Jack's Manifesto

Many people in my industry will exuberantly gush about how they are soooo privileged to be able to play outside “and get paid to do it.” They prattle on about how they are “livin’ the dream, baby.” The sun shines on them, the wind teases their hair, they dig their toes into the sand and all is right with the world.

Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Well, it is. But what if I were to suggest that it is not just my privilege but more so my obligation to do what I do?

Oregon’s state motto is “She flies with her own wings.” I am proud to identify myself as a Northwesterner because, as my state motto implies, we do things our own way here. Oregon’s history is inextricably linked to that of the natural world; the very lifeblood of my state, from the beginning, has been intricately connected to that of our environment. The people that have called this place home for the last 12,000 years are unlike anybody else in the country. We’re self-sufficient, tough, hard-working, and have a deeply passionate love affair with Mother Nature.

But the spark of that romance is rapidly fading as a generation of children that can only be described as having “nature deficit disorder” (thank you, Richard Louv) grow into the men and women who will vote, work, and govern in my state. As such, I believe —strongly— that it is my responsibility to do everything I can to ensure the survival of Oregon and America’s cultural heritage by sharing the natural world with that generation.

Kids need to know why the sky is blue. They deserve the opportunity to track a fox through deep, fresh mountain snow. Somebody needs to explain to them, in language they can understand, just why the moon disappears every month.

I’ll tell you why I do what I do: I do it because I’ve seen kids’ eyes light up when they look through my microscope and see the stoma through which our towering Ponderosa pines release the oxygen that allows us to survive.

You can’t un-learn that. And I can’t not share it.

And maybe, just maybe, if I can cause one family to better appreciate the beauty, fragility and importance of the natural world, they’ll in turn take better care of it.