Environmental ft Volunteers v in Hmeriin ------- This project has been financed in part with funds from the Environmental Protection Agency under Grant No. R801243. The content does not necessarily reflect the views and policy of the Environ- mental Protection Agency, nor does mention of trade names of commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. National Center for Voluntary Action March 1973 ------- Library - Region IV Environmental Protection Agency Atlanta, Georgia -^UJ ENVIRONMENTAL VOLUNTEERS IN AMERICA Findings and Recommendations of the Steering Committee of the National Center for Voluntary Action's Environmental Project by Clem L. Zinger, Project Coordinator Richard Dalsemer and Helen Magargle, Project Assistants National Center for Voluntary Action 1735 Eye Street, NW Washington, D.C. for the Office of Research and Monitoring ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY MARCH 1973 ------- FOREWORD The environmental volunteer in America is paradoxical: he is emotionally dedicated to his work, but he is usually prodded to it only by a crisis situation; he may work at his particular volunteer job four or more hours per week, but in many cases he duplicates the work of another, equally dedicated volunteer who quite possibly works in an organization with the same objec- tives, located in the very same town or city; the environmental volunteer is one of the most highly motivated volunteers in the country, but his motivation is more often than not misdirected and abused through lack of proper training and leadership. One of the major problems facing the environmental movement is lack of government cooperation and encouragement. Government responsibility for environmental action is spread through a number of agencies at the local, state and Federal levels. Duplication and lack of cooperation with citizen environmental programs is prevalent. Environmental Volunteers in America underscores the fact that the environ- mental movement, though hampered by lack of leadership, proper training, communication and cooperation among groups, and sound financing, is a major force in everyday American life; a force which is having more and more impact at every level of society. It has grown practically overnight from an esoteric experiment performed by a few concerned persons into a national effort involving people of every age, race, creed and educational level. The environmental movement and its volunteers are strong, vital and pur- poseful, but they need to communicate among themselves to avoid wasteful duplication. Training and leadership must be improved and coordinated for maximum effective use of the volunteer's time and talents. One of the ways these problems may be approached and solved is through the National Center for Voluntary Action's network of affiliated Voluntary Action Centers. Voluntary Action Centers, which have as one of their purposes the coordination of local volunteer efforts, exist in the smallest towns and the largest cities. They are rural and urban resource centers, ideally suited to the role of environmental volunteer/environmental program coordinator. Environmental Volunteers in America is an excerpt of a more thorough study done by the National Center for Voluntary Action for the Office of Research and Monitoring of the Environmental Protection Agency. This study has been conceived, performed, analyzed and reported by environmentalists for environmentalists in an effort for better self-understanding and improve- ment of the effectiveness of the environmental movements. Douglas K. Kinsey, President National Center for Voluntary Action iii ------- The materials that follow represent the summary chapters of a much longer study directed for the National Center for Voluntary Action by a steering committee of environmental professionals and volunteers. During the course of this study, more than 200 individuals from some 200 environmental groups were interviewed; 2,000 questionnaires completed by volunteers and volun- tary organizations were analyzed; and, in-depth special studies of selected federal programs that affect voluntary action were conducted. The full report may be purchased through the National Technical Informa tion Service of the Department of Commerce, 5285 Port Royal Road, Spring- field, Virginia 22151. Its table of contents appears as an appendix to this pamphlet. STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS Mr. Joseph Browder Environmental Policy Center Ms. Freddie Mae Brown Black Survival, Inc. Mr. Steve K. Galpin General Electric Company Mr. Roger P. Hansen Rocky Mountain Center on the Environment Mrs. Jeanne Malchon Florida Council for Clean Air Mr. William Napier National Wildlife Federation Dr. Glenn Paulson Scientists' Committee for Public Information Mr. Ted Pettit Boy Scouts of America Mrs. Marjorie Sharpe Junior League of Chicago, Inc. Mr. Ross Vincent Ecology Center of Louisiana Dr. Carol Wilcox Citizens for Environmental Protection Mr. Sydney Howe, Chairman Conservation Foundation iv ------- CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Introduction 1 I. A National Profile of the Environmentally Concerned Organization 5 II. A National Profile of the Environmental Volunteer 17 III. Conclusions 23 IV. Recommendations 37 V. Appendices 69 v ------- INTRODUCTION The great social changes that have taken place in America have been brought about by the unstinting efforts of volunteers. Volunteerism has shaped and reshaped American institutions. In its purest form, volunteerism is the essence of participatory democracy. America is a nation unique in the political history of the world. More than any other nation, it is the sum of the energies and efforts of all its people. The American tradition of voluntary involve- ment of freely committing one's time and talents in the search for civic improvement and social progress gives extra dimension to the meaning of democracy. Richard M. Nixon The voluntary environmental movement, perhaps more than any other social movement of this century, represents the involvement of large numbers of volunteers in political and social decision-making. The scope of public affairs concerning the environment is enormous, and so is the range of opportunity for citizens to become involved in environmental affairs. People who become committed to the environmental movement undergo personal change which may, cumulatively, have a large social impact. Many environmental volunteers say that their ways of life have been adjusted significantly, particularly in terms of new patterns of consumption, smaller families, new waste disposal habits, and major diversions of time from former pursuits. One volunteer said: Involvement in the environmental movement has changed my life style primarily by making me constantly aware of the consequences of everyday actions, especially those involving consumption, travel, etc. I now constantly make a conscious effort to minimize or even make beneficial my impact on the land and ecological systems around me. It is