DARTMOUTH — When the name of William M. Pinney, Jr. was announced by board president Mary Ellen Hawes Lees last Thursday night as the winner of this year’s George G. Haydock Award at the Lloyd Center for the Environment’s Annual Meeting, held at the Dartmouth Grange Hall, the audience erupted with an enthusiastic roar of approval and applause. 

In presenting the 2008 award, D’Arcy MacMahon, Lloyd Center Executive Director, noted Pinney’s outstanding record of commitment to environmental conservation.   “In addition to being an inspiring leader in the effort to save this part of the world from development and from a host of other destructive forces,” MacMahon said, “Bill Pinney not only lifts our spirits by his very presence, but with that ever present twinkle in his eye, he challenges us each to reach our potential.”  An initial incorporator of the Lloyd Center, Mr. Pinney has been a driving force in the local land conservation movement, helping to save of over 4,000 acres of wetlands, wildlife habitat, farmland, forests, and scenic landscapes here.

The George G. Haydock Award is presented each year to an individual who, in the spirit and tradition of long-time Lloyd Center supporter and nature enthusiast, Dr. George G. Haydock, is deemed to have personally made a most outstanding contribution to protecting the fragile nature of our coastal environment. Previous recipients of this award include Gil Fernandez, Richard Wheeler, Tally Garfield and Kathleen “Betty” Anderson.

Among the highlights of the evening were citing of the Lloyd Center’s accomplishments of the past twelve months.  Chief Financial Officer Robert A. MacGregor reported that contributions, in the form of gifts and grants, continued the steady growth they had shown over the past four years, from $396,762 in 2004 to $443,620 in 2007.  He stated that, during that same four-year period, $2.3 million, an impressive 86% of the Center’s expenditures, had gone directly to support the growing demand for the Center’s highly regarded research, education and outreach program services.  

Mr. MacGregor also noted that for the third year in a row, the Lloyd Center had received Charity Navigator’s highest 4-Star rating.  Charity Navigator, the nation’s largest independent evaluator of non-profit organizations, reports that fewer than one out of every ten organizations it rates receives three consecutive annual 4-Star ratings, meaning that the Lloyd Center is considered to be outperforming the vast majority of non-profit organizations in America in terms of fiscal responsibility and strength of program growth. Treasurer MacGregor congratulated the entire staff and board for this achievement.

In recalling some of the Lloyd Center’s “highs and lows” over the years, Executive Director MacMahon reaffirmed his belief that “No one gets to go through life undefeated, and the Lloyd Center is no exception.”  He reported that the Center, which celebrates the 30th anniversary of its founding later this year, is now on a steady keel, with a talented staff, a dedicated board, great crew of volunteers, and demands for its services at an all time high.  He reported exciting progress being made in the development of a wide-ranging master plan, on which the staff, the board of directors, and a group of knowledgeable advisors are currently collaborating, matching visionary goals with pragmatic actions.  He expects this effort to result, later this summer, in a set of carefully considered and thoughtfully designed plans for the future. 

In speaking of the current “going green” movement, MacMahon cautioned that while the topic may be high on everyone’s verbal “must do” list, the challenge is for all of us to change our behavior and not just “talk the talk”.  He reported on the Center’s recent success in collaborating with a number of other leading environmental organizations, promoting ways in which members of the public can curtail the recklessness with which they have become accustomed to treating our planet and develop a more responsible way of living.  Finally, he thanked Mary Ellen Hawes Lees for her leadership and selfless devotion of time to the Center, through a year of unprecedented challenge.

Internationally known lepidopterist Mark Mello, Lloyd Center Director of Research, spoke of the increasing demand for the unbiased scientific evaluations and analyses for which the Center has become widely known, noting that 2008 contractual obligations had already surpassed those taken on in the preceding year.  He emphasized the importance of the Center developing more sustainable long-term project undertakings, drawing attention to the lack of continuity and financial consequences which short-term contractual assignments present. 

Director of Education, Patricia Sheppard, spoke of the growth and success of the Lloyd Center’s environmental science teaching program over the years.  Reporting on the Center’s remarkable achievement of having reached a record 15,048 students in 2007, Ms. Sheppard recalled how recently the goal of reaching 5,000 students seemed like a very far reach.  “Today, with a bright and wonderfully dedicated staff,” she said, “the Lloyd Center is being called upon to teach every third grade class in the towns of Dartmouth, Fairhaven and, in collaboration with our partners from the Westport River Watershed Alliance, in Westport, as well as a growing number of third-grade classes in the Fall River public schools.  “In addition,” she reported, “our naturalists all now teaching in every fifth-grade class in Dartmouth, Fairhaven and Fall River, a total of 37 classes.”

Ms. Sheppard went on to explain the daunting challenges the Lloyd Center faces in dealing with the effects of “tightened” school budgets, noting that “Because these children constitute our next generation of stewards…bringing these environmental science lessons to them must never be viewed as discretionary….They need our help and, with the support of the public, we are determined to bring it to them.”

In other business, six new directors were elected to membership on the board: Eric Braitmayer, Thomas Michael Cern, Michael Eatough, Thomas E. Lynch Jr., and Shari L. McGuire.  In addition, the following were elected to positions as corporate officers: Mary Ellen Hawes Lees (President), Robert A. MacGregor (Vice-President), Mary H. Mandeville (Clerk), and Thomas Michael Cern (Treasurer).

The Center bid a grateful “farewell” to retiring board members Leslie J. De Groot, M.D., Donald Douglas, Ph.D., Raymond L. Loranger, Ph.D., Rush S. Shapleigh, and Linus Travers Ph.D.  Each received a standing ovation and, in appreciation for years of support and dedicated service, was presented with a special hand-crafted “Lloyd Center” Salt Marsh Pottery piece.  A specially inscribed antique sculling oar was presented to Dr. De Groot, in recognition of his role in founding the Lloyd Center’s annual regatta.

Throughout the evening, it was clear that the demand for Dedee Shattuck’s popular new book, Farmers, Portraits in a Challenging Landscape, had in no way abated, as a line of eager new purchasers immediately formed to get the noted author to personally inscribe their copies.  The profits from the evening’s sales were generously donated by Ms. Shattuck to support the Lloyd Center’s environmental education programs.   

Highlight of the evening, key-note speaker Andrew Pollock, local farming advocate and owner of Dartmouth’s legendary Silverbrook Farm, delivered a dynamic talk, characterized by one rapt listener as “anecdotal humor brilliantly mixed with serious warnings.”   No one left without coming to understand what it means to be a “locavore” and why the locavore movement is one of the keys to improving the way we treat our environment.

Locavores, he explained, are those who recognize that food grown locally not only tastes better and is more nutritious than what has to be brought in from thousands of miles away, but that the very transporting of foodstuffs to market means dumping masses of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, not to mention the high level of chemicals that are being pumped into and polluting our soil and our animals.   He discussed the food problems that exist throughout the world and on a national level. 

Mr. Pollock urged those in the audience to “Eat your view”, that is, foods produced within in a specific range of your residence.   He capped his address with a serious challenge, noting that if we were to change just one meal a week from distantly-grown food to food grown locally, we could save up to 1.4 millions barrels of oil.   A lively question and answer period followed, revealing that Pollock’s subject had struck a nerve with an appreciative audience.