An Interview with Board Members, Jon McNussen and Clark Bullard

Rob Kanter

by Rob Kanter, Prairie Rivers Network member

Prairie Rivers Network is the Illinois Affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), whose mission is to “inspire Americans to protect wildlife for our children’s future.” This partnership, started in 1999, connects PRN to national-level conservation work and creates opportunities to learn from our peers in other states.

Two of PRN’s board members, Jon McNussen and Clark Bullard, represented Illinois this year at the NWF Annual Meeting, where Clark Bullard was also re-elected to the NWF board of directors.

Prairie Rivers Network member Rob Kanter traveled with Jon and Clark and asked them to share what they learned from the NWF Annual Meeting. Rob Kanter is the author of the website www.environmentalalmanac.blogspot.com.

Rob Kanter: What do you get out of attending the National Wildlife Federation’s Annual Meeting? 

Clark Bullard

Clark Bullard: NWF is providing strong leadership in climate policy, particularly its efforts to focus Congress on the need to establish contiguous migration corridors to ensure that plants and wildlife can survive global warming.

Even in the most optimistic scenario for phasing out fossil fuels, wildlife and their food supplies must move northward together at a rate of 30 feet per day, every day for the next century, just to survive climate changes already in the pipeline. If we don’t link fragmented habitats, logically along our rivers and streams, hundreds of species will be trapped and die in the fragmented habitats where they live today. Prairie Rivers is working with Illinois Department of Natural Resources to focus the state’s Wildlife Action Plan on this critical issue of wildlife survival.

In the Midwest, the biggest threat to wildlife is from industrial agriculture. Sixty-seven percent of Illinois’ land has been turned into an ecologically sterile landscape of corn and beans producing polluted runoff that is currently unregulated by EPA. With food and fuel now competing for a finite amount of land, pollution could increase and more habitat could be destroyed. Now is the time to re-visit agriculture’s special exemptions from our environmental laws – before it is too late.

I think we all draw inspiration from hearing about the successes of others. Representatives from the New Mexico affiliate, for example, gave a truly compelling presentation on their work to organize groups with widely divergent interests in order to protect the Valle Vidal (aka “New Mexico’s Yellowstone”) from oil and gas development.

Jon McNussen

Jon McNussen: Going to the meeting allows me to learn about what’s going on in other states in terms of policy and legislative activity, and to get a sense of what strategies are working effectively for other affiliates. It also allows me to share what’s effective for us with others.

It’s also good to meet with other people face-to-face to talk over opportunities for collaboration, since the concerns of Prairie Rivers Network-clean air, clean water, wildlife-transcend political boundaries.

Rob Kanter: How will what you heard at the meeting influence your approach to PRN’s work in Illinois?

Jon McNussen: I was struck by the commitment to developing partnerships with groups that haven’t been traditional allies to work in pursuit of common goals. I think that’s what it’s going to take to meet a challenge as large as global warming.

I also applaud the way NWF brings together a wide variety of speakers, from people who are working on technical solutions to energy challenges, to hunters and anglers, the people who are witnessing climate change on the ground. We’re at a critical moment for action, one that calls for changes in policy, business, and everyday behavior.

Clark Bullard: Two things. My service on the committee that oversees NWF’s 47 state affiliates reveals that PRN is well above average but still has much to learn from more successful peers, and NWF provides opportunities to do just that. Second, NWF is a $100 million/year organization with a talented staff that exerts a powerful influence on federal policy. Employing some of the same governance and staffing practices here can increase PRN’s effectiveness in Illinois.