Champion of
the
By Kevin Cooney
Mayfield Marketing & Editorial
Services
“If you want to get something done,” the
saying goes, “ask a busy man.” That aphorism could easily apply to Charlie
Conklin, except for one small detail: Charlie gets an amazing number of things
done without ever having to be asked.
In fact, his accomplishments on behalf of
the
“I work with others,” he said. “If I
didn’t have so many others willing to work, I couldn’t do anything.”
We’ll get back to Charlie and his
team-building talents in a minute. First, let’s spend a little time with our
beautiful—but troubled—
That the
Which is why the Gunpowder Valley
Conservancy (GVC) came into being.
Founded in 1989 to help conserve the
lands that support agriculture, wildlife and ecological systems, the GVC is
dedicated to protecting and restoring wetlands, streams and riparian areas, as
well as preserving historic and natural resources and promoting education,
stewardship and outdoor activities.
Just one year after the GVC was founded,
Charlie Conklin organized the organization’s first Stream Committee to
spearhead local stream cleanups and water-quality surveys. He then expanded his
focus from local streams to a statewide initiative by organizing
Those were just the first of Charlie’s
countless contributions to the
Born on Long Island 72 years ago, Charlie
has always had a love for the outdoors, even though “outdoors” during his
childhood consisted largely of hours spent on his apartment rooftop, looking
down on the
A graduate of
In 1968, he and his wife moved to a
lovely streamside home in rural Glen Arm, where they still live today. In the
years that followed, saving that stream—and countless others—became Charlie’s
passion, a passion that’s apparently highly contagious, judging by the number
of volunteers who are happily swept along in his energetic wake.
Any of those people would readily agree
that Charlie has a unique ability to make connections and to mobilize people
into collaborative projects. He brings a holistic understanding of the
challenges facing the bioregion, integrating scientific, legal, economic and
even spiritual perspectives to find solutions. With him as a driving force, and
with the volunteer help of the Kiwanis Club, the Dulaney High School Key Club,
the Civilian Conservation Corps, Baltimore County Eagle Scouts and others, here
are a few of the environmentally positive things that have been accomplished in
the Gunpowder watershed:
• More than 1,300 acres of the Loch Raven
watershed have been preserved.
• Some 16,000 trees have been planted on
80 acres of watershed land.
• 150 tons of trash and debris have been
collected.
• 75 volunteers have been mobilized to
adopt 20 quarter-mile stretches of streams through the Stream Watch Program that
Charlie developed.
• The Care of Creation Task Force encouraging
Additionally, Charlie has received
clean-water funding from
Charlie recognizes that working for the
environment is an ongoing mission, and that not all of the benefits will be
realized immediately. He likes to quote a Chinese proverb that illustrates this
fact: “One generation plants a tree, another gets the shade.”
When asked if he sees a growing sense of
responsibility for the environment among seniors and others, Charlie replied
with enthusiasm: “Absolutely. People now come to us asking what they can do to
help.”
And when asked how he’d like to be
thought of, Charlie paused momentarily, then said, “I’m just someone who wants
to give people an opportunity to achieve worthwhile goals; someone who wants to
help restore God’s creation to the perfect way it was.”
It’s a big job, but fortunately Charlie
Conklin is just the busy man to do it.
