Del Dow
By CSERC Director John Buckley
Many years ago, Congressman Norm Shumway held a regional hearing to take public input on whether local USFS roadless areas should become designated Wilderness. He was known to stridently oppose protection for any area if there was even the slightest reason to leave it open to logging, road construction, mining, or other economic uses.
Amidst a crowd of anti-wilderness advocates who packed the session, I nervously stood up and did a poor job of arguing for Wilderness protection for local roadless areas. Sitting back down, I knew I hadn’t made the slightest difference with the Congressman. Then a well-dressed man with a short crew-cut stood up and began by stating he was a life-long Republican. The Congressman beamed. Both the Congressman and I were surprised when the speaker launched into an eloquent promotion of the economic and societal values of preserving ALL of the region’s roadless areas as permanent Wilderness. By the time he finished, I could see that the Congressman was visibly affected. That passionate, articulate speaker had clearly challenged the Congressman’s anti-wilderness mindset.
The speaker turned out to be Del Dow. Del was an engineer for Kaiser Aluminum and traveled around the world. What made him unique was his devotion to the forests and high country of the Sierra Nevada. He not only spoke at that regional meeting, he also traveled to Washington, DC to effectively testify and help gain the expansion of the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness Area. In later years he proudly showed me giant old growth conifers that had been marked for logging and were now fully protected inside permanently designated Wilderness that he helped achieve.
Del and his equally well-traveled wife, Jean, were founding members of the Tuolumne Group of the Sierra Club and longtime active members of the local Central Sierra Audubon Society. Del volunteered with the Forest Service doing backcountry wilderness efforts, including water quality sampling to test remote lakes for acid rain deposition.
Periodically, even when he reached 92 years of age, Del would contact our Center to read over the phone his latest draft comment letter that he was submitting as part of his activism to support environmental protection. His comments were personal, well organized, and persuasive. It was partly due to his balanced, well-spoken example that CSERC was formed in 1991 to provide a compelling voice for wildlife, water, and wild places. Del and Jean were two of the first donors to ever contribute to CSERC. In September I had a chance to meet with Del, and he shared how much he valued our partnership and friendship. Del passed on weeks later – leaving a legacy of having been intensely involved with a long list of community and conservation groups. His inspiration to CSERC ripples on in our staff’s efforts to defend the region he so loved.