All in this Together

Lancaster native and CBF’s Director of Major Giving in Pennsylvania reflects on the organization’s recent efforts to block the Trump administration’s climate protection rollbacks.

I cannot recall putting on the air conditioning at our home in April. Yet we had to when temperatures hit the ‘90s the other week. I have seen many changes during my life in Lancaster, growing up surrounded by farm fields in Conestoga township and working with farmers to plant trees along streams at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. It is a reminder of how much the world around us is changing and why it needs the protection of organizations like CBF.

When our organization recently joined a lawsuit against the Trump administration to defend the endangerment finding and vehicle emissions standards, I had only one pause: How would my fellow Lancastrians feel about litigation? It’s not a topic that is always welcome in local conversations.

Nearly eight years ago, just a few months short of starting my career at CBF, I recall driving home during a catastrophic storm event that dumped approximately 10 inches of rain in Mount Joy over several hours. I struggled to get home from my commute between Manheim and Mount Joy and watched as every small town around me flooded. It was an acute reminder of how drastically things had changed.

Arbor Day Foundation

I am proud to work for an organization that defends regulations and laws that uphold protections that support our local work toward clean water, clean air, and reducing pollution. But now, the work that many of my colleagues have spent years achieving is being threatened with a few strokes of a pen due to the current administration.

It is hard to not feel it is a personal attack against our vulnerable communities. Generations of my family have lived on the soils of Lancaster and York Counties. They have farmed here. They have built homes and created families and legacies. And they are all deserving of clean water, clean air, and a brighter future for their legacies. I support our challenge against the current administration’s attacks against communities like ours, and many like us across the United States who regularly feel the impacts of climate change, and who are losing consistent federal funding to solve these problems.

It is a reality all Lancastrians face regardless of background, politics, or legacy. We are all in this together, and I hope we can continue to work together to support clean water, clean air, and greater communities.