When I hit my middle-age, mid-career crisis, I didn’t want a sports car and I didn’t rethink all my life choices. I just knew I wanted to use the second half to do more to protect the places that I loved. As the owner of an outfitter and guide service, as well as an author and speaker, I felt like a cheerleader for conservation and a catalyst for engagement. But I also wanted the tools and understanding to sit at a table and help make decisions. I wanted to be able to advocate for these places with deeper knowledge and a stronger voice. 

I asked some of my conservation mentors and heroes how to get in the game and they recommended looking into public affairs programs. Within a few years’ time, I’d sold my outfitter and guide service and enrolled in a mid-career Master of Public Affairs program at UC-Berkeley.

Teddy Roosevelt-ing It

I went into my course work ready to “Teddy Roosevelt it up” and learn how to protect and conserve as much land as possible. I’ve been fortunate to travel through and alongside forests, lakes, deserts, swamps, oceans, and mountains as a backpacker and I wanted to protect large swaths of it. I’ve also had the chance to explore our country’s different terrain and communities by crisscrossing the country in a small car on book tour. As a speaker, I fly into cities across the country for conferences and conventions where I experience the culture and energy of different metropolitan areas – as well as bear witness to the importance of greenspace within that gridlock.

As I progressed through my masters degree, I realized that what set me apart amongst my classmates and professors wasn’t just my love of place and the unusual stat of hiking over 14,000 miles, setting trail records, and spending more than two years of my life in a tent. What set me apart in my public affairs program was that I’d had a 20-year career of getting to know America. I realized that I had extensive experience in the places and peoples – in the communities – that comprise our country. 

And because of that, I found myself often sticking up for the places and people that were less popular in our classrooms. I knew UC-Berkeley was a progressive bastion. I went there in part because of it, wanting to balance out my invaluable undergrad experience at a Christian university in Birmingham, Alabama. Plus, I agree with a lot of progressive politics and points of view – especially the ones having to do with the environment. And, even when I disagree, I am inspired by people who are FOR something, who hope and believe and fight for their beliefs and ideals. The progressive overtones at Berkeley didn’t bother me; what bothered me was the disparaging undertones directed toward different communities and regions. 

It Goes Both Ways

There was a consistent undercurrent of derogatory statements from classmates, professors, and guest speakers around yes, Trump. (That was expected.) But also Republicans as a whole and to a person. There was a constant calling out of Christians and the Christian Right which, while sometimes warranted, came without the sensitivities that might be shown toward other religions. And then there were the generalizations and put-downs around place. Negative statements swirled around rural America, the southeast, ‘fly over country,’ and anywhere associated with resource extraction like large-scale farming, mining, or timbering.

And, yes, here’s where I acknowledge it’s really not fair to hold progressives in Berkeley to a different standard than my conservative friends and family in the deep South who trash talk Democrats… and Biden… and California… and send cringeworthy memes my way. It goes HARD both ways. And we have undoubtedly learned it from the top. But public affairs programs are designed for individuals who plan to step into positions of leadership and social change, and the insults hit differently when you hear it from future civil servants. 

I’m a political independent, but everyone in my program thought I was a Republican because I would constantly interject or raise my hand to stand up for the perspectives and experiences of the politically, religiously, financially and socially conservative. My classmates weren’t always wrong about their observations, but they relayed them in a way that didn’t exhibit any first-hand knowledge toward the people or places they were talking about. My work in outdoor engagement has been centered on the belief that people will not protect what they do not value, and they will not value what they have not experienced. And in my grad school program, I recognized this doesn’t just apply to land but rings true with people as well. 

You can’t just address one group or one problem and make sustainable progress. If you want to create lasting change, you have to consider the entire community. In America we are hyper focused on the problems that most impact our personal lives and community, and as individuals that makes perfect sense. But when it comes to larger communities and cities and regions and the country, we have to step back and consider the entire ecosystem. If we want to thrive as a country, we can’t devalue or disconnect from people and place and we can’t exist solely in our chosen political biosphere. We have to look at how to create a symbiotic culture where different values and needs can find space to grow and work collectively.

But What Does It Mean?

Merriam Webster’s definition of conservation is “a careful preservation and protection of something. especially: planned management of a natural resource to prevent exploitation, destruction, or neglect.” Of course that applies to plants and animals and land. But there is a larger application, as well. I went to grad school passionate about land, but I had to take a step back and realize that improving the environment is part of a bigger and more complex puzzle that includes people, politics and culture.

People who are not well cared for are not going to care for land well. And if we want to conserve land, tackle climate change, and care for the environment in America, we have to look at the complete community and the entire country – that includes Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Unaffiliated, and people who don’t vote or can’t vote. 

The Upshot

So, now that I’ve finished my program and am back home picking up with speaking and writing, I find myself constantly confronting and wrestling with the question “How can we better care for land by better caring for people- especially in the United States, and particularly during a contentious election cycle?” What does that look like? 

I know it’s not an easy answer and I also don’t believe it calls for a one size fits all solution. But I’m confident that if we are able to look at the country as a whole, recognize the value of all the different parts that make up the ecosystem, realize that we are all connected, and prioritize being united over being opposed to one another, then we will be able to exploit and neglect less. And preserve and protect more.