Last month when I was
reading my June/July issue of the National Wildlife magazine, the column
by National Wildlife Federation’s President and CEO, Larry Schweiger, grabbed
my attention in a much deeper way than the great photography and interesting wildlife
factoids that I usually appreciate in that magazine.
The column written by
NWF’s Schweiger in the summer issue of National Wildlife was ostensibly about a
victorious conservation battle that he had helped to wage on behalf of
free-roaming bison in Wyoming and Montana.
While I’m happy for those bison, Schweiger’s column also the celebrated
the life of Ralph W. Abele – D-Day hero, Boy Scout leader, and a giant of the
conservation movement in his native Pennsylvania – in words that were inspired
by Schweiger’s own friendship with Abele that began in the 1960s. I’ll start with the bison battle, because that
story will provide the context to talk about Ralph Abele.
Schweiger
was on hand last March when a herd of more than 60 genetically pure bison were
relocated from Yellowstone National Park to the Fort Peck Reservation in
Montana. Eventually, part of the Fort
Peck herd will be moved to the nearby Fort Belknap Reservation where tribes
residing there will also begin to propagate their own herd of bison. Relocating the bison, which are sacred to Plains
tribes of Native Americans, to tribal lands has been sought by Native Americans
for over a century.
The
last herd of free-roaming, genetically pure bison in the United States had
been restricted primarily to Yellowstone National Park for the past several
decades. And over those years, to manage
the size of the Yellowstone herd, thousands of Yellowstone bison were killed
rather than relocated to grasslands outside of the park, because local cattle
ranchers feared the bison might compete with their herds for grazing
lands. The NWF has worked over the past 20 years with the InterTribal
Bison Cooperative toward restoring bison to Native American reservation lands. So after years of lawsuits by ranchers and
negotiations between tribal governments and state and federal agencies, the
first herd of bison was moved to the Fort Peck Reservation on March 19 of this
year. The persistence of a handful of
people working to do the right thing had finally paid off.
“One
person with enough tenacity can dig in his heels and say, ‘This much and no
more.’ ... There are great causes to be followed, and victory always starts
with one person hanging on by his teeth and saying, ‘I will never give in.’” – Ralph W. Abele
Coincidentally, three
weeks ago, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum
Commission, in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and
the Ralph W. Abele Conservation Scholarship Fund, dedicated a historical marker
in front of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission headquarters in
Harrisburg to honor Ralph Abele. Ralph
Abele (1921-1990) was the Fish and Boat Commission Executive Director from 1972
until his retirement in 1987.
Able
was the only survivor from his landing craft at Normandy Beach on June 6,
1944. He survived D-Day to fight in four
more campaigns in the European theater in World War II. In civilian life after the war, Abele, a
former Boy Scout himself, went on to become a scout leader and was eventually
one of Larry Schweiger’s most inspirational scout leaders. Later, after Abele became head of the Fish
and Boat Commission, Schweiger would eventually have the opportunity, in the
1980s, to work for Abele.
It was
from Schweiger’s personal observations of Abele in action that he wrote, “Throughout
his life, Abele inspired and commanded the fight to save the natural
environment. He believed strongly in the right of everyone to "clean air, pure water, and the preservation
of the natural, scenic, historic and aesthetic values of the environment." The italicized portion of Schweiger’s quote
comes from Article 1, Section 27, of Pennsylvania’s Constitution.
For
those of us who care deeply about the kind of environment that we will leave behind
for our children and our children’s children, the call to duty is clear: we must not relent. We must continue to fight the battles, big
and small, to prevent further degradation of our environment and the natural
resources that comprise it. There are
plenty of opportunities to get involved:
it might be limited to financial support of a worthy conservation
organization, or it might be boots on the ground and shovel in hand planting
trees in a riparian buffer. Whether our
preferred cause is coldwater conservation to protect trout habitat or building
and installing wood duck boxes in marshy meadows, everyone can get involved and
help to make a difference.
“The
unique power bestowed on each individual human being to do good and even change
the course of history is quite often underestimated. Even with sophisticated
organizations working on the cause of a conservation ethic, there is a tendency
of most individuals to say, ‘What can I do?’ The same kind of logic prevails in
elections when they say, ‘What can my vote do?’” – Ralph W.
Abele
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