difficult to define all the origins of the voluntary environmental movement of the 1970's. It represents to a large extent the converging of a number of social change movements and professional disciplines toward a concern for the total human environment. It finds roots in the sciences, the design professions, consumerism, public health, outdoor recreation and many other fields. Quite obviously, the environmental movement stems in good part from the conservation efforts that took hold in this country in the latter half of the 19th century. That early environmental volunteerism was concerned primarily with the conservation of forests and wildlife, and the first nationally- noticed victory of a voluntary environmental campaign was the setting aside of Yellowstone as the first national park in 1872. The beginnings of organiza- tion occurred in 1883, with the founding of the American Ornithological Union. Through the rest of the 19th century and the first half of this one, the major foci of the conservation movement were wilderness and wildlife protec- tion, forestry, and soil conservation. Led by sport fishermen in the early 1 ------- 1900's, conservation volunteers first sallied into the broader arena of what are now called environmental issues in combat against water pollution. Bet- ween 1900 and 1930 the percentage of the country's population which was tied into sewer systems dumping untreated wastes into waterways grew from three percent to fifty percent. In the same period, communities across the country were beginning to realize that sanitation represented a major public health problem. During the depression years conservation concern focused on soil erosion in the dust bowl and elsewhere, as farmers struggled for survival. By the early 1950's, however, natural resource exploitation and industrial processes, which were producing a new affluence, began to result in large-scale environ- mental losses that the American people could increasingly see and feel. A growing population, with rising per-capita demands for goods and services, wondered if pollution would affect its health, if suburban sprawl could produce viable communities, and, in fact, if anything of wild America could survive. And new public unrest over prospects of over-population both at home and abroad, became identified with concern for natural resource supplies, biologi- cal systems and human living conditions. In 1962 Rachel Carson published Silent Spring. The nationwide impact of this book brought into public prominence and helped to coalesce many strands of public concern for the quality of life. Readers of Silent Spring saw that not only does man affect his environment, but the environment in turn affects man. The book accelerated a broadening of the interests of the environmental movement to encompass population, nuclear testing, and chemical and biological warfare. During the 1960's revolutionary feeling became apparent in the country, with its primary evidence in the civil rights movement. By the end of the sixties, as civil rights successes became apparent, Americans had before them an example of activism producing social change. In the same period, riots in the cities were making Americans aware of the tremendous social costs entailed in the decay of inner cities. And while many elements of public life interacted upon one another, the environmental impacts of still-rising economic demands were intensifying. More people became aware of the relationship of consumer "needs" to energy demands, and of energy demands and transportation habits to oil spills, dams across the Grand Canyon, emphysema, and cancer. Public health began to mingle in the public's mind with wildlife protection and wilderness preservation, over- population with nature protection, and the welfare of man with the welfare of his ecosystem. While the general public was becoming aware of environ- mental impacts, environmentalists were further broadening their concerns to include issues of urban and suburban living space. The environmental movement today, like all social movements, is made up of many groups. It is hard-working professionals. It is dedicated volunteers. It is concerned politicians. It is the interested media. These groups help to shape the beliefs and attitudes of the general public. And in turn the general public provides the support that is essential to make the environmental movement a force for social change. 2 ------- What follows is a report on the volunteer segment of the environmental movement. We have defined a volunteer as someone working without pay or for a small stipend without expectation of economic gain. We have approached our study from the point of view of the volunteer, and many of our descriptions of problems, issues, activities, levels of cooperation, and governmental relationships represent the perceptions of volunteers. To these perceptions we have added the expertise and experience of steering commit- tee members, staff, and consultants to arrive at our conclusions and recom- mendations. Our purpose is to achieve an understanding of the voluntary environmental movement today, and of its needs. We feel that this movement has become a magnificent means of involving citizens in decisions that affect not only their daily lives but life itself. We hope that our study will facilitate and encour- age the growth of the phenomenon which is its subject. 3 ------- CHAPTER I A NATIONAL PROFILE OF THE ENVIRONMENTALLY CONCERNED ORGANIZATION If you are an environmentally concerned organization, you most likely classify yourself as an environment/conservation organization. Most of the rest of you will classify yourselves as either educational or recreational organi- zations. Most of you will have an official membership, and the chances are that slightly less than half of you will have less than 100 members. The rest of you (55 percent) will be fairly evenly divided among those with memberships between 100 and 500, and over 500. Half of you say that under one-third of your members actually participate in your groups' activities. Twenty-two percent say that between 33 and 66 percent of their members are active, and 27 percent say that over two-thirds of their groups' members are active. Although our statistics on the individual volunteer show that active members often contribute less than four hours per week. They also show that these few hours are contributed on a regular basis during most of the year. Thus a large number of people contributing small amounts of time may add up to a very active organization. It is most likely that your organization has become environmentally active in the last five years. If not, your organization is probably an established one of 10 years or more. Your organization probably has no staff or an all-volunteer staff. For the overwhelming majority of you, over 75 percent of the work of your organiza- tions is performed by volunteers. The central quarters of your groups are about equally as likely to be a private home, in shared office space, or in private