Sitting back in a plush couch in the Montgomery House, Joseph Sax, one of this term's Montgomery Fellows, already seemed at ease with the Dartmouth atmosphere.
"There seems to be a very strong interest in environmental issues here and that is encouraging for me," Sax said.
Sax, a legal and policy consultant to the U.S. Department of the Interior, arrived at Dartmouth earlier this week to speak to the College community about environmental policy issues.
The Montgomery Fellowship, established in 1978 by Kenneth Montgomery '25, brings prominent figures of various disciplines to the College to share their experiences in lectures or classes.
Several Montgomery Fellows have also conducted research and taught classes at the College. Sax will stay at the College through the end of the week.
Sax said he sees his visit as an opportunity to share the experiences he had while working with the government on environmental legislation -- one which faced a "very difficult and controversial" time during the last couple of years."
"I thought that it might be of interest to people to get a picture of what things are like down in Washington during the period leading to the presidential elections next month," he added.
The first step for citizens to become involved in the development of environmental policy is to be-well informed about the issues, he said.
"The worst situation is to have people who don't know or aren't willing to participate," Sax said. "Things tend to not get done" or may be done poorly, he said.
Sax said he feels the Dartmouth community has a "knowledgeable," "intelligent" and "energetic" attitude toward environmental concerns.
Sax has been involved in ecological issues for decades.
He taught environmental law for many years before he began working on environmental legislation in the late 1960s.
"If you go back 30 years, we had no Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act," Sax said. "It seemed to me that there was a great need for legal development to deal with these problems."
Sax said he was strongly affected by Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring" and its discussion of the effects of uncontrolled pesticide use.
"You can just look out the window and see these problems," he said. "I tried to put these concerns together with my own professional interest. It was clear that there was some need for something to be done."
Environmental issues have become increasingly obvious in the last two years, Sax said.
"There's a strong public concern of the potential of weakening environmental protections," he said. "I think that we're going to see a lessening of efforts [that we have seen] over the last couple of years to weaken the environmental laws."
Sax said he sees the future of the environment as more promising "largely because of the public reactions to some of the extreme proposals put forward in the last couple of years."
Land needs to be recognized as a common resource, Sax said. He said everyone has a responsibility to protect America's national heritage by using land in "non-destructive" ways.
"We need increasingly to recognize that owners are also stewards. They have responsibility," he said. "Everyone's dependent on the land. You can't take a little piece and cut it loose from the rest of the world."
In addition to his speech last night, Sax will visit some classes to discuss environmental issues and meet with other groups of students throughout the week.
After his visit to Dartmouth, Sax said he will return to Washington "and wait for the election."
Sax has authored numerous books on environmental issues such as public lands and water resources.
In addition to teaching, Sax said he enjoys hiking. "I've always been enthusiastic hiker. That's important to me personally," he said.
Sax said this winter he will teach law students at the University of California at Berkeley.
After living in Washington, D.C. for a few years, Ellie Sax, Joseph Sax's wife, said she is looking forward to returning to California where she will be closer to her family members.
"It's wonderful [there] because people there are so conscious about the environment because it's such a great part of their lives. It's all around them," Ellie Sax said.
She pointed out that the Marin Headlands and Point Reyes National Seashore, just north of San Fransisco, are just a few of her favorite parks.
Ellie Sax said she often takes trips to the national parks and national forests in Northern California and Oregon.
"It's nice to be able to go out to the state parks to go hiking or biking. It's just nice to be outside," she said.
Joseph Sax graduated from Harvard University and received his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School. He worked at the U.S. Department of Justice and has served as a visiting professor at many universities.
