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In case you have not noticed, nature lovers have received a wonderful gift! In fact, we have been lucky enough to get many gifts, perfect gifts, given to everyone by many people from all walks of life over 50 years ago. Our benefactors were people that thought about the future and cared about the world that their children and grandchildren would one day live in.

Many of those people are no longer with us, but back then, they knew that they had to give us something. In fact, they felt that they owed future generations more than they had ever received themselves. It was not enough to enjoy the world around them and keep it to themselves. They needed and wanted to leave it better. Although it was not easy and much of it was a battle that at times seemed unwinnable, they did just that, made things better for everyone.

Today, we get to enjoy those wonderful gifts in the form of incredible things such as the sight of a Bald Eagle flying overhead, a family walk along a saved wildlife preserve and the honor of sitting by a clean running stream. Those special gifts came in boxed marked by The Endangered Species Act, The Clean Water Act, The Clean Air Act, The Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Earth Day and The NJ Green Acres program, just to name a few.

Sadly, sometimes we receive gifts that are often taken for granted and selfishly accepted without consideration of the sacrifice made by the giver.  But we can no longer afford that luxury. It’s time to pay it forward and ultimately decide what our own legacy will be.

As many of you may know, I am on old Teamster and my background is in the labor movement. And of course, the mantra and lifeblood of any good labor union is to “Organize.” Simply put, it’s a way to bring people together and make things better. There is great power in joining together for the common good and that is exactly what our gift givers did back then. Old, young, rich, poor, Democrat and Republican. And that is exactly what we need to do better if we are to leave the next generation a better community to live in.

A solitary walk in nature can be one of the most therapeutic things we can do to improve our mental and physical health. Whether we are bird watching, looking at plants, taking photographs or just sauntering along with family, at the same time we need to understand that these wonderful natural places we love and the wildlife we cherish did not happen by accident. Whether you know it or not, just like the labor movement, there is power in numbers.

We will need everyone in the coming years, from the expert birder that travels the world to the backyard nature lover, because the proverbial barbarians are always at the gate. And they are just waiting to develop warehouses, apartment developments and sports fields, over every and any wildlife habitats that we have left.

The voices that are typically heard are not the nature lovers but all the others that the politicians seem to hear above ours. We need to ORAGANIZE! And let our elected officials and government agencies hear from the rest of us with one voice for the environment.

In the labor movement, we once dreamed of the one BIG Union so that we all could speak with one voice, but that would never happen. In addition, it is the same in the environmental movement, which actually works out just fine! One organization concentrates on wetlands, another on birds, yet another on butterflies, some on plants and others on climate change and national environmental issues. Now, it is up to you to decide what is most important to you, and then don’t sit back! Be Heard! Join up! Get involved!

Individuals can no longer sit back and watch habitat destruction and say, “Oh Well.”  Nature, our wildlife, the birds, bees and butterflies will not continue unless all of us decide to stand up and join together to say enough is enough, and demand more open space preservation, wetlands instead of warehouses, and wildlife conservation instead of condos. There is power in numbers and the conservation movement needs all of us!

 See you in the Meadowlands