office space. There is an almost one-third chance that your total annual budget will be under $500.00. More than half of you will have a budget of under $2000. The largest single source of support for your organization is likely to be memberships. The second largest source will be individual donations. Con- tributions from traditional sources of private philanthropy such as foundations and corporations are very small. Those organizations with the lowest budgets are most likely to be primarily membership supported. Those groups with the highest budgets are most likely to rely principally on individual donations and government funds. The chances are almost even that your federal tax status will be either nonprofit and non-tax exempt, or nonprofit and tax exempt. The area that your organizational unit is likely to be formed around is state, town or county only, or your group is likely to be a local affiliate of a state, regional or national organization. The geographic scope of involve- ment in environmental activities of your organization is: neighborhood, municipal, county, and state. 5 ------- The growth of total members and active members in your organizations has been substantial since January 1,1970. When our statistics are examined further we see that growth in total membership has been strongest in organiza- tions classifying themselves as environment/conservation organizations. There is no substantial variation among the different categories of organiza- tions in growth in number of members actively working on environmental problems. If you do not classify your organization as an environment/conservation organization, it is probable that less than 5 percent of the really active and committed members in your organization devote the greater part of their work within the organization to the environment. It is also probable that less than 5 percent of your total financial resources are spent on environmen- tal activities. The extent to which environmental organizations actively try to expand their base in the community is difficult to judge. Thirty-six percent of the organizations in our survey said that they frequently or very frequently have tried to involve others in the community in the activities of their organization in the last year; 43 percent said that they have occasionally tried to involve others. Translating this into numbers, we find that 45 percent of the organiza- tions surveyed said that the number of persons outside their organization whom they have at least occasionally involved in an environmental activity during the last year were ten or less. Another 27 percent have brought between eleven and fifty persons into an environmental project of their organization. Only 18 percent of the organizations have involved over 100 people outside of the organization. The environmental issues to which your organization is most likely to give priority attention are: land use control, land use planning, natural or wild area preservation, outdoor recreation, water quality, and wildlife. The single issue that receives the most attention nationally is natural or wild area preser- vation. Other issues receiving priority attention by a significant number of organizations are: air quality, parks, solid waste/recycling, and water manage- ment. There are several variables in organizational make-up which may greatly affect the number and kinds of issues to which your organization gives priority attention. Some of these variables are: the type of organization, whether the organization has staff, the number of years the organization has been environmentally active and the percentage of the organization's membership which is active. Environment/conservation groups comprised roughly half of the organiza- tions we surveyed. Groups classifying themselves as educational, for example, the American Association of University Women, had the next highest representation. Among other categories of environmentally concerned organi- zations we surveyed were agricultural, business, labor, and recreational groups, and professional and religious groups. When we analyze issue involvement by type of organization we find that environment/conservation organizations give priority attention to a much grea- ter variety of environmental issues than do other groups. The only issues 6 ------- that educational organizations named for priority attention more often than other groups were problems of beautification and health and safety. In no instances did groups classified as other than environment/conservation and education give substantially more attention to environmental issues than the environment/conservation groups. We defined "staff" as "those involved in full or part-time maintenance of an office." Our survey shows that groups having at least some volunteer or paid staff give priority attention to the greatest number of environmental issues. If the organization has an entirely salaried staff, it is likely to give priority attention more often than other groups to the following issues: beautification, economic priorities, facility siting, health and safety, sanitation, and public transportation. If the group has either an all-volunteer staff or only some salaried staff, it is more likely than other groups to give priority attention to fisheries, forestry, mining, natural or wild area preservation, out- door recreation, soil conservation, solid waste/recycling, water quality, wet- lands and wildlife. The only issue in which groups with no staff at all are more likely to get involved than groups with staff is population. As might be expected, the number and variety of issues to which a group is most likely to give priority attention vary greatly according to the number of years a group has been environmentally active. The older organizations three years and over are involved in the greatest number and variety of issues. Groups which have been environmentally active for ten years or more tend to place more importance on fisheries, forestry, natural or wild area preservation, outdoor recreation, parks, pesticides, soil conservation, water quality, wetlands and wildlife than do other groups. Groups which have been environmentally active for six to nine years give priority attention in substantially greater numbers than other groups to only two issues highways, and water management. Organizations which have been in exis- tence for three to five years place greater importance than other groups on economic growth and development, energy, facility siting, land use control, land use planning, population, solid waste and public transportation. There are no issues on which groups which have been in existence for two years or less concentrate a proportionately greater amount of attention than older groups. There are, however, two issues on which these young groups, along with groups active from three to five years, focus much more attention than groups six years or older. These issues are population and solid waste/recycling. The number and variety of environmental issues which are the focus of a group's efforts also appear to vary with the level of active participation in the group. Those organizations with under one-third of their membership actually participating in the organization's activities name the largest number of issues to which they give priority attention. Groups with higher levels of active participation get substantially involved in fewer issues. These issues are most often beautification, health and sanitation, safety and wetlands. We speculate here that volunteer activists are most likely to be attracted to organizations having a limited number of goals of particular interest to these volunteers. 7 ------- If you are an environmentally concerned organization, the political/social change methods that you are most likely to rely on are: information dis- semination, public education, letter writing, publicity, and public meetings and discussions. The community service methods that you are most likely to use are public education and public meetings and discussions. A relatively small number of you (18 percent) say that lobbying is a primary method used in reaching the goals of your organizations. A considerably larger number (35 percent) say that putting informal pressure on leaders is a primary method utilized in reaching the goals of your organizations. Again there are a number of variables that may influence your organization's choice of methods in pursuing its goals. If your organization classifies itself as an environmental/conservation organization, it is likely to use a very wide variety of political/social change methods. If your organization classifies itself as educational, it is most likely to use more frequently than other groups community service methods. Educa- tional groups, also more frequently than other types of groups, are involved in recycling/demonstration projects and beautification. Educational groups are less likely than any other group to get involved in lobbying, litigation, and protests and demonstrations. There appears to be a clear relationship between the organizations' sources of funding and the methods the organization uses in pursuing its goals. Organizations that are primarily supported by memberships most likely use such activist methods as lobbying, informal pressure on leaders, participation in hearings, and helping to prepare and draft legislation. If the organization receives its primary financial support from governmental sources, it is least likely to get involved in lobbying. If the organization only receives some money from government sources the likelihood of its use of lobbying as a method does not appear to be affected. Receipt of substantial support from corporate sources can be correlated with a high amount of political activism. We may speculate that these groups are "business" groups with environmental committees. If your organization has some salaried staff, it is most likely to use a wide variety of both political/social change and community service methods. There appears to be a negative correlation between having an all salaried staff and use of the more activist methods lobbying, informal pressure on leaders, litigation, protests and demonstrations and letter writing. The only method which organizations having any all paid staff are more likely to use than other groups is beautification. The only method your organization is much more likely to use if it has all volunteer staff is letter writing. If your organization has been environmentally active from three to five years, it is most likely to use a wide variety of methods in pursuit of its goals. Organizations which have been environmentally active for six to nine years come in a close second. These groups also use lobbying and research methods much more than other organizations. The only methods that the youngest groups are more likely to use than the older groups are re- cycling/demonstration. Beautification is the only method that the oldest 8 ------- groups are more likely to use than groups which have been environmentally active less than ten years. Organizations which report that less than one-third of their membership is active, say that they use a greater number and variety of methods in pursuing their goals, than do organizations with higher percentages of active members. There are only two methods that organizations with higher partici- pation levels use much more frequently than organizations with lower levels of participation recycling/demonstration projects, and beautification. Again, we can speculate that specific projects attract the highest levels of volunteer participation. The major problems that leaders of most of your groups perceive them- selves as having are funding, broadening the membership base and recruiting volunteers. Other areas considered to be a major problem by a significant number of groups are: physical needs, such as clerical help, equipment, and office space; the unresponsiveness of government; the unresponsive- ness of business; and leadership development. If your organization is an environment/conservation organization it is more likely than other groups to say that major problems are funding, unresponsive- ness of government, unresponsiveness of business, lack of legal assistance, and the need to broaden the membership base. If your organization classifies itself as educational, it is more likely to say that major problems are lack of intergroup coordination of environmental activity, lack of contact with other environmentally interested groups, training volunteers, and recruiting vol- unteers. The effect of staff arrangements on perceived problems in most cases does not appear to be significant. Organizations with some paid staff or an all paid staff are most likely to view funding as a major problem. Organiza- tions with no staff, or an all volunteer staff, are most likely to call the following problem areas major: the need to broaden the membership base, lack of staff/membership expertise, and recruiting volunteers. Organizations with an all salaried staff are least likely to define the following problem areas as major: lack of contact with other environmentally interested groups, unres- ponsiveness of government, unresponsiveness of business, and lack of legal assistance. Most of the perceived problem areas also do not appear to vary greatly according to the number of years the organization has been environmentally active. Those in the six to nine year range are more likely than others to define funding as a major problem. The groups which have been environ- mentally active for five years or less are more likely to call the unresponsive- ness of government and business a major problem. Groups which have been environmentally active from three to five years are most likely to say that recruiting volunteers is a major problem. Organizations with the lowest level of active participation on the part of their membership, are more likely than other groups to call funding, utilization of volunteers, and recruitment of volunteers major problems. Organizations with a high level of participation (67 percent or more) are least likely to list the unresponsiveness of government and business as major problems. 9 ------- But these groups are more likely than others to identify training volunteers as a major problem. Your environmentally concerned organization is likely at least occasionally to cooperate with other non-governmental organizations on environmental issues. Forty-one percent of the organizations in our survey say that they often engage in such cooperation. Thirty-two percent of the organizations in our survey said that they are members of a formal coordinating council. Cooperation appears to be quite frequent at the most informal levels: 74 percent of the organizations say that they have frequent informal communica- tion with other non-governmental organizations; and 62 percent say that they often work informally with other non-governmental organizations on issues. Formal cooperation with other non-governmental organizations, however, takes place far less often: 71 percent of the organizations say that formal joint projects with other non-governmental organizations are not frequent, 97 percent say that formal joint budgetary considerations are not frequent and 90 percent say that formal written agreements regarding policies and programs are not frequent If your organization is an environment/conservation organization it shows a greater tendency than other environmentally active organizations to engage frequently in informal types of cooperation with other non-governmental organizations on environmental issues. The frequency of cooperation at more formal levels does not seem to vary greatly according to the type of organization. Staff arrangements, on the other hand, affect significantly the frequency of cooperation both informal and formal among non-governmental organizations on environmental issues. Of particular interest is the fact that groups with some paid staff show a much higher tendency to engage fre- quently in formal joint projects with other non-governmental organizations, and to be members of coordinating councils than do other groups. Groups environmentally active for 5 years or less generally show a greater tendency to engage in frequent but informal cooperation. Groups that have been environmentally active from 3 to 9 years undertake forma! exchange of personnel and resources, and formal joint projects more often than other groups. Groups that have been environmentally active from 6 to 9 years show a much greater tendency to be members of coordinating councils. REGIONS SURVEYED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL VOLUNTEERS IN AMERICA Organizations with a relatively low percentage of active members show a greater tendency to cooperate at both the informal and formal levels with other non-governmental groups on environmental issues. Organizations showing less than one-third of their members to be active are much more likely than others to be members of coordinating councils. 10 ------- Region III Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia Region VIII Colorado, Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana Metropolitan Region St. Louis, Missouri; Birmingham, Alabama; San Francisco, California; Durango, Colorado; and Amherst, Massachusetts Regional Distinctions Among Environmental Organizations Our questionnaire data indicates that environmental organizations in Reg- ion III tend to be more numerous and to have somewhat smaller memberships than those in Region VIII or the metropolitan areas. More groups in Region III have been environmentally active for longer periods of time than in the other two areas. Particularly in the metropolitan areas the environmental movement appears to be a somewhat newer phenomenon than in the other two regions. Over two-thirds of the groups surveyed in metropolitan areas became environmentally active during the last five years, compared to just over half in Regions III and VIII. A higher proportion of the metropolitan area groups and the Region VIII groups have at least some paid staff. Metropolitan area groups are less likely than groups in the two regions to say that more than 75 percent of their organizations' work is performed by volunteers. A higher proportion of the groups in Region III get the bulk of their financial support from member- ships. A somewhat higher proportion of the groups in Region VIII receive substantial financial support from corporations. All of the above differences add up to a picture of Region III groups being more numerous, smaller in size, older and somewhat poorer than Region VIII groups or the metropoli- tan area groups. Our statistics show the Region III groups to be more parochial in the geographic scope of their activities than Region VIII groups and metropolitan area groups. A much higher percentage of Region III groups than of groups in the other two areas focus on the neighborhood. Region III also has a lower percentage of groups which focus on the state or national level. Region VIII groups focus the most attention on the state. The organizations experiencing the highest growth rates since 1 January 1970 appear to be located in the metropolitan areas. The highest category of general membership growth reported by the metropolitan areas is over 100 percent. The highest category of growth for the two regions is the 1 to 25 percent range. Region VIII reports the most numerous instances of decline in membership. The type and variety of methods employed by each region's groups show significant differences. The metropolitan areas appear to use a larger variety of political/social change methods. Region VIII groups use lobbying more often than do groups in the other areas. The metropolitan groups appear to use litigation and research methods much more frequently than do the 11 ------- other areas. Both Region VIII groups and the metropolitan areas help prepare and write legislation more often than Region III groups. As might be expected, the issues to which environmentally concerned groups give priority attention differ from region to region. Again, one gets a picture of fewer activities on the part of Region III groups, who also give proportionately greater attention to only one issue fisheries than do the other two regions. Region VIII more often than the other areas names the following issues for priority attention: beautification, forestry, energy, government organization, natural or wild area preservation, and water man- agement. The metropolitan areas emphasize more often than the other areas these issues: air quality, economic growth and development, economic priorities, noise, parks, pesticides, population, and public transportation. The metropolitan areas and Region VIH groups more often assign priority impor- tance to land use control and land use planning than do Region III groups. As might be expected, Region III and Region VIII single out wildlife issues for priority attention more often than do the metropolitan area groups. Problems perceived as major by leaders of environmental groups do not differ greatly from region to region. More groups in Region III consider the lack of intergroup coordination of environmental activity to be a major problem than groups in Region VIII and the metropolitan areas. More groups in Region VIII than the other areas say that funding, the unresponsiveness of business and training volunteers are major problems. More groups in the metropolitan areas than in the two other regions identify recruitment of volunteers and leadership development as major problems. The frequency of cooperation with other non-governmental organizations does, however, appear to differ significantly from region to region. The percent of metropolitan area groups reporting frequent cooperation with other non- governmental organizations is much larger than the percentage so reporting in Regions III and VIII. The lowest proportion of groups who often cooperate with other non-government organizations on environmental issues is found in Region III. (Footnote) All of the information in this section is derived from questionnaire data, and therefore does not appear in italics. TABLE 35 Regional Distinctions Among Environmental Organizations Percent of Respondents Region Region Metropolitan (II VIII Areas Have official members 90.4 90,8 82.6 Have only a mailing list 9,6 9.2 17.4 12 ------- TABLE 35Continued Membership (number of persons): Under 100 100-499 500+ Percent of Respondents Region Region Metropolitan III VIII Areas 47.4 41.8 41.3 29.0 27.9 26.1 23.6 30.3 32.6 Membership (number of groups): 0-4 94.0 97.5 91.3 5-19 3.6 0.8 6.5 20+ 2.4 1.6 2.2 Years environmentally active: 0-2 27.2 21.3 26.1 3-5 23.9 34.4 41.3 6-9 8.8 7.4 6.5 10+ 40.2 36.9 26.1 Staff: None 38.0 36.1 41.3 All volunteer 34.7 27.0 15.2 Some paid 19-9 23.0 32.6 All paid 7.9 13.9 10.9 Amount of organization's work done by volunteers: Under 25% 7.9 4.1 6.5 26-50% 4.9 7.4 6.5 51-75% 4.9 5.7 13.0 76 + 82.4 82.8 73.9 Decisions made by: Chief officer only 2.7 1.6 6.5 Full-time staff 2.1 4.1 0.0 Executive board 44.4 49.2 47.8 Active members only 21.3 19.7 28.3 Vote by all members 29.5 23.0 17.4 Location of central quarters: Private home Shared office space . . . Private office space . . . 32.8 44.2 33.3 31.0 23.3 26.7 29.7 30.8 33.3 Total annual budget: Under $500 32.7 31.7 27.9 $ 500 $ 1,000 13.2 12.5 0 $ 1,001 $ 2,000 14.8 5.8 25.6 $ 2,001 $ 6,000 11.6 19.2 11.6 $ 6,001 -$ 15,000 6.0 4.2 9.3 $15,001 -$ 25,000 3.3 0 $25,001 - $ 50,000 6.3 9.2 16.3 $50,001 - $500,000 9.1 13.3 7.0 Over $500,000 1.3 0.8 2.3 13 ------- TABLE 35Continued Percent of Respondents Region Region Metropolitan III VIII Areas Source of Revenue:3 Memberships 62.3 Foundations/private grants 5.2 Individual donations 20.6 Corporate contributions 4.6 Government 5.2 Other'0 32.7 Federal tax status: Nonprofit, not tax-exempt 36.1 Nonprofit, tax-exempt 35.8 Other 28.1 Geographic scope of activities:3 Neighborhood 38.6 Municipality 32.2 County 36.5 Several counties or towns 16.9 Metropolitan area 20.4 Watershed 20.3 State 24.8 Regional (two or more states) 9.3 National 9-6 General growth rate of total organization since 1 January 1970: Over 100% 12-3 55- 100% 7.3 25- 54% 10.7 1 - 25% 30.2 Membership steady 26.5 Some decline (under 10%) 7.3 Significant decline (1030%) 3.8 Substantial decline (over 30%) 1-9 General growth rate of active members: Over 100% increase 9.0 55 100% increase 7.7 25 54% increase 11.0 1 25% increase 26.9 Participation steady 38.6 Some decline (under 10%) 3.9 Significant decline (10 30%) 2.6 Substantial decline (over 30%) 0.3 52.5 8.2 24.6 9.0 5.7 31.1 33.3 39.3 27.4 30.3 37.8 31.7 20.3 16.8 18.6 49.2 9.2 14.3 12.7 5.1 11.9 28.5 20.3 13.6 4.2 1.7 12.2 10.4 15.7 25.2 29.6 4.3 0.9 1.7 55.6 11.1 26.1 4.3 6.5 28.3 35.7 35.7 28.6 30.4 50.0 41.3 23.9 45.7 17.4 30.4 2.2 13.0 23.3 11.7 11.6 9.3 30.2 7.0 4.7 2.3 11.9 11.9 7.t 26.2 35.7 2.4 2.4 2.4 a Percentages listed represent primary or major characteristics of organizations only. bSales, fees, subscriptions, etc. 14 ------- TABLE 35Continued Political/social change methods:a Lobbying Informal pressure on leaders Litigation Information dissemination Public education Research Protests and demonstrations Economic pressure/boycotts Letter writing Publicity Urging alternative life styles Participating in hearings Helping research/write legislation Public meetings/discussion Community service methods:a Public education School programs Recycling/demonstration projects Beautification Studies/surveys Monitoring Public meetings/discussions Issues:3 Air quality Beautification Economic growth and development Economic priorities E nergy Facility siting Fisheries Forestry Governmental organization Health and safety Highways Landuse control Landuse planning Mining Natural or wild area preservation Noise Outdoor recreation Parks Pesticides Petroleum development Population Rat/pest control Sanitation Soil conservation 15 Percent of Respondents Region Region Metropolitan III VIII Areas 14.4 21.4 15.9 36.2 33.6 37.8 4.7 5.1 22.2 57.4 66,7 84.4 60.1 69.8 77,8 14.4 21.6 40.9 1.3 1.7 8.9 0.7 0.9 4.4 55.7 52.1 60.0 47.8 52.1 60.0 4.8 7.0 13.3 41.4 47.0 51.1 14.1 20.7 24.4 47.8 51.3 51.1 55.6 62.6 59.1 29.1 34.8 23.3 23.9 16.8 20.9 24.7 25.2 29.5 23.2 27.8 36.4 14.4 13.0 27.3 45.5 49.6 50.0 24.5 27.0 34.8 19.0 27.0 21.7 6.3 10.7 26.1 4.2 4.1 21.7 9.7 15.6 10.9 10.0 14.8 15.2 19.0 14.8 4.3 20.2 27.9 15.2 8.8 16.4 8.7 13.9 18.9 15.2 12.1 14.8 19.6 27.8 41.0 47.8 29.6 41.0 50,0 12.1 15.6 6.5 39.6 49.2 47.8 6.9 3.3 17,4 32.9 37.7 30.4 23.3 34.4 45.7 16.0 18.9 21.7 4.5 8.2 13.0 11.8 14.8 28.3 3.0 2.5 4.3 10.3 17.2 10.9 27.2 27.0 17.4 ------- TABLE 35Continued Solid waste/recycling Public transportation Water management Water quality Wetiands Wildlife Problems:a Lack of intergroup coordination of environmental activity Better evaluation of group's effectiveness and impact Lack of contact with other environmentally interested groups IRS tax laws Funding Physical Needs (clerical help, equipment, office space, etc.) Inadequate information service on environmental issues Inadequate information on organizing environmental activity Unresponsiveness of government Unresponsiveness of business Lack of legal assistance Lack of technical advice Lack of staff/membership expertise Need to broaden the membership base Training volunteers Utilizing volunteers Recruiting volunteers Leadership development Frequency of cooperation with other non-governmental organizations on environmental issues: Never Rarely . . Occasionally Often Percent of Respondents Region Region Metropolitan III VIII Areas 27.8 27.0 34.8 5.7 12.3 23.9 25.4 41.0 26.1 37.5 38.5 32.6 21.1 18.9 23.9 35.0 34.4 23.9 22.6 18.0 10.0 14.6 15.2 16.7 14.8 16.8 14.3 10.3 8.8 4.8 37.9 53.1 45.2 23.2 24.8 23.8 13.1 8.8 9.5 13.5 12.4 9.5 29.2 30.1 31.0 25.1 35.4 33.0 11.2 11.5 16.7 9.1 8.0 9.5 21.2 23.9 14.3 42.0 38.9 40.5 18.3 23.9 11.9 17.6 23.9 21.4 34.4 38.9 40.5 29.8 28.3 35.7 3.3 3.4 0 11.0 6.8 6.8 48.8 47.9 38.6 36.9 41.9 54.5 NOTE: Percentages may not add up to 100 because of rounding, of an "other" category not listed here, of questions left blank or because more than one answer was sometimes possible. 16 ------- CHAPTER II A NATIONAL PROFILE OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL VOLUNTEER If you are a volunteer in the environmental movement, chances are better than even that you will be male, Caucasian, over 30 (with a 50 percent chance that you will be over 40), and married. You will be a white collar worker (probably professional) or a housewife. The overwhelming majority of you will have at least some college training. Over two-thirds of you will have a college degree, and 23 percent of you will have a graduate degree. Your total family income will be over $10,000. Twenty-seven percent of you will have a family income over $20,000. You will donate to the environmental movement mostly time, and some financial support. The time that you contribute to the environmental movement will generally be less than four hours per week. Twelve percent of you, however, contribute more than sixteen hours per week to environmental activities. Over half of you work on environmental activities on a regular basis during most of the year. Many of you will donate at least an equal amount of time to other voluntary activities. Almost half of you will list the expenditure of a great amount of time or money as a serious risk of your involvement in the environmental movement. Over two-thirds of you talk with others involved in the environmental move- ment once a week or more. Forty-two percent talk with others involved in the environmental movement three or more times a week. Most of you have at least one close friend who is also involved in the environmental movement. Two thirds of you have two or more close friends who are in the environmental movement. The majority voluntary environmental activities that over half of you are likely to get involved in are committee work, education, information dis- semination, letter writing, and participation in public meetings and discus- sions. Other activities that are likely to preoccupy more than one-third of you are organization policy development, publicity, field trips, demonstration projects such as recycling, and physical improvement projects such as cleanups, and planting. About one-third or more of you focus your primary efforts on these environ- mental issues: natural or wild area preservation, outdoor recreation, beautifi- cation and wildlife. Other issues on which a substantial number of you at least have been moderately active are: forestry, health and safety, air quality, land use control, land use planning, parks, pesticides, soil conservation, solid waste/recycling, and water quality. Both the number and types of issues you the individual volunteer tackle are likely to vary with your sex and your age. For example, those individuals in the forty to forty-nine age group are most likely to be involved in a wide variety of environmental issues. Younger environmental volunteers are more 17 ------- likely to be involved in beautification, outdoor recreation, and solid waste/re- cyding projects than other age groups. Male volunteers are more likely to be active on a wide variety of environ- mental issues than females. Only one issue in our sample showed a signifi- cantly higher percentage of females involved than of males solid waste/re- cycling. There were several issues on the other hand where the percentage of males involved was significantly higher than the percentage of females economic growth and development, fisheries, forestry land use planning, natural or wild area preservation, outdoor recreation, soil conservation, water management, water quality, wetlands and wildlife. The voluntary activities that you pursue in support of your organizations' goals also appear to vary with your age and sex. The thirty to thirty-nine year age group is most likely to be involved in a wide variety of organizational activities. Volunteers under eighteen are more likely than others to be involved in the following activities: publicity, fund raising, demonstration projects, physi- cal improvement projects, and protest or advocacy demonstrations. Volun- teers in the eighteen to twenty-four year group are more likety than others to be involved in some basic organizational support activities such as filing, typing, research and recruitment. Both men and women pursue a wide variety of activities on behalf of their organizations. Significantly higher percentages of men, however, say that they are involved in what appear to be leadership and policy making responsibilities scientific/technical assistance, administration, organization policy development, preparation and drafting of legislation, and participation in hearings. The activities women are significantly more involved in than men are: clerical work, education, information dissemination, letter writing, demonstration projects (recycling, etc.), and boycotting and economic pres- sure. Over half of you consider your contributions to the activities of environmen- tal organizations to be vital or important. The majority of the rest of you classify your contributions as routine. Women are more likely than men to categorize their activities as routine. Two-thirds of you feel that environmental organizations are moderately effective in reaching their goals. For most of you your personal exposure to an environmental problem motivated your initial involvement in the environmental movement. Of those individuals who took the time to describe a significant motivating experience, most wrote about an immediate near-home crisis: I started being annoyed with litter left on my property. Then a glass-paper-cans recycling center began in our area, and I joined as a volunteer. Living on 24 acres in the country and being personally threatened by: A T and T which wanted to clear a 150 foot wide swath for an underground cable through our property; and Allegheny Power Service Corporation which wanted to clear a 200 foot wide swath and erect 100 foot towers. A local airport Vz mile away which proposes to enlarge the runway for a jetport. 18 ------- An allergic child started me reading labels, which really started me reading and thinking when this could begin to have problems related to air pollution. And when our township sprayed a lot next to us, causing a severe attack, I became committed, involved and my total direction and outlook has changed from that time. Next my husband and I discovered township plans to run sewer lines down the stream bed of a beautiful stream valley behind our house. He successfully led a year long battle by aroused area residents for ecologically sound engineering plans. Probably in part because of motivating experiences, most of you have an evangelistic feeling about the environmental movement. Eighty-two per- cent of you have personally influenced others to become active in the environ- mental movement. Most of you have tried to interest others in environmental problems by talking, making speeches, and writing articles. Almost one-third of you have tried to interest more than 100 people in environmental problems. Men appear more likely to engage in this type of activity on a large scale than women. Regional Distinctions Among Environmental Volunteers Volunteers in Regions III and VIII appear to have more characteristics in common than volunteers in the metropolitan areas appear to have with either region. There are many more female volunteers than male volunteers in the met- ropolitan areas, than in the two regions, and also more unmarried volunteers in the metropolitan areas. Further, volunteers in the metropolitan areas appear to have achieved a somewhat higher level of formal education than volunteers in the two regions. There is a higher percentage in the metropolitan areas of volunteers falling into the occupational categories of professional, scien- tific/technical, and academic than in the two regions. Income levels are also generally higher in the metropolitan areas. Our statistics on types of voluntary environmental activities generally bear out our statistics on the methods organizations use in pursuing their goals. Organizations in Region VIII and in the metropolitan areas generally tend to use more activist methods than Region III. The volunteers in these two areas also tend to be more activist than volunteers in Region III. A higher percentage of Region VIII volunteers appear to be involved in a wide range of voluntary activities than in Region III and the metropolitan areas. A much higher percentage of volunteers in Region VIII are involved in organizational policy development, publicity, education, preparation and drafting of legislation, participation in hearings and recruitment. Volunteers in the metropolitan areas far more often than those in the regions report involvement in clerical work, fund raising, lobbying, and protest or advocacy demonstrations. 19 ------- TABLE 36 Regional Distinctions Among Environmental Volunteers Percent of Respondents Region Region Metropolitan III VIU Areas Sex: Male Female 57,6 42.4 49.5 50.5 36.3 63.7 Age: 1-25 26-35 36-45 46-55 55 + Race/ethnic origin: Caucasian/European Latin American . . . Negro/black African American Indian . . Oriental Asian .... Marital status: Married Single Widowed Separated Divorced . Education: Some high school . . High school degree . Some college College degree . . . . Some graduate work Graduate degree . . . 12.9 9.8 17.7 21.1 27.8 19.5 22.1 22.9 20.3 20.6 18.3 26.0 23.5 21.2 16.3 97.1 98.9 97.6 0.4 0 0.8 1.5 0.4 0.8 0.3 0.7 0.8 0.1 0 0 77.9 79.9 71.5 16.6 12.4 22.8 2.6 3.2 3.3 1.1 0.4 0.8 1.8 4.2 1.6 9.0 4.3 4.1 14.3 10.0 4.1 20.4 24.4 27.0 21.4 22.9 23.8 13.9 18.3 17.2 21.0 20.1 23.8 Occupation: Professional/Scientific/Technical Academic Manager/administrator Sales Clerical office worker Service Agriculture Skilled labor/craftsmen Labor/factory worker/transportation . . . On welfare Total family income: Under $4,999 $ 5,000 - $ 9,999 33.1 32.0 41.0 9.3 6.4 6.6 1.7 2.1 0 3.7 1.1 4.1 1.2 0.7 0 1.9 7.8 0 5.6 1.8 1.6 2.8 0.4 0 0 0 0 3.8 18.5 6.9 20.4 3.4 12.6 20 ------- TABLE 36Continued Percent of Respondents Region Region Metropolitan III VIII Areas $10,000 - $14,999 $15,000-$19,999 $20,000 - $24,999 $25,000 or over Hours per week of voluntary environmental work: Less than 4 (V& day) 58 (full day) 9-12 (r/2 day) 13-16 (2 days) 17-24 (3 days) 25-32 (4 days) 33 + (over 4 days) Primary voluntary environmental activities: Legal assistance/litigation Scientific/technical assistance Accounting/fiscal Administration Clerical/filing/typing Committee work Documentation/library Organization policy development Publicity Education Information dissemination Helping prepare/write legislation Research Fund raising Lobbying Informal pressure on officials Boycotting/economic pressure Letter writing Participation in hearings Public meetings, discussion, etc Field trips Demonstration projects (recycling, etc.) . . . Evaluation Physical improvement projects (clean up, planting, etc.) Monitoring Training/orientation Recruitment Placement and referral Protest (or advocacy) demonstrations .... 27.9 22.8 28.0 22.9 18.5 21.0 10.6 9.8 18.5 16.4 12.0 26.1 61.1 56.6 54.9 19.4 20.8 21.3 5.5 6.2 7.4 5.4 5.1 2.5 3.8 3.6 8.2 1.1 2.6 2.5 3.8 5.1 3.3 5.5 8.5 11.2 23.6 29.9 24.3 5.6 3.9 4.8 25.3 36.0 29.7 16.2 17.7 30.4 63.4 70.3 64.2 12.6 17.1 16.2 42.6 55.4 45.3 45.7 54.1 49.5 59.8 67.4 59.6 59.0 69.8 69.9 10.5 20.5 13.5 21.3 25.9 28.4 27.3 28.0 31.4 14.7 19.6 23.6 47.2 53.7 49.1 15.0 15.1 19.2 56.3 64.5 63.0 33.2 51.0 45.5 67.4 75.3 64.5 48.6 48.2 49.1 41.4 37.0 42.0 19.5 28.6 18.0 59.0 55.6 31.1 9.9 13,5 15.5 21.1 24.0 21.2 24.6 30.9 20.6 6.0 8.1 6.9 6.4 6.1 12.4 21 ------- CHAPTER III CONCLUSIONS As concern for the environment has mounted in recent years, the volunteer environmental movement has expanded rapidly. Membership has surged and organizations have proliferated. Small local groups as well as large ad hoc national coalitions have formed to undertake a particular project such as a recycling center or to do battle on one issue such as the supersonic transport or a new highway which would destroy a neighborhood or parkland. Other groups new and old have made a wide range of environmental problems their concern, under- taking research, distributing information, and pressing for public action on as many of these problems as time and other resources have permitted. As volunteer efforts have met with success, and sometimes failure or stalemate, some groups have disbanded, only to reform to try new tactics or to meet a new crisis. Today the environmental movement is still growing, and public awareness of environmental issues along with it. No level of government has remained untouched by the movement. No agency head, major industry or interest group can fail to take account of the movement, even if in some instances this means only using the rhetoric of environmental concern. Rhetoric should not be discounted, however. It betokens the existence of a force that has already had an impact on attitudes and a thousand governmental decisions, and holds the potential of bringing about further change. We have included in this report several case studies of effective volunteer action. Each of these examples of hard-fought and successful efforts could be matched by many others in which old and new groups and their determined volunteers joined to save a marshland, stop a barge canal, relocate an expres- sway, secure more stringent pollution control laws, and force an agency to follow prescribed procedures for including environmental considerations in its decision-making. The victories of the environmental movement have not been easily won. Nor have any of the groups we surveyed and individuals we interviewed reported a problem-free organization or an unbroken string of successful efforts. Indeed, if anything, the emphasis has been on difficulties experienced in building viable organizations, in securing expert help when needed, and in dealing with government agencies. It may be surmised that growth and achievement in themselves have resