Jane Block

Jane Block

Board Member, Riverside Land Conservancy

“You have no enemies. You only have people who need more information.”

 

Anthony: In which case, let’s get this interview started. So, what made you decide to get involved with environmental activism?

Jane: Environmental activism? In the early 70s I was involved in the feminist movement here in Riverside, we moved to a house that was at the base of the Box Springs Mountains my husband and I were hiking in the mountains with our kids and encountered a man on a motorcycle who said he was a developer and was going to hide all the ugly boulders on the mountain with beautiful homes. My husband and I decided that we would put together a group and attempt to save at least the tops of the mountains as a park; the effort was successful with the support of our County Supervisor Norton Younglove and many university and community members. In two years we had saved two thousand and some acres, which included the land around our house and the majority of the mountain, this has been a great inspiration to me. It also helped to have a prior example of conservation in Riverside that offered a model to follow– three women saved the Santa Ana River in Riverside County from becoming a transportation and utility corridor. They offered both a model and good advice. Pete Dangerman was the Riverside County Park Director and their guide he has great insight as to how to go about saving important open space. Their group succeeded in keeping the river from being channelized we have a beautiful river here in Riverside. Their efforts and success were inspirational. That was the beginning of my environmental career. [Laughs] After that I got a call from Dan Silver who was a physician in West LA who hiked in the Santa Rosa plateau on weekends. He came to the Santa Rosa plateau actually, as he expressed it, to refresh himself spiritually and physically. He asked if I would help him put together a group because there was threat of development on the plateau. It took two years but with the help on many dedicated people from Temecula and the assistance of Pete Damgermond (who was then a consultant). Preserve our Plateau saved three thousand acres on the Santa Rosa plateau. Dan went on to put his medical profession on hold and began the Endangered Habitats League. You can look it up on the Internet and get a lot of information about it. I am on that board as well as the Riverside Land Conservancy board. The EHL has done incredible work in Riverside County, San Bernardino County, San Diego County and Orange County. Other people that were involved in the saving of the Santa Rosa Plateau have also gone on to do very interesting things just very recently. Kathleen Hamilton who was involved as a board member in Preserve our Plateau—went organized the effort that kept a mountain in Temecula that the Pachanga Indians claimed as their point of origin from being developed as Liberty Quarry that was a great effort and one that was ultimately successful and the Pachanga tribe purchased the land. The Riverside Land Conservancy has preserved thousands of acres of important habitat and connectivity for the wildlife in Riverside County.

Amanda: Great that was detailed and really, I think, powerful story. I just looked up the Endangered Habitats League. So what are some difficulties that you’ve come across in your career?

Jane: Difficulties?

Amanda: Yes

Jane: Well there are always difficulties and I think—it isn’t the issue of difficulties. It’s the issue of how one handles difficulties. One of the philosophies that I developed very early in my career was that essentially I would be very professional when I started on a project. I understood that as a self-occupied person that my reward was my success so my success was important. It was my reward for the work that I did. One of the basic things that I found effective was to approach an issue with a concept that I would not personalize issues even if I was attacked I would maintain a professional attitude and dealt with opponents staff and collaborators in a positive manner.

Amanda: “Thank you. How do you think uh or what does it take to bring about social change at a local level?”

Jane: I have developed some concepts on that. … I think that you have to ask yourself and the group some tough questions. What will you personally gain or lose? What is the potential gain or loss for the community? Are you or a member of your group going to use this project to parlay into an elected, appointed, or paid position? And after you get the personal and group motivation and ambitions out of the way you need to really get serious and define if you are enhancing an existing system, changing a system, or creating a new system. Now this helps you understand where you will find support and opposition to your plans and this is very important to your planning for success. Incidentally, when planning for success it is very important to take into consideration planning for everyone’s success. The best projects have no losers. The best projects are very inclusive. The best projects—the most successful projects—everyone wins.

Anthony: Definitely, so going along…

Jane: Although, we are a capitalistic society and the winning for the person who’s investing money may not be in, in dollars, but they need to win.

Anthony: Definitely, definitely. Now um going along the same lines of social change, how do you think you sh- create social create?

Jane: Create social change? I think one creates social change by choosing a goal, developing a strategic plan, defining if the project will enhance, or change an existing system or create a new system. This will help you understand where you will find support and opposition to your plan and allow you to develop strategies to deal with both. You can either form a new group or find an existing group that will assist in your project. Always behave in a professional way when you are putting together a group or organizing on a cause. Treat the public officials and the public employees with respect, that will inspires others to act professionally and it creates a positive tone regarding your effort and you will have a greater chance of success. Obviously I’m not into defining issues in an oppositional way. That seems to me to be a waste of time and energy and when people attempt to do that with me I react in a very bland way so that it does not’ gain any energy.

Anthony: Great, so onto the next question. For you personally, what was the most rewarding thing about being an activist?

Jane: Well, the you know, I’ve actually been thinking about that and thinking about what the pay is for an environmental activist

Amanda: [Laughs]

Jane: Again, we are a capitalistic society and it important for me to recognize how I’ve been paid for the work that I’ve done. It’s really a fantastic thing to be able to drive by a mountain that you’ve saved and look at that mountain and say, “I was part of the group. I was a factor in saving that mountain.” And one should always be quick to share the credit no one gets much done by themselves alone. It’s always a group thing that happens, I encourage people to collect the dividends for their good work, when they go by a park they’ve saved, when they drive by a mountain they’ve saved, acknowledge that you participated in saving that mountain, creating the park staring a group to help the homeless, electing an official, When I drive to Temecula and pass Clinton Keith road I see the Santa Rosa Plateau in the distance and I collect big dividends.

