Written by Dr. Dan Abel:

My winter/spring to-do list is overwhelming, and includes three major projects with looming deadlines: a textbook manuscript, a greenhouse gas inventory at Coastal Carolina University (where I teach and also direct the Sustainability Initiative), and a proposal for an exciting new sustainability major.

Yet, even given these time-consuming responsibilities and rapidly approaching deadlines, when an opportunity to join the Board of Directors of the Dogwood Alliance arose, I accepted with unrestrained enthusiasm.

Here’s why: It was unthinkable that I would pass up an offer to join an organization whose principles so closely mirrored my own values, one whose accomplishments belied that it lacked the material resources of the corporate giants with whom it was standing head-to-head. Perhaps most significantly, joining the Dogwood Alliance board would give me the gift of contributing in some small way to what it does so splendidly: working with outsize passion to ensure a habitable planet for us and future generations through protecting southern forests.

I first learned of the Dogwood Alliance several years ago from former staff member and current Board of Directors member Eva Hernandez, a remarkable person who engaged my students with stories of Dogwood’s challenges and successes. Eva entered my classroom and taught us the virtues and methods of organizing, and how to challenge authority and the status quo in productive ways.

There are two other reasons I accepted Dogwood’s Invitation. First, in May I returned from a 26,000-mile voyage around the world teaching with Semester at Sea. I saw both the best and worst that the planet has offer. I gazed in awe at wondrous forest ecosystems in Vietnam’s Can Gio Biosphere Reserve. I also saw the carcasses of desecrated Malaysian teak trees stacked in a shipyard in Chennai, India, and was choked by the smoke from forest biomass-fueled fires used for cooking in India and Ghana. I returned invigorated to act where I could do so most effectively, and Dogwood has given me the exact opportunity my soul was searching for.

Second is the legacy of Lyn Roth. Lyn was a forest scientist, author, educator, humanist, and environmentalist, as well as a close friend for the too short a time we knew her before she died of cancer. Because of Lynn, I think of forests and watersheds more often, and in different light than a marine biologist might otherwise consider them. Lyn’s spirit still motivates me, and whatever contribution I may make at Dogwood will add to her legacy of accomplishments.

It would be an understatement to say I am excited about being a part of the Dogwood Alliance. I find myself bragging to friends and colleagues about my appointment, and always with a broad smile.

At the same time, I also realize the urgency of Dogwood’s mission, and as I learn about the organization and begin to work with them, I have observed the professionalism and energy of their staff and volunteers, and the value of their supporters. It’s the passion, skill, commitment, and wisdom of these people that make Dogwood successful, and the threats to our forests that make it so absolutely essential. I’m honored to join the Dogwood Alliance.