In his 2017 book Travels on the Green Highway -- An Environmentalist’s Journey, Reed quoted his mother as proclaiming that he came into the world “casting a fishing rod.”
Reed had just landed and released a bright, 16-pound
Atlantic salmon from his beloved Grand Cascapedia River in Quebec when he fell
and struck his head on rocks. He never regained consciousness.
Shortly before that trip he had said to a friend, “If I die,
I hope it’s there. ”Reed -- a lifelong Republican who proudly upheld the
traditional values of his party (such as conserving) -- was arguably the most
eloquent and effective advocate for fish, wildlife and nature of the 20th and
21st centuries.
He founded 1000 Friends of Florida (and served both as
president and board chair). He also served on the boards of the Everglades
Foundation (which he helped found), The Nature Conservancy, the Atlantic Salmon
Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the National Audubon
Society, Yellowstone National Park, the National Geographic Society and the
South Florida Water Management District.
Polluters and developers weren’t wrong when they called him
a “zealot.” But what made Reed unique among zealots were his world-class people
skills. He was adept at building alliances even with former adversaries. He
understood when to take charge and when to delegate, when to speak and when to
listen, when to demand action and when to be patient. He wrote long, eloquent
letters and emails to most everyone he worked with or even against.
On his return to Florida from military service in 1960 Reed
was appalled and outraged at the environmental destruction that confronted him.
He promptly joined The Nature Conservancy, which had protected the Mianus River
Gorge near the Reed family home in Greenwich, Connecticut. (In due course he
would become vice chair of the Conservancy’s board and one of its most generous
supporters.) And he joined every “Friends” group of every river, beach, lake
and unique landscape.
In 1965 he met Florida gubernatorial candidate Claude Kirk
Jr., a powerful ally who would provide him the political muscle to stop, or at
least slow, much of the destruction of Florida’s fish and wildlife habitat.
For Kirk’s stance against what was widely viewed as
“progress” the candidate was dismissed by pundits as a “fool” and maverick.
But, as Kirk’s most energetic and effective campaigner, Reed
propelled him to a decisive win. In return Kirk hired him as his environmental
advisor at the same yearly salary Reed would demand from all employers for the
rest of his life -- $1 (because, as he accurately noted, no one he knew was
less in need of money).
Kirk had endorsed the project until Reed sternly set him
straight.
“No, you are,” Kirk replied.
Reed and his allies (including the National Audubon Society,
which ran a piece in its magazine exposing the environmental costs of the
Cross-Florida Barge Canal) ultimately convinced Nixon to kill the project,
nearly a third of which had been completed. Some of the destruction persists in
the festering, weed-choked deadwater impounded by Rodman Dam, the only dam in
the nation without even an alleged function. But there is mounting pressure to
remove it.
Reed played the key role in preventing the Dade County Port
Authority from constructing a jetport with six-mile-long runways on 39-square
miles of Everglades it had acquired just north of the National Park. The plan
also included a 1,000-foot-wide transportation corridor from coast to coast, a
high-speed mass-transit system, and a “recreational waterway” for airboats.
He enlisted The Nature Conservancy and other partners to
purchase Lignumvitae Key and place it under state ownership, thereby saving
this vital wildlife habitat and Florida’s finest bonefish flat. The previous
owners had planned a causeway from U.S. 1 that would have unleashed an orgy of
slap-dash development and required the dredging of Florida Bay.
Reed was instrumental in the creation of Big Cypress
National Reserve, east of Naples.
Had it not been for Reed and the allies he stood with and
inspired, Biscayne Bay would now look like Pompano Beach or worse. Instead it’s
a national park, teeming with aquatic and terrestrial life including one of the
world’s largest coral reefs and the East Coast’s longest stretch of mangrove
forest.
Nixon liked Reed’s style and, especially, his stellar
reputation in the Democrat-riddled environmental community. So he hired him as
his Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and National Parks.
“I don’t give a damn about the environment,” Reed quoted
Nixon as telling him. “I have other priorities. I want a brilliant record,
better than Kennedy’s and I don’t want to be bothered by you or anybody else.”
