Alliance President jumps in to White House race
David Bancroft, who has been the president of the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay for seven years, is stepping down in a couple of weeks. He will be taking a job with the Obama campaign.
Bancroft, took over the Baltimore-based nonprofit when its longtime director, Fran Flanagan, retired. He had come from a career in Wisconsin politics, having worked on the campaigns of Senators Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, and said he was eager to get back to that kind of work. The Obama people had given him an open-ended offer, and he decided to take it.
"As I sort of think about where the country is going, this is a historic opportunity," Bancroft said in an interview with me a few minutes ago. "i am absolutely excited" about working for Barack Obama.
There are two independent nonprofits working to restore the Chesapeake Bay. And the alliance would be the "other" one, the one that is not the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
The Bay Foundation has a multi-million-dollar endowment, a powerful fund-raising arm, a beautiful green building looking over Annapolis waterfront. It funds a lot of litigation, and it lobbies in Annapolis for passage of laws to protect the bay.
The Alliance prefers to work more quietly, with a headquarters in Towson. Its strength, as the name suggests, is building partnerships with government and private industry to plant trees, restore streams or build better-planned neighborhoods. It also pays for the EPA Bay Program's press people in Annapolis, and has staff within its forests program.
Asked about his accomplishments, Bancroft mentioned the "Builders for the Bay" program, which partners with the National Association of Homebuilders, and the Restore Corps program, which trains volunteers to work on conservation projects.
Asked if it was frustrating that the organization doesn't get much attention, Bancroft said:
"The alliance has been known since the beginning for putting together partnerships. And those things don’t seem to merit the news coverage that a lobbying or litigation effort does."
Comments
Congratulations to David on his next exciting endeavor.
The Alliance isn’t the only unsung hero of the Bay. There are several, I daresay easily over one hundred nonprofits working to restore the Chesapeake Bay.
Ducks Unlimited thought the Bay was important enough to open a field office in the region over a decade ago.
Since the mid 80’s Ducks Unlimited has lead the restoration and protection of over 70,000 acres of wetlands and associated uplands in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Our focus is the conservation of waterfowl habitat, but wetlands also mitigate runoff, flooding and provide nursery habitat to our Bay’s oysters and crabs.
We produce our annual reports by state of our conservation activities or you can find more information about us at www.ducks.org/conservation. Please contact me at gbottitta@ducks.org to receive a report or if I can be of assistance.
Grace E. Bottitta
Mgr, Conservation Programs - Advocacy and Outreach
Ducks Unlimited, Inc.
GLARO/Mid Atlantic Field Office
34 Defense Street, Suite 200
Annapolis, MD 21401
Office # 410-224-6620
Fax # 410-224-2077
gbottitta@ducks.org; www.ducks.org
Leader in Wetlands Conservation
Check out what DU is doing in the Mid Atlantic!!!
http://glaro.ducks.org/mafo/index.html
Posted by: Grace Bottitta | April 2, 2008 11:19 AM
Hi-thanks for your comment. feel free to post it if you want.
I do know there are MANY nonprofits focused on the bay, but i believe these are the only two that are independent (not a MD branch of a national group) and entirely focused on the bay--they don't do anything else. it was certainly not my intention to slight the good work of any other group. i look forward to reading about the work you're doing.
Posted by: Rona Kobell | April 2, 2008 11:26 AM
Best of luck with the campaign. The convention will have a large green component and the general campaign, once the primary is resolved in the months ahead, should have an increasingly important focus on the environment. As a sailor and Bay enthusiast I am sorry to see the region lose you to the campaign. Especially with so much work to still be done here. As Voltaire wrote in Candide, "cultive nos jardins." (Not exact high school French.) The idea is similar in some ways as Tip O'Neil's "All Politics is Local." Thanks to all working to Save the Bay! Nothing like actually being out on the water to make one appreciate the regions beauty. I just wanted to applaud your efforts and congratulate you. Best of Luck to you!
Susan
Posted by: Susan Lavine | April 4, 2008 10:24 AM