The Sierra Club’s legendary executive director, David Brower, said “compromise is often necessary but it ought not originate with the Sierra Club.” In the history of the Club, few activists have embodied that credo as fully as Pat Veesart, who passed away on Sept. 10 at his home on Goodwin Ranch in the Carrizo Plain National Monument. Anyone who knew him will never forget him. Pat was one of those people whose life and work and personality were too expansive to be fully captured in words. But we do have his own words, set down in 2014 as part of a Santa Lucian series profiling chapter activists, excerpted below. For those who didn’t know him, they provide some idea of the measure of the man.
How and why did you come to be a Sierra Club chapter leader?
Back in the ‘90s I was involved with an activist group called the Alternative Transportation Task Force (ATTF) that was advocating for bike lanes in San Luis Obispo City and County, better transit service and more livable neighborhoods. Our group was quite active and, ultimately, quite successful. The Santa Lucia Chapter was an ally in our efforts. The Chapter Chair at the time, Gary Felsman, offered to bring our group under the Sierra Club umbrella and we agreed. Suddenly we were Sierra Club activists; part of a larger agenda and with access to the Club’s support and resources. It made a big difference. Eventually I ended up on the Executive Committee of the local chapter, served some time as Chapter Chair, and was hired by the Club to work on a Sierra Club independent expenditure campaign to defeat Andrea Seastrand and get Walter Capps elected to Congress. I also worked for the Club in Alaska as an organizer on forest issues and in Sacramento where I was the Chapter Liaison for Sierra Club California – connecting California’s 13 chapters with the State organization. The national Sierra Club organization is like a huge battleship – not especially nimble, but capable of delivering awesome firepower once you go through all the maneuvers to get it into position. The day-to-day work of the Club – work on local issues that people feel most passionately about – occurs at the chapter level.
What do you do in your day job?
I have the privilege to work for the California Coastal Commission. My job title is “Enforcement Supervisor” and I supervise the Commission’s enforcement program in Southern California. It is a challenging job – one that requires me to bite my tongue often. We lack tools and staff, but despite the lack of resources, we are able to stop bad things from happening to coastal resources and to repair damage done. The best part of the job is the people I get to work with. Californians are lucky to have such smart and hard-working public servants in their corner.
What do you think have been the high points for conservation and enlightened land use in SLO County?
Sadly, I don’t think that “enlightened land use” has come to San Luis Obispo County yet. We put good language into plans, but often fall short of actually implementing good policies. We continue to elect people who value expediency and making nice over actual conservation. Citizens are more engaged with their gadgets than they are with the decisions being made that affect our incredible county. And really, it is generous to call people “citizens” if they are not at least somewhat engaged. Inexorably, we are following the path that so many California counties have trod before us. I will say that we have, through the efforts of citizens in this county, managed to create a pretty good General Plan with progressive land-use policies. We have done a pretty good job on energy policy, on policies that protect agriculture, and on policies that discourage sprawl. However, our elected officials routinely ignore those policies when it comes to individual development proposals. One has to ask why we bother to make plans if we are not going to follow them. Examples include building thousands of acres of solar sprawl on the Carrizo Plain in endangered species habitat; the County’s approval of sprawl development on ag land on the Santa Margarita Ranch; and the current ridiculous proposal (which never should have gotten this far) to build yet another gravel quarry, adjacent to the Salinas River and right next to an existing quarry, just east of Santa Margarita that will bring hundreds of gravel trucks through that community daily. Fortunately, the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors still can do the right thing here. Right?
Do you have a favorite place in nature you love to visit?
I have lived in SLO County for 43 years and I am still belly-ache in love with the region. We are so close to incredible wilderness, spectacular coastline, valley grasslands, oak woodlands, rivers and lakes, amazing biological, geological, archeological resources…I feel like a hungry man at an incredible banquet – I almost don’t know where to start. I love the Big Sur coast and the Ventana Wilderness; the Arroyo Seco is one of my favorite places in California. I love the Santa Barbara back country; the Los Padres National Forest. I love the Carrizo Plain; the San Emigdio Mountains; the southern Sierra and the southern San Joaquin Valley. The coast at San Simeon; Montaña de Oro; the Oceano/ Guadalupe Dunes complex; Point Sal... the list goes on and on and I’m still within 100 miles of San Luis Obispo!
Do you have an environmental hero?
Oh, there are so many. You have to love Ed Abbey for his passion and his irreverence; David Brower who, despite mistakes, held the line; Peter Douglas for his vision, leadership, and decency; Aldo Leopold; Rachel Carson. Locally, Bill Denneen, the EverReady Bunny of SLO County eco-activism; Richard Krejsa, Richard Kranzdorf and Richard Schmidt (collectively, the “Richards”); the McMillan brothers (Ian and Eben).…Too many to name. So many people have risen to so many occasions – right when they were needed – and they have left their mark on this county.
How do you recommend people get involved?
Show up! Pay attention! Tell the truth! Don’t be attached to the outcome. Showing up really matters. You can sit around and gripe about that which you do not like, or you can get off your duff and go to a city council meeting or the Board of Supervisors or get involved with some local NGO and start trying to change what you do not like. One path leads to impotence and one path leads to power. Oh, you’ll lose quite often but you will at least hold the people who are doing the things you don’t like accountable and you will lessen and slow their impact. They’d love it if you would just stay glued to your gadgets and leave the governing to them. If the siren call of gadgets is too strong, then send money. Get involved and you will meet the very best people and your life will be better for it.
What’s your vision for the future of the Chapter and our piece of California?
I assume our members know what an amazing chapter we have. When I worked for Sierra Club California I had regular contact with all 13 Sierra Club chapters in California, and the Santa Lucia Chapter is at the top of the heap. We are not the biggest, nor the best funded, but we do an incredible amount of good work for such a small chapter and we get it right most of the time. We are often on the cutting edge of what is happening in California and we are in a position to (and we do) influence the work of the other chapters and the national organization….
As for the future of the county, I feel strongly that we are in for some rough seas – right here and in California, and nationally and globally. If there was ever a time when we should be thinking about conserving our water sources, our food supply and our ability to produce energy locally, this is it. If there was ever a time when we should be coming together and working together as citizens of this county, this is it. When a crisis occurs, whatever that crisis happens to be, it will be our ability to take care of ourselves and each other that will make the difference. County leaders, at all levels, should be doing all they can to make us as self-sustaining as possible. The good news is that there is a lot of awareness and a lot of movement in the right direction here in SLO County. We are blessed with many advantages and with incredible natural and human resources. My fervent hope for the future is that people will focus more on how much we all have in common and less on our differences.
We recommend the remembrance of Pat Veesart and his work beyond the Sierra Club by Los Padres Forest Watch.