“What’s this stuff I’ve been hearing about called DDT and
what should we do about it?” Nixon continued.
“Mr. President,” Reed replied, “it’s a nasty biocide that’s
killing our wildlife and maybe us. We need to ban it; and if you disagree, I’m
not interested in the job.” Nixon told him to make it happen, and he did.
Nearly as insidious as DDT was a biocide called Compound
1080, used by ranchers to kill coyotes, bobcats and cougars but which also
killed bald eagles, golden eagles, foxes, badgers, pet dogs and every feathered
and furred creature that scavenged poisoned predators or even the poisoned
scavengers.
It had been Compound 1080 that extirpated wolverines from
the contiguous states. Reed got it banned; and wolverines began their recovery,
ongoing to this day.
Reed helped permanently protect 80 million acres of Alaska.
Had it not been for Reed, America would be without the
Marine Mammals Protection Act, the intact and expanded Redwoods National Park,
the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act.
In 1972, when word came down that powerful polluters had
prevailed on Nixon to veto the Clean Water Act, Reed announced his resignation.
But the president’s Chief Domestic Advisor, John Ehrlichman, told him that
Congress would probably override the veto. Congress did; and Reed stayed on,
continuing his environmental leadership under Presidents Nixon and Ford.
At our first and best loved national park, Yellowstone, Reed
was dismayed to see grizzly bears feasting on garbage. The park had even
erected grandstands at dumps for the public to view these obese, semi-domesticated
caricatures of a magnificent, wild species.
\Two biologists, John and Frank Craighead, had been studying
Yellowstone grizzlies. Passionately and abusively they opposed Reed’s and park
officials’ plan to wean the bears of garbage. Without garbage, they proclaimed,
the bears would starve and, as they starved, they’d attack visitors. When Reed
and the park presented scientific evidence to the contrary, the Craigheads took
their fight to the sympathetic media.
Yet when the park closed the dumps and placed bear-proof
lids on garbage cans there was no evidence of increased bear mortality or
attacks. If any garbage-dependent bears quietly succumbed, they were swiftly
replaced by wild bears from Yellowstone and the five surrounding national
forests -- prime grizzly habitat that totaled about 12 million acres.
What’s more, the park had documented loss of numerous bear
cubs to male grizzlies when mothers were distracted by the dump smorgasbords.
After Reed’s federal service he returned to Florida,
continuing his effective environmental activism, fighting tirelessly for fish,
wildlife, the Everglades, clean air and clean water. Despite mounting health
issues, he never slacked off.
In his preface to Travels on the Green Highway -- An
Environmentalist’s Journey, Reed announced that he was “closing out” his life.
His friends, allies and acolytes didn’t believe it. But he knew more than they
did.
His legacy lives in the beautiful wild creatures and places
that will brighten this planet and the lives of Americans and visitors to America
living and yet unborn.
Here is what the environmental community is saying about the
Nathaniel Pryor Reed and the gifts he has bestowed to the nation and world:
Mary Barley, former chair and current board member of the
Everglades Foundation, chair of the Everglades Trust and vice chair of the
National Parks Conservation Association: “We have lost a great American.
Affectionately known as NPR, he was a man who embodied the best values of
America. He fought as hard for critters as he did for people. He was my friend,
my fishing partner on [Norway’s] Alta River, best story teller ever and an
American original. I always wondered ‘why did all his travel diaries begin with
Nat contracting and overcoming some diabolical illness.’ Ooooh I shall miss him
sooo very much.”
Mark Tercek, CEO of The Nature Conservancy: “Nat Reed was a
conservation giant, a patriot, and a true gentleman. Nat fought hard for what
he believed in and never backed down from a tough fight, especially when the
future of our environment was at stake. He lived a very full life, and he did
so with grace and courage. He was a talented civic leader, and he graciously
extended this leadership to The Nature Conservancy as an active member of the
Board of Directors, Vice Chair, and generous supporter. Nat will be missed by
all who knew him and all at TNC. I feel so fortunate to have known him. May you
rest in peace, Nat.”
