Environmental Leadership Program: ELP News: Fall 2001: Climate Change Perspectives

1609 Connecticut Ave NW #400
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: 202.332.3320
Fax: 202.332.3327

Support ELP
Help us SUPPORT the next generation of environmental leaders

newsletter Fall 2001

Download PDF*

Focus on: Climate Change by James Gustave Speth
Organizational Information
Fellowship Class Lists
Climate Change Perspectives by Brad Guy, Jonna Higgins-Freese, Michelle Knapik, Paul Sabin, Donnan Steele
Fellow Profiles: Janice Varela, Dan Gruner, Jacob Park
ELP Retreat Highlights: August 2001 and Vallecitos
Activity Fund Updates
ELP Newsmakers

Fellow Profile

JANICE VARELA

Janice Varela, ELP Fellow 2000-2002, is director of administration and smart growth at the Great American Station Foundation, a nonprofit national intermediary organization for station and community revitalization in areas surrounding inner city, commuter, and urban rail stations. She is co-chair of the New Mexico Coalition for a Livable Future and is a member of the board of 1000 Friends of New Mexico, the Community and Indian Legal Services of Northern New Mexico, and the New Mexico Community Development Loan Fund.

How did you become active in your community on environmental issues? What local efforts have you been involved in?

In 1989, it seemed like everything was happening at once in my small hometown of Pecos, New Mexico. We were faced with three major proposals that would have changed our community overnight. First was a huge development proposal for a retirement community that included plans for a golf course, air landing strip, shopping mall, and housing for about 30,000 people. The second proposal was a U.S. Forest Service plan to clear-cut on Elk Mountain and make a new road through the top of Johnson Mesa. The third was a road-widening project in Pecos Canyon. All three projects were big - and they were happening fast. For a long time, we had watched the gentrification of Santa Fe, as it became developed, and saw how families that had lived there for 400 years had to move because they couldn't afford it. We didn't want that to happen to us. At first, I felt helpless and frustrated - like we were being attacked from all sides. Our community, quality of life, land, water, and culture were being threatened.

After a newspaper story about the proposed development, a local environmental group, the Upper Pecos Association, that had been dormant for 20 years came to life again and organized meetings for local residents. About 500 people attended those first meetings - nearly 75% of Pecos's residents. I spoke up at the third meeting, explaining how I wanted to preserve our culture, land, and community, and that I didn't want to see us become like Santa Fe overnight. In a short time, I was leading the organization fighting the development proposals.

For two years we fought the projects and eventually won. We called for an Environmental Impact Statement on the road-widening project, because we suspected that it would disrupt the waste piles of an old lead and silver mine, washing toxic tailings into the river. We took it to a federal court, where the judge agreed with us and stopped the road project just three days before they were scheduled to start bulldozing. The retirement community proposal was also halted, because our campaign revealed that the developer had been exposed for fraud in another community. Lastly, after all that had been going on in town, the logging plan for Elk Mountain was dropped.

These victories encouraged me and made me realize that it is possible to make a difference.

What challenges have you faced as a community activist?

Being in a small town, it was often hard to get involved in issues that caused controversy. Many people thought that environmentalists were just trying to make trouble. Others thought that we couldn't do anything to change the situation, so they preferred to stay out of it. A few times, people in the community - including members of my family - angrily told me I was doing more to hurt than help them. That anger and controversy generally came from economic problems. Pecos is pretty poor and lacking in resources beyond ourselves and our land. Many people were in favor of development because they thought it would provide more jobs, but I realized that these jobs would be bad ones, such as working in hotels or restaurants, cleaning, or doing highway work. Another argument that members of the community often brought against me was that concern about the environment and for aesthetics threatened their way of life. People were angered by the idea that regulations would designate where they could cut wood, or how they could take water from the river to irrigate their fields.

Another major challenge has been doing community activism as a single working mom: juggling meetings, work, and caring for my family. I often wonder how much I have sacrificed by being involved instead of being home with my family. This has probably been the biggest challenge, especially as I have gotten more involved in different community groups and campaigns. After I got involved with the Upper Pecos Association, other groups asked me to join their boards and attend meetings - and I find it hard to say no. There are so many important things to be done to help people and places in my community. It is worth the sacrifice when I can help make positive change. When we achieve victories and hear that other people appreciate and have gained from those victories, I want to do even more.

Your Activity Fund project, Dia del Rio, is an educational celebration of the Pecos River and acequias. Can you tell us how you got involved in these issues?

My Activity Fund project stems from work I began when I was an AmeriCorps volunteer in 1995. I worked with the Rio de las Gallinas Acequia Association, doing everything from research, clean-up of these traditional water canals, and erosion control to helping lawyers prepare their defenses for adjudication of water rights. I became really interested in water issues. We have so little water out here in New Mexico and so many threats to it - from pollution to transferring of water rights out of rural communities for urban development.

I organized the first Dia del Rio back when I worked with AmeriCorps in Las Vegas, NM. In recent years, I haven't been able to dedicate much time to the water rights and river protection issues that I've always loved. When I heard about ELP, I saw it as an invaluable opportunity to continue my water issues work in the community. I knew that I wanted to do the Dia del Rio celebration in my hometown of Pecos. I wanted to connect to the people in my own community, to raise awareness of water rights issues, and to get the community involved in ownership and stewardship of the river.

Last year's Dia del Rio event, supported by ELP and local sponsors, was an incredible success. It brought the whole community together - churches, schools, government, businesses, environmentalists, and local residents. One of the teachers who was involved said she had never seen such a successful community event in the years she'd lived in Pecos. I realized that it was such a success because we didn't approach it from a controversial perspective. Dia del Rio was a celebration of life on the river, something that everyone could appreciate.

TOP: Danzantes perform traditional dances at Dia del Rio. BOTTOM: An educational display about acequias and river ecology.

Tell us about this year's Dia del Rio.

This year I received an Activity Fund grant to organize the second Dia del Rio celebration in Pecos. Held on Sunday, October 21, the event started with a trash pickup, focusing on the bridges at the east and west Pecos River, then moved on to a fiesta at the river with a free barbeque, music (mariachis), traditional dancing (danzantes), poetry readings, and information booths from local environmental, government, and school groups.

We also sponsored three programs to extend the Dia del Rio celebration beyond the one day event by the river. We want to integrate community awareness and interest throughout the year and involve people for the long-term. We planted trees and other plants on the local school playground and sponsored a poster contest at the local schools, focusing on the question "What would you do to improve our watershed?" The local National Park Office also donated books on watersheds and wetlands to the school library. Many people in the community are interested in extending the trash pick-up to find longer-term solutions to Pecos's trash problem. We've scheduled a committee meeting to talk to the county government, State Department of Game and Fish and the U.S. Forest Service to try to solve the problem of illegal dump sites that wash trash and dead animals into the river. We're also planning to host an acequia by-laws workshop - also partially funded by ELP - for November that will include vital information about the management, duties, and rights of those using and governing these traditional waterways. This is intended to inform local farmers and help them preserve this ancient irrigation system in the face of increasing pressure to develop farmland and abandon traditional farming methods.

One of my biggest rewards for my work with Dia del Rio came when the principal of the Pecos school told me that the students had been learning about watersheds and acequias all year long, ever since the event last October. When I talked to the students, they really understood the concepts of watersheds and healthy wetlands. It was deeply rewarding to know that the celebration has had a lasting educational effect on the community.

Janice Varela, Dan Gruner, Jacob Park, next