Remembering Sarah
By Scott R. Cooper, Crook County Judge
first published in the Central Oregonian of Prineville, Oregon, March 2008
Margaret Mead, the renowned anthropologist, once famously said, “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
The saying appears on posters, refrigerator magnets and letter-size print outs posted on bulletin boards in schools and non-profit organizations. For the most part, it’s a “feel-good” saying meant to make often uninspiring work a little more appealing or to enhance recruitment of volunteers. Only on very rare occasions does someone get the opportunity to actually put the saying into practice.
My friend Sarah was such a person, and indeed she and her small group literally changed the world in our county.
The Sarah to whom I refer is Sarah Thomas and her group is the Crook County Natural Resources Planning Committee. Sarah is on my mind this week, because Sarah passed away on Sunday evening after an all-too-brief struggle with a debiliting illness and its ravaging effects.
Sarah was a one-woman band for protecting the environment. I use the word “protecting” because Sarah was no environmentalist interested in locking up the land and keeping it out of reach. Rather, she was committed to the idea that land is a trust and that communities and people have a responsibility to manage land for their own benefit and the benefit of future generations.
Sarah thought forests ought to be selectively cut and prudently thinned. She thought magnificent old trees ought to be saved but she also knew that young trees have to be removed—by fire or by hand thinning—or the health of the entire forest eco-system is put at risk. She thought that special places ought to be preserved for the enjoyment of future generations but she also thought that roads ought to be built that allowed people to see and appreciate those places. Sarah was ever up for an adventure, and she would have been the first one to jump on the back of an off-road vehicle to go see something amazing, but she never would have strayed from the established path and she wouldn’t have thought of “mudding” a riparian area on her way.
Sarah believed in wildlife conservation, but she appreciated a fishing and hunting culture as much as anyone. Sarah believed the public lands belong to the people, and she believed that necessarily meant people should be allowed to visit them for the purpose of camping, or woodcutting or fishing or rockhounding and everything else people do out there.
And because Sarah was so passionate and so firm about her beliefs, she was uniquely able to pull people together and insist they talk to each other about what they believe and ultimately forge resolutions that could be supported by environmentalists, ranchers, timber companies, federal and state agency representatives and community members. She called her group of 25 people, the Crook County Natural Resources Planning Committee, and thanks to Sarah’s diligence, the group has achieved some remarkable things since it was started in 2002. The group has raised awareness in governments around the county of the importance of restoring riparian habitats and protecting those habitats through better planning. The group has helped the forest service and environmental groups come to terms on how to proceed on proposed timber sales and has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money that would have been spent on appeals. The group has helped grazing permitees work through their differences with federal land managers. In its own small way and its own backyard, the group has been slowly changing its world.
Interestingly, Sarah came to her interest in natural resources late in life. She was not by any stretch of the imagination an expert in environmental science or land management policy. Her career-years were spent in healthcare. She stumbled, rather than walked with purpose, into the natural resources arena, but once she knew she had found her element and never looked back.
Her gift was in inspiring the rest of us to follow her passion. Sarah was more than willing to wait two or three hours in a lobby for an unscheduled appointment with a key decision-maker, yet when she finally got the opportunity to make her pitch, she never showed any signs of resentment. She didn’t let scientific jargon or endless amounts of governmental process scare her away from a good decision. Sarah didn’t know what a “dumb” question was. She just kept asking until she fully understood. And Sarah was someone who could be trusted with answers. If she didn’t like your response, she just kept providing more information in a sincere effort to change your mind. She didn’t personalize politics, and she never took her keen eyes off the ultimate goal of making the world around her better.
A lot of major environmental groups and public figures could have learned something from Sarah, had they ever met her.
In the last few years, Sarah became even more inspirational to those of us who knew her. Despite the cruel deterioration of her body forced by her progressive disease, she didn’t give up her passions. Accommodations had to be made, of course. She couldn’t travel quite as far, and she occasionally missed a meeting due to ill health. She began to walk with a cane, and travel over uneven ground became difficult. Still, she traveled the state, she made trip to a fire camp last summer, she still visited the forest, and she checked in regularly with all of us by email and telephone. The last time I spoke with her, she was planning a big “thank you” party at her house later this summer to inspire the volunteers on her committee. To anyone with a disability, Sarah was living proof that physical infirmity doesn’t make a person less useful to society.
For some reason, Sarah was very much on my mind this past Sunday. I had known she had been taken to the hospital, and I had hoped for some sort of recovery. The alternating showers of rain and snow along with blowing wind didn’t raise my spirits any as I wondered how she was doing. Thus, I wasn’t really surprised when the phone call came about 6:45 p.m. that my friend and my muse on all things environmental had passed out of this world.
