OFCO’s First Environmental Awards

by Connie Gallant

During the last board meeting, we had the honor of presenting our organization’s first environmental awards. Although OFCO is a relatively young organization, we have been extremely fortunate to have formed such a powerful board comprised of very experienced, talented and dedicated individuals. Our work is never done and there aren’t enough of us to cover all the corners of the Olympic Peninsula. Thus, we have encouraged the participation of other volunteers who also care about what is happening in and around their backyard.

Our first environmental awards go to three very deserving activists: Dr. Derek Poon, Bill Spring and John Woolley.   Dr. Derek Poon has participated in reviews of the cumulative effects of the Olympic Experimental State Forest (OESF) Landscape Plan. He has used his expertise as a long-term employee of both the National Marine Fisheries Service and EPA to make unusual in-depth contributions. He also accepted the award for all the people who made contributions to the two sets of comments for the DEIS (2010) and Rev. DEIS (2013) on the OESF Landscape Plan.

Bill Spring represents concerned citizens who have lived amid industrial logging on state lands for decades. His volunteer work with OFCO has been to let others know what he sees around his home in rural Joyce. Bill has become very involved in giving local feedback to the Department of Natural Resources, striving to get them to focus on the consequences of their incomplete analyses.

John Woolley has been a forest activist for many years. This activity increased after he retired from teaching politics, the environment, history, and the social sciences. He is particularly interested in promoting wilderness ethics, and conducts groundtruthing activities for OFCO. John is very engaged in Forest Service issues throughout the entire Olympic Peninsula, attending meetings, hiking to inspect and report on road conditions, rivers, streams and wildlife habitat.  John has served as OFCO’s board president and is currently vice president.