Carroll H. Dunn
Q ..
Who, for example?
A
I don't remember names, but the people who were in the first groupwere, except for
one individual, [open minded] enough to recognize that we truly wanted to have the
benefit of their knowledge and experience. But they also understood that we were not
always totally free to do whatever they suggested. I remember several discussions
concerning the Cross-Florida Barge Canal and other projects that were then under way.
Their view was that we simply ought to stop them.
It took us a little while to convince them that Congress and the executive branch were
deeply involved in these
not just the Corps of Engineers. Our job was to
carry out the mandate given us. There were some
in this relationship, and
I was a little concerned as to whether we could ever have effective dialogue. W e
weren't going to be free to take the drastic actions that they were interested in having
us take. It is a reflection on the very capable way in which General Clarke handled the
group and the people who made up the group that some of my fears of a total
adversarial relationship didn't materialize even though the potential was there.
If you didn't have these types of individuals-shall we say "well-labeled"
environmentalists-then you didn't have credibility in the community because the
feeling would be that you had "homogenized" environmentalists. We had a fine line to
walk in finding people who were credible in the environmental movement and yet who
were willing to work with "the enemy."
I remember speaking at the annual meeting of the Audubon Society in Seattle. One of
the senior officials of the society was on the Environmental Advisory Board. While we
didn't all reach agreement, I had a very interesting time on a panel talking to about 500
members. I remember pointing out to them that, while they had a right to their opinions
and to expressing them, they had to realize that they didn't speak for everyone and their
views were not shared by everyone. There was more than one side.
The "typical little old lady" got up and said, "Well, if they were here, we'd speak for
everybody." I never did find out just what she meant by that. I think she meant, "We
speak for everybody here."
The point is that they still were a reasonably small crowd. Another point made was that
we were meeting in an air-conditioned facility in Seattle that didn't even have any
windows. Obviously, air changes were totally controlled by electrical means. At the
same time, they were carrying on a big discussion about how the major dams on the
Columbia River were an environmental disaster. I asked them where they thought the
electricity came from to make this auditorium usable. They didn't have any good
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