The environment has had a good spring at Cape town meetings. Voters across the region have continued to approve investments in clean water despite growing concerns about looming economic disruptions. Approval of environmental improvement articles has been the rule, not the exception, at every town meeting I have heard about. The voter message is clear: Environmental restoration is a very high priority that voters have continued to fund while also approving other town initiatives.
It has been clear for several years now that the fundamental dynamics around environmental protection have flipped. Voters now expect town officials to give them the opportunity to vote to advance better environmental practices. Voters have rejected past practices and policies that have led us to poor water quality, degraded lands, and lost critical habitats. The price to be paid now is when select boards fail to support an environmental agenda. Look no further than Harwich, where voters embraced their next phase on wastewater management and soundly rejected the select board’s opposition to their own article. Select board members and candidates should pay attention to the expression of will by Harwich voters as an instance where the people led in the void of enlightened executive board leadership.
Politically inclined people should read the room here. The environment is, as it should be, a priority. This is a critical lesson that will become more pressing as the impacts of federal disinvestment in the environment play down through the states and trickle down to towns. There is going to be increasing pressure on local jurisdictions to fill gaps created by federal retrenchment. This is true across the spectrum of funding programs and is inclusive of, but not limited to, environmental programs. There will be choices that need to be made about where to use limited local dollars and we, as an environmental community, have to make sure that finishing the job of environmental restoration stays at the top of the priority list. Rather than be surprised by the efforts of our opponents to seize this looming opportunity to slow progress, we need to anticipate what is coming and head them off.
No one is going to come to our rescue. Our environmental fate is ours to determine, and we all need to keep the issue alive in conversations with candidates and have electoral results reflect the commitment candidates show to the environment.
Our community has all the power we choose to exercise at the ballot box. Use it.
