May 5, 2022
When Kathy Hadley was living in New York, one of her nephews got unexpectedly sick. Several kids in the neighborhood were experiencing the same thing, and it turned out that the town's school was built on a toxic waste site. Being involved in the Love Canal environmental disaster kickstarted Hadley's career in conservation. When she moved to Montana and noticed that plants wouldn't grow on certain parts along the Clark Fork River (places now called "slickens"), she recognized a similar situation. Hadley has been a long-standing leader and board member for the Montana Wildlife Federation and the National Wildlife Federation. In the sixth installment of the Artemis Women in Conservation Leadership Series, we talk about meaningful service and how you can doggedly pursue change that matters.
4:00 Growing up on an island in the middle of the Niagara River
10:00 Changing from an outdoorswoman to a conservationist
12:00 Sharing mom duties with your sister
13:00 An interest in activism... it started with sick kids at the Love Canal contamination site in New York
16:00 Sick children, homes with no value, and a meeting with President Carter
20:00 Finding another contamination site after a cross-country move to Montana
21:00 "Slickens" on the Clark Fork, spots where nothing grows
22:00 A flood plain catches many contaminants; eventually the Clark Fork River was designated as a Superfund site
23:00 The Clark Fork Coalition
24:00 "Sometimes change takes decades when you're talking about landscapes and bureaucracies."
30:00 Board service and the institutional knowledge in a strong board
35:00 Montana Wildlife Federation - longest standing conservation org in Montana
36:00 In the 80s there was a rise in conservation orgs (especially species-specific ones)
37:00 Did you catch Artemis' episode on RAWA with Sara Parker Pauley?
38:00 Rise in coalition-building between conservation groups
41:00 Has the era of connectivity threatened more meaningful communication with one another?
43:00 On successful teams, everyone contributes -- even if it's making coffee for the group, we all do all the jobs/chores
46:00 Starting meetings with a set of expectations for group conduct
52:00 Small organizational changes, like replacing vice chairs with co-chairs
56:00 So... how about you run for secretary?
58:00 Detaching emotions from work that matters; You don't need to have deep personal relationships with colleagues to do meaningful work with them
1:01 The rise of self-directed learning in sporting pursuits