Anthony: Definitely, so what is something unexpected that you’ve encountered in your career? .

Jane: Unexpected? I think that the thing that—and this was a long time ago the thing that really was surprising to me was that so many people miss the fact that people who are working, in environmental departments for the county or the state or the federal government are professionals who want to do the right thing for the environment. However appropriately they do not want to jeopardize their job or their career. If you can assist them by helping them to make the right choice for the environment without jeopardizing their job, they’re very grateful and they’ll help you in, in whatever way they can. I think that, that the philosophy that I always use in approaching any project is that at some point everyone, including my opposition, wants to do something good for humanity, good for the environment, and I have the obligation to help them find the pathway to accomplish that.

Anthony: Definitely, ok for the next question, what are some recommendations you would give to an aspiring activist?

Jane: Oh an aspiring activist. The recommendation I think is that—adopt the philosophy that you have no enemies. You only have people who need more information the… When people go into oppositional, stances in trying to promote a project, they waste their energy, they give their opponent’s tools to use, and it, and it’s a loss for them. So I’m not into oppositional, I’m into collaborative.

Anthony: Great, thank you for your thoughts and your time. And I guess as kind of a wrapping up question, do you have any last words of caution or I guess of inspiration?

Jane: Yes I have. Just remember that each person you deal with in any project within the political structure, a civic structure or the business or volunteer world is a person you may be dealing with again on another project, treat them with respect and courtesy even if they fail sometimes to respond in the same way.

Anthony: Great, well thank you very much Jane. We definitely appreciate your time and your thoughts.

Jane: Okay, the… I understand that you started with Penny Newman. She’s pretty spectacular, isn’t she?

Anthony: Yeah, we just interviewed her yesterday. She was, she was very inspiring.

Jane: She is—are you at all familiar with Riverside County?

Amanda: Yes, we are from the Claremont Colleges so we live relatively close to the area.

Jane: Ah, you know Riverside County is really interesting in respect to the difference in the way it has organized itself socially and environmentally from other areas around here. Are you familiar with the habitat conservation planning effort that we’ve done here?

Amanda: Um I just looked up the Endangered Habitats League and I saw that you guys have one of the most rigorous habitat protection plans ever kind of, I guess, put in and also looking at the floodplains of San Bernardino County, very interesting work.

Jane: Well I think that if you look at what has happened in Riverside County one of the key components and—I was involved in, in helping make this happen—is the County receives input from scientists at UCR so that the decisions that are made in the environmental area are made on scientific basis that was one of the big decision points for me in supporting the habitat conservation plan when Tom Mullin first proposed it I said “If it, if you have a relationship with the university and you utilize the information that is available there from the Environmental scientists then I’m going to support the plans, there is a department at the Center for Conservation Biology at UCR that is working with the county and helping them access the information that is available at the university I hope the same thing happens at your university and you should probably have a look at that. The thing that existed before we put all this together was that there was a lot of really valuable information on environment at the university because Professors do excellent research because accessing information at a university is a important factor and the fact that Riverside County has made this efforts is I think one of the real important functions that has happened in Riverside County and it even sheds over to Penny and what she does with minority groups because the developers, people who come to Riverside County to develop at this point understand that if they don’t look at the reality, the scientific reality, that they can be challenged in court, and so many of them are now of the mindset that rather than have that difficulty they will come and talk to the people who are trying to protect the environment or trying to protect minority groups in Riverside County. I know this happens with Penny and it happens with the Riverside Land Conservancy. Have you looked at the Riverside Land Conservancy website at all?

Amanda: No we haven’t but it’s definitely something that we look forward to doing.

Jane: Yes, well you certainly should do that. Incidentally, there’s a young woman working for the Riverside Land Conservancy currently that would be an example I think of how this has affected people. She’s young, she’s very idealistic, she’s working for the Land Conservancy, she’s doing great stuff. Would you be interested in having her name to interview?

Amanda: We’d like her name but we probably won’t interview her, but maybe one of our classmates would be interested in doing that as well.

Jane: Okay well her name is Nicole Studsman and she’s with the Riverside Land Conservancy. She’s working with our biologist Jack Easton and our director Gail Egenes. I’m on the Riverside Land Conservancy Board, incidentally.

Amanda: Yeah, we did read your resume and see. We, we found her name. Thank you.

Jane: I think one of the things that you need to be aware of is that the social change and the reality of the social climate happens concurrently at many levels and so that’s happened here in Riverside County. Incidentally, Amanda we were the second county in California to have a female majority on our Board of Supervisors.

Amanda: That’s great to hear.

Jane: Yeah that was very—it was very important and it made a continuing difference even to today where there is not a female on the Board of Supervisors but the Board of Supervisors has been much more open to women and their issues and the issues that they carry forth and in the past so—Okay well hey, good work you guys are doing and I hope you keep me informed as to how you progress and with your conclusions, okay?

Amanda: Yes, thank you so much we will transcribe the interview and send it for your approval at a later date.

Jane: Okay, thanks so much.

Amanda: Thank you for your time.

Anthony: Thank you

Jane: Bye-bye