Nor was I surprised when minutes after the phone call, the sun broke through the clouds and the world that was black and gray moments ago was suddenly transformed. I knew suddenly that Sarah had just arrived at her new destination, full of plans and ideals, zeal and enthusiasm and that the world around me had good reason to rejoice.
first published in the Central Oregonian of Prineville, Oregon, March 2008
Margaret Mead, the renowned anthropologist, once famously said, “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
The saying appears on posters, refrigerator magnets and letter-size print outs posted on bulletin boards in schools and non-profit organizations. For the most part, it’s a “feel-good” saying meant to make often uninspiring work a little more appealing or to enhance recruitment of volunteers. Only on very rare occasions does someone get the opportunity to actually put the saying into practice.
My friend Sarah was such a person, and indeed she and her small group literally changed the world in our county.
The Sarah to whom I refer is Sarah Thomas and her group is the Crook County Natural Resources Planning Committee. Sarah is on my mind this week, because Sarah passed away on Sunday evening after an all-too-brief struggle with a debiliting illness and its ravaging effects.
Sarah was a one-woman band for protecting the environment. I use the word “protecting” because Sarah was no environmentalist interested in locking up the land and keeping it out of reach. Rather, she was committed to the idea that land is a trust and that communities and people have a responsibility to manage land for their own benefit and the benefit of future generations.
Sarah thought forests ought to be selectively cut and prudently thinned. She thought magnificent old trees ought to be saved but she also knew that young trees have to be removed—by fire or by hand thinning—or the health of the entire forest eco-system is put at risk. She thought that special places ought to be preserved for the enjoyment of future generations but she also thought that roads ought to be built that allowed people to see and appreciate those places. Sarah was ever up for an adventure, and she would have been the first one to jump on the back of an off-road vehicle to go see something amazing, but she never would have strayed from the established path and she wouldn’t have thought of “mudding” a riparian area on her way.
Sarah believed in wildlife conservation, but she appreciated a fishing and hunting culture as much as anyone. Sarah believed the public lands belong to the people, and she believed that necessarily meant people should be allowed to visit them for the purpose of camping, or woodcutting or fishing or rockhounding and everything else people do out there.
And because Sarah was so passionate and so firm about her beliefs, she was uniquely able to pull people together and insist they talk to each other about what they believe and ultimately forge resolutions that could be supported by environmentalists, ranchers, timber companies, federal and state agency representatives and community members. She called her group of 25 people, the Crook County Natural Resources Planning Committee, and thanks to Sarah’s diligence, the group has achieved some remarkable things since it was started in 2002. The group has raised awareness in governments around the county of the importance of restoring riparian habitats and protecting those habitats through better planning. The group has helped the forest service and environmental groups come to terms on how to proceed on proposed timber sales and has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money that would have been spent on appeals. The group has helped grazing permitees work through their differences with federal land managers. In its own small way and its own backyard, the group has been slowly changing its world.
Interestingly, Sarah came to her interest in natural resources late in life. She was not by any stretch of the imagination an expert in environmental science or land management policy. Her career-years were spent in healthcare. She stumbled, rather than walked with purpose, into the natural resources arena, but once she knew she had found her element and never looked back.
Her gift was in inspiring the rest of us to follow her passion. Sarah was more than willing to wait two or three hours in a lobby for an unscheduled appointment with a key decision-maker, yet when she finally got the opportunity to make her pitch, she never showed any signs of resentment. She didn’t let scientific jargon or endless amounts of governmental process scare her away from a good decision. Sarah didn’t know what a “dumb” question was. She just kept asking until she fully understood. And Sarah was someone who could be trusted with answers. If she didn’t like your response, she just kept providing more information in a sincere effort to change your mind. She didn’t personalize politics, and she never took her keen eyes off the ultimate goal of making the world around her better.
A lot of major environmental groups and public figures could have learned something from Sarah, had they ever met her.
In the last few years, Sarah became even more inspirational to those of us who knew her. Despite the cruel deterioration of her body forced by her progressive disease, she didn’t give up her passions. Accommodations had to be made, of course. She couldn’t travel quite as far, and she occasionally missed a meeting due to ill health. She began to walk with a cane, and travel over uneven ground became difficult. Still, she traveled the state, she made trip to a fire camp last summer, she still visited the forest, and she checked in regularly with all of us by email and telephone. The last time I spoke with her, she was planning a big “thank you” party at her house later this summer to inspire the volunteers on her committee. To anyone with a disability, Sarah was living proof that physical infirmity doesn’t make a person less useful to society.
For some reason, Sarah was very much on my mind this past Sunday. I had known she had been taken to the hospital, and I had hoped for some sort of recovery. The alternating showers of rain and snow along with blowing wind didn’t raise my spirits any as I wondered how she was doing. Thus, I wasn’t really surprised when the phone call came about 6:45 p.m. that my friend and my muse on all things environmental had passed out of this world.
Nor was I surprised when minutes after the phone call, the sun broke through the clouds and the world that was black and gray moments ago was suddenly transformed. I knew suddenly that Sarah had just arrived at her new destination, full of plans and ideals, zeal and enthusiasm and that the world around me had good reason to rejoice.
posted by Scott Cooper | 11:41 PM
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