursday. If the total exceeds $25,000, the center will receive a matching grant from an anonymous donor, said executive director Ann Murphy.
For more information, or to donate, go to www.ptmsc.org.
________
Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
