Environment: a New Team

Environmental organizations often, and unfairly, are portrayed as negative forces in American life. The rap is that they are adept at attacking problems but do little toward finding solutions, and that they cost the American economy jobs and money by pushing for control of pollution.

The critics overlook the positive and contributory roles of organizations such as the Save-the-Redwoods League. Since 1921 the league has enlisted private funds to buy 600 groves of redwoods for inclusion in state parks. More recently the Environmental Defense Fund has joined with the Westlands Water District in an effort to find creative solutions to pollution in the San Joaquin Valley. Other groups support the national parks. The efforts of the Nature Conservancy and the Audubon Society are well known.

Now the California Fund for the Environment has been organized specifically to raise money to solve environmental problems. Proceeds will go into special accounts or trust funds, and then be applied to specific goals such as water quality, management of hazardous waste and wildlife preservation. The fund’s board is headed by Melvin B. Lane, chairman of the board of Lane Publishing Co., publisher of Sunset magazine.

The fund recently scored a coup by enlisting Joseph E. Bodovitz, one of California’s outstanding public servants, as its president. Bodovitz was the first executive director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, the first executive director of the California Coastal Commission and, since 1979, the executive director of the state Public Utilities Commission.

Early support for the fund has come from a number of foundations. While its offices are in the San Francisco area, it intends to be equally active in Southern California, Lane said.

With its strong leadership, the fund has the potential to become a major force in cleanup and conservation in California. It deserves strong support from all Californians.