Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
opportunity to establish historic municipal government programs. Schell
had a unique background for a mayor; in the 1970s, he served as director
of community development for the municipality, and then worked as a
real estate developer, a Port of Seattle commissioner, and acting dean of
the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University
of Washington. More striking than his eclectic résumé was his outspoken
support of urban sustainability. Schell was fond of invoking a combination
of Callenbach's
Ecotopia
and bioregionalist idealism when he speculated
on the possible future of the Pacifi c Northwest and was a self-proclaimed
visionary who enjoyed philosophizing about big ideas.
37
Even more than his predecessor, Norm Rice, Schell recognized that there
was a connection between neighborhood activities and the environmental
character of the city, and he was determined to leave a legacy to refl ect this
connection, stating, “The citizens who settled Seattle wanted to conquer
nature. We want to celebrate it.”
38
Clearly, he was a student of Seattle's
development history and recognized an opportunity to create an alterna-
tive to the Promethean goal of the ultimate control of nature. Anticipating
the forthcoming 1999 ESA salmon listing, Schell wrote an op-ed piece in
the
Seattle Times
titled “Saving Salmon May Save Ourselves”:
The reasons for a declining salmon population can be summed up easily: We hu-
mans create too many competing uses for our rivers, streams and oceans. If you're
looking for something to blame, it's the growth and development that surrounds
us. . . . In short, millions of people have crowded out millions of fi sh. It's time to
strive for a better balance. . . . Our wild salmon connect us to the land we live on,
to the people who were here before us, and to the people who will be here when
we are gone. We can save this wonderful creature, and by doing so, we may very
well be saving ourselves.
39
Schell's confl ation of salmon health and human health was a refl ection of
his belief in the standard prescription for sustainable development with
environmental protection and economic development as complementary
rather than competing goals.
40
Schell put this belief into action with the inauguration of the Urban
Creeks Legacy Program in 1999, designating four creeks—Longfellow,
Piper's, Taylor, and Thornton—in the four corners of the city to be tar-
geted for restoration efforts (see fi gure 6.4). The initiative dedicated $15
million in funding over a fi ve-year period to improve urban salmon habi-
tat. A former director of SPU notes, “The idea was to have fi sh come back
to the four corners of the city. We're not going to make a dent in saving
salmon, but we're going to make a big dent in the public's understanding
of the life of salmon and the life of a creek.”
41
The Urban Creeks Legacy
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