So it’s not a case where the organization becomes an extension of someone’s personality?
I think it’s becoming less so. The force of the founding staff members’ personalities has become less as the organization began to grow. When we were smaller, their personalities dominated the policies and practices of the organization. Not that they didn’t make any mistakes … we wouldn’t be where we are today without them having made some good decisions. As the organization has grown, and as we came to the situation where first James [Monteith and now Andy [Kerr] have left, that the board took a much longer and harder look at finding people who could fill those shoes as best they could and also had some of the broader financial, fundraising, and developmental skills.
Does the board look at you as a carryover from those days when leaders were primarily conservation advocates? I have a little bit of autonomy, I would say, because I’m a veteran, if you will. There’s only one other staff member, Tim Lillebo, who’s been with ONRC longer than I have. I’ve told him that if he doesn’t stop smoking cigarettes, I’ll outlive him (both laugh).
I don’t know if this has been verbalized so much, but I know some people wonder “What exactly does Wendell do down in Klamath County?” A lot of the issues regarding the wetlands and wildlife populations are really different than what our constituency developed around. They organized around saving forests rather than saving refuges and wetlands. I’ve taken every opportunity recently [to do educational work about this]. We did a tour for some foundation [representatives] and [ONRC] board members so that they can see what I’m doing. They were impressed [to see] that they are not simply funding some hare-brained thing that I wish to do. What I’m saying is that I feel accountable to show what I’m doing has some results. I don’t think I can be carried, in effect. Just because I did some grunt work early on, they don’t owe me. I do, though, acknowledge that I have some autonomy because of that reason. There may also be a feeling that “If hers managed to hold on this many years, he must be doing something right.” I’m assuming I get some credit in that regard. It’s interesting to me that while we are doing the strategic planning, which is the catch phrase or whatever, supposedly all of our different programs and policies are on the table. We’re doing interviews with focus groups and individuals to ask what is ONRC doing right, and what are we doing wrong. One of the comments I’ve made to my [executive] director is that it’s a lot like the top ten songs on the radio. They become the top ten because they are played the most often (laughs). If nobody’s heard about the marshes in Klamath County, then nobody knows that it’s a significant issue. I feel it’s still a case where we make the decision, but we listen to what people have to say. There’s always a pragmatic part of it–that you can’t work on something that nobody cares about. If you say that I’m identifying a new issue and we call this to the public’s attention, then at some point the public has to respond.
