Natural Resources Stakeholder’s Summit
February 11, 2009 Print
Thank you for coming here today and taking the time to listen, and to share the benefit of your experience as we set out to solve the economic challenges facing Ohio’s natural resources. I hope that what you hear today will help prove the value of what we are all entrusted with preserving.
The department is now barely two-thirds the size it was in 1992. There are many reasons for this, but I work from the most obvious one; the work the department does was seen as a low priority. When choices are made, Ohioan's first priority is to their families and jobs. In the past, natural resources took a back seat. I guess that belief made sense at one time. But it is the failure of this belief, this mindset mired in the past, that we are here to dispel.
At its heart, at its most basic, the job of every ODNR employee is the same as every other public servant; it is to put Ohioans back to work, to make Ohio a better place to live, work and raise a family.
To get to where we want Ohio to be, we need to first accept that tomorrow's jobs, tomorrow's workers, will be different than today’s. To attract and hold them, we have to set aside the mis-perception that we can have progress, or we can save our environment, but we can never do both. Not only is this inaccurate, it is dangerous to recovery. Competition for jobs requires us to set new priorities. Any development that is good for Ohio will occur in cooperation with natural resources, not at their expense. One part cannot succeed without the other. Anytime we diminish one, we diminish both.
The value of resource management will grow as competition for resources grows. When businesses relocate, their decisions are based on dozens of variables. Families too, make their choices based on dozens of variables. You’ve seen the lists of criteria. On none of those lists, under qualities desired, does it mention dying streambeds, leafless trees, sewage overflow, traffic jams or dust.
I never saw any of those things on any of those lists. What I saw, what business and workers both want, is what ODNR is fighting for. Access to green space. Proximity to open land. The opportunity to interact with nature; clean water and air, and the promise of a future where these things will never be taken away.
Simply put, Ohio's economic and social health will not be separated, for long, from the health of our air, water and soil. Natural resource issues are jobs issues. Environmental issues are health care issues. Access to nature is an education issue. The development projects of the future will go to those states with the most enlightened conservation policies. Sound resource management can provide new workers and new businesses with what they are searching for. ODNR is ready to serve this community, and assure that all growth factor in sustainability and conservation. In this light, a strong argument can be made that this is exactly the time for a strong state DNR.
If ODNR is given the resources we need to be full partners in education, health and development… to play our part in improving these three key responsibilities of state government, we will all be able to look back on our time here with no regrets.
And just as important, looking ahead, when we deal with nature, the decisions we make... it is not enough that they be defensible today. They must also be defensible tomorrow and the next day... they have to be defensible in terms of what is best for Ohio for as far ahead as we can see from where we stand.
Our job is to find ways to use Ohio's natural resources to create the most opportunity, for the most people, in the most ways, for the longest time possible.
In terms of state government, if the Department of Development is about creating jobs as soon as possible, then the Department of Natural Resources is about creating jobs for as long as possible.
So that is why, at this critical time, as we're all trying to do what's best for Ohio... best right now and in the months ahead... that is why we are asking for the tools to act aggressively, and for this department to re-gain a priority in proportion to our promise.
Through this budget, we will continue to expand on the work being done. We will expand our role in creating a state where people want to live, work and raise a family. We will prove that sustainability means jobs. We will show that the sound management of our resources is not only morally and aesthetically right; it is economically imperative.
Thank you.