Julie Wraithmell, Audubon Florida’s Executive Director:
“Reed was a giant of a conservationist, with his fingerprints on many of the
most significant national conservation accomplishments of the last 60 years.
Florida and our Everglades were fortunate to have his heart and his talents.”
Paul Jones, one of America’s most generous environmental
philanthropists and a leading supporter of the Everglades Foundation: “Every
moment with Nat was a teaching moment. He was hands down the wisest man I ever
met.”
Dan Lufkin, Reed’s friend, ally and prominent
environmentalist: “Nat Reed had the commitment, intelligence, and courage to
lead in often times unpopular environmental positions. He did it from his
governmental roles as Assistant Secretary of the US Department of the Interior
for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and in the South Florida Water Management
District. And he did it every day for six decades as a private citizen. He was
a man of extraordinary integrity and friendship.” (In 2017 the National Audubon
Society awarded Reed its Dan Lufkin Prize for Environmental Leadership “for his
lifelong commitment to conservation and role in protecting America’s
Everglades.”)
Amos Eno, Executive Director of the Land Conservation
Assistance Network, Reed’s close friend, longtime speech writer and his special
assistant at Interior from 1973 to 1976: “A distillation of NPR and his legacy
is that he was the epitome and personification of Republican leadership on
environmental issues and he carried that torch forward from the Nixon/Ford
administrations through succeeding Republican administrations and dragged it
into the 21st century.”
Bill Taylor, president of the Atlantic Salmon Federation:
“Nat was a giant in conservation, and not just Atlantic salmon conservation, he
was a leader in the preservation of our natural world. He was a deep thinker,
strategist and fighter. He left a lasting legacy at the Atlantic Salmon
Federation and his fingerprints are all over many of our most important salmon
conservation victories.”
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), from the Senate floor, hailing
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ support for the $1.6 billion reservoir
project to treat polluted water before it enters the Everglades: “It saddens me
so much to announce … the death of one of the nation’s true environmental
champions. Nat and I have been so focused on advancing this new reservoir
project south of Lake Okeechobee... It would be a fitting tribute to name that
project in Nat Reed’s honor.”
Doug Wheeler, Reed’s deputy at Interior from 1972 to 1977:
“Nat Reed was an incorrigible conservationist, who, through sheer force of
conviction and eloquence, helped lay the groundwork in the 1970s for the
federal framework of conservation and environmental protection. President
Nixon’s emphatic environmental messages of 1972 and 1973 bear Nat’s
fingerprints, along with other Republican stalwarts like Russ Train, Bill
Ruckelshaus and Bill Reilly. Reed-protected landscapes -- from Alaska and
California to New York, Florida and North Carolina -- are the permanent legacy
of this great American.”
Joe Negron, president of the Florida Senate: “Nat Reed was a
resolute force of nature who devoted his life to protecting the environment of
Florida and the United States. I will personally never forget his unwavering
support for the Senate Bill 10 EAA Southern Reservoir and his lifelong
commitment to Everglades restoration. Mr. Reed loved Jupiter Island, Hobe Sound
and Martin County. His prominent standing in the modern history of Florida is
secure and irreplaceable.”
U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL) and former Florida governor:
“Floridians for generations to come are indebted to Nathaniel Reed for
protecting our beautiful environment and our Florida Everglades. We will honor
his memory by recommitting ourselves to being good stewards of our
environment.”
Novelist, humorist, environmentalist and Miami Herald
columnist Carl Hiaasen: “The Everglades has lost a great friend and champion.
Nat Reed was literally a force of nature.”
------
Gifts in Nathaniel Reed’s memory may be made to:
Hope Rural School
15929 SW 150th St.
Indiantown, FL 34956
The Atlantic Salmon Federation has established a memorial
fund in Reed’s honor that will be dedicated to salmon conservation and the
suspension of Greenland’s commercial salmon fishery, something he saw as
critically important.
Checks can be mailed to:
Atlantic Salmon Federation
PO Box 807Calais, ME USA 04619-0807
The family requests all correspondence be sent to:
Office of Nathaniel Reed
P.O. Box 1213Hobe Sound, FL 33475
