Environmental Leadership

November E-Leadership update: https://www.tonic-water.org/leadership-lozenges-blog/2127337_get-psyched Stay thirsty!

There’s Always Shroom for More..

As a youngster, I used to be amazed how the much-maligned mushroom could punch holes through the concrete sidewalk and turn into skyscrapers above the ants and moss. How on-earth could it, well, mushroom? It doesn’t. It simply uses its spore-saving devices to wait until surface conditions are ripe, and then becomes opportunistic in a very short period by attaching to surfaces and inhabiting fragile fissures.

I had no idea about fungal properties, or that nature could materialize like a Star Trek ‘beem me up’ adventure. I imagined that the sheer force of an underground mushroom was bench pressing Portland cement. We humans can be so naïve at times, convincing tourists about jackalopes, snow snakes, Tommy- knockers and Menehunes. Are we prepared to take advantage of the situation when environmental conditions appear ‘ripe’? Or do we sit politely as if on an airliner, patiently waiting for miniscule snack morsels to be placed on our laps? Such tidbit offerings are never filling, nor fulfilling, just teasing and taunting. Sustainable programs require sustenance, in terms of leadership quality and quantity, with the high fiber coming from our essential communal fabric.

Sometimes my vision of environmental prowess is distorted by false strengths and postures of pretense. For example, at the State level, I’ve found the Colorado Water Quality Control Division to be a muscleman in terms of enforcing clear violations of the Clean Water Act. Maybe that’s not always true, but they give the image that they are a force to be reckoned with. On the flip side, they have been historically stubborn (and stingy) in not relinquishing resources for local and regional efforts to pursue watershed protection and pollution prevention ventures. To those of us with a sense of reason, it would seem like a no-brainer— dole out monies to local units with boots on the ground, in order to promote watershed health. Provide backup support and regulatory authority, but step aside and allow community-based watershed leadership to flourish.

I confirmed my findings of dismal environmental leadership by trying to produce a collaborative ‘watersheducation’ project in the Arkansas River headwaters of our Colorado regional ecosystem. Bringing together support from Colorado communities including Leadville, Buena Vista, Poncha Springs and Salida, I coined the project We Help Integrate Technology & Education, and We All Take Equal Responsibility (WHITEWATER). Firstly, the State Water Quality Control Division told me that I missed this year’s deadline.

When I proved to them that it was actually their goof-up, they switched the story to “..your proposal would duplicate efforts and jurisdiction of our current programs..” Talk about a lack of environmental leadership! The State’s reasoning was that surface water quality was their bailiwick, and that their statewide programs were satisfactory (they didn’t exist but got few complaints).

If our environmental leaders expend little effort and dedicate few resources, there will be few rewards. It reminds me of Benito Mussolini claiming colonial control over Ethiopia from his authoritarian throne in Rome. We will eat your pasta, but not at the same table. It immediately took the wind out of my sail, infusing a foul taste in my mouth for the State Environmental Kingdom. No chance of mushrooms sprouting today.