A Few Comments On Stepping Down and Stepping Out
June 5, 2007

Dear Friends,

It is a special day for me, and for that matter, anyone, when they step down from a leadership role. In the private sector, you usually get a gold watch to symbolize this event. In the “world of Washington,” a world of politics and payoffs, you just hope you leave without being asked, or required.

After working in and around parks for over 35 years in charities and government, I have come to some personal conclusions and they were not easy lessons. My Maker charged me with a mission of great consequence, the preservation of those special places that molded and represent the American character, our National Parks.

Here are three of my conclusions:

The first is that the adage about the park service pay is right, that "you are paid in sunsets." And I have been so blessed. The diminished compensation of public service is minor compared to the experience that my work afforded me: gliding behind a dogsled team on a moonlit night in Alaska, swimming in a crystal clear lagoon in Alaska, standing quietly in the Sonoran desert with a park ranger who quietly knows about everything in sight.

Second, parks are never fully preserved or indefinitely protected.  Every conservation issue requires constant care, concern and commitment. The environment begs today for good public servants and also private citizens who are dedicated to the parks. Baseball players try to bat over .300, and conservationists are lucky if they save 1/3 of what they cherish.

Third, this job is underwritten by the faith of good friends and a loving family. If I have been successful at all, it is because of my family, of my friends around this table, of my friends in conservation. I want to thank some wonderful friends here today, Davinder Khanna, Dale Crane, Steve Miller, the irrepressible Paul Duffendack, Bill Brownell, and others who did their job, and did it magnificently. Of course, the one who I thank the most for always being there for me is my wife, Susan.

As I think back about the history of the National Park Trust, many credit me with creating it. The credit ironically should go to James Watt. It was born out of the necessity that James Watt, Secretary of Interior, rendered when he stopped all donations and acquisitions of lands for our national parks. Watt stopped the career servants from doing their job and left a void. So we created NPT.

Watt is an icon of the future in that he represents those who believe you are 100% in agreement with them, or you are their enemy. 

I met with him in the Secretary of Interior ‘s office just before the U.S. Senate confirmed him as Secretary. I chose seven conservation issues with the hope that we could work together on them, as I was the new leader of the National Parks and Conservation Association, and he, the Reagan warrior. I went through each issue and waited as he thought.  He then replied in words that still ring in my conscious today. “Well Paul, I am in agreement with you on four of the issues, don’t know much about one, but there are two I do not support.  Therefore, we will not be able to work together on any of them.”

And because of Watt and many more like him during NPT’s life, just shy of 25 years, by necessity we have been involved in over 200 projects, successfully in varying degrees. NPT by design has been reactive, i.e., responding to requests, because it made sense:  there was so much to do that anything helped. And we insisted that we did not help unless we were asked to help, usually by a dedicated superintendent or concerned citizen. 

Now as we look to NPT’s future, I suggest there are three factors that call us together:  first the need for park land acquisition is still there; second there are many asking us to show them how to help their favorite park; and third, there is no organization like NPT at the national level.  

The famous transition of the Nature Conservancy to what it is today from a society of scientists was predicated on the conclusions that just trying to do a good job was not enough, that an organization had to be single focused, smart acting and rigorous. I think that is where we are.

I feel comfortable leaving NPT under the careful hands of this board, staff and others who volunteer for our cause. You represent the height of the human character for as one great leader said, "Our Maker does not allow us to have eternal friends or perpetual allies. What are eternal and perpetual are our goals and ideals."

Horace Albright, who some call the “first director” of the National Park Service, once told me in his final days as we discussed our cause, "Paul, let the thunder roll and the lightning strike all around you, but be true to your cause." 

As for my future, I have committed myself to the realization that “thinking globally and acting locally’ is no longer possible.  We must each act locally to save the globe. And parks are one of the essential elements of our Earth.

And honestly, my dynamic wife, two teenage sons, and my community are not letting me sit still. So I will just follow the guidance of that great modern philosopher, George Carlin, who said, "Always do whatever's next."