Harold Wood has been a wilderness advocate and environmental activist and educator for over 30 years. In the Sixties he devoured the writings of John Muir as a high school student. In the Seventies, while attending college and graduate school, he worked on grassroots efforts to pass wilderness legislation in California and Washington State, which included congressional establishment of the Clearwater Wilderness in Washington and efforts supporting the Alaska Lands Act. In the Eighties, he worked on everything from international environmental issues like tropical rainforests to oak tree preservation in his home town of Visalia, California. In the Nineties he focused on environmental education and the Sierra Club John Muir Education Committee. Now in the Oughts, we feels we oughta Restore Hetch Hetchy and Stop Global Warming.
Harold is active in the Sierra Club, and currently chairs and is webmaster for the LeConte Memorial Lodge Committee, and the John Muir Education Committee (a subcommittee of the Sierra Club Education Committee). He is Global Warming chair for the Sierra Club's Mineral King Group in Visalia. He is the webmaster for the award-winning John Muir Exhibit website as well as for the Sierra Club's Hetch Hetchy Restoration website and the Restore Hetch Hetchy website. He is also the webmaster for the Sierra Club's Sequoia Task Force.
Harold has authored many publications on environmental and related topics.
He has received several awards from local and national environmental organizations, including the year 2000 Friend of the Oak Award from the Visalia Beautification Committee; the year 2000 Sierra Cup Award from the Sierra Club Kern Kaweah Chapter; and the Sierra Club's "Special Achievement Award."
Harold's day job as a government attorney working on behalf of public education - in which he believes strongly - still leaves room for him to pursue his environmental passions.
His hobbies include hiking, swimming, photography, reading, first-day cover collecting, world geography & travel (29 countries & counting), and watching movies. He enjoys Eco-music, Celtic Music, Folk Music, and Songs for World Peace.
Formal Education: J.D. 1980, University of Puget Sound (Now Seattle University) School of Law; M.S. 1976 University of Washington; B.S. 1973 University of California - Davis.
Religious Affiliations: Unitarian-Universalist; Universal Pantheist; World Pantheist, Macintosh.
Political Persuasion: Planet Patriot Party Platform
First job: In 1973, a 30 day assignment as a consultant to the California Department of Education evaluating the environmental content (more precisely what turned out to be the utter lack thereof) in social studies textbooks.
Current job: Government attorney by day, Environmentalist and volunteer website developer by night.
What is the most satisfying aspect of your website activites?
In "guestbook" entries and e-mails, people from around the world to tell me how John Muir inspires them to take positive environmental action. My website the John Muir Exhibit, http://www.johnmuir.info/ has a plethora of information on Muir.
What keeps you motivated on a day-to-day basis?
What motivates me is the realization that so much in the environmental field seems like "gloom and doom," but by recognizing John Muir as a wilderness hero and environmental icon, we find the inspiration for making environmental protection a positive thing. Muir taught us to not just look at, but to really see nature, the take our blinders off and realize that its beauty is overwhelming if we really open our eyes. Muir taught us that Nature "heals body and soul alike" and that wilderness is a necessity. Once people learn to really see the natural world, and to learn about its intricate inner workings, a scientific understanding blends with an artistic appreciation that simply compels us to recognize that other living things do have a right to exist, and that humans' role is to help ensure that all living things continue to live on earth.
Which personal characteristic has helped you most in your success?
A positive mental attitude, which is something my father taught me, has contributed more than anything to my success. Some environmentlists are motivated by such crises as horrific toxic pollution or the threat of extinction of species, and that is fine; but if you want to have "staying power" in the environmental field, your motive can't be just responding to all the awful things that are happening to the environment by the greedy and ignorant, but you must be more than that - - give yourself up to a complete love for our planet, a positive appreciation of all of nature's glories. Then, you can work to protect the Earth without despair. Environmental concern is then motivated by love and moral responsibility, not fear of threats, real or imagined.
What would be your advice to someone exploring a career?
Get a good liberal education in both sciences and liberal arts. Study the people who have made a difference in the past - people like John Muir and Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold, Joseph Wood Krutch, Edward Abbey, Ed Wayburn, and the countless other environmental activists who have written about or worked on behalf of our beautiful planet Earth.
At the same time, get involved as a volunteer in your community or with appropriate non-profit organizations to help make the world a better place! Balance work, family, and contributions to society.
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This page is maintained by Harold Wood.
E-mail: harold (at) planetpatriot.net
Last updated: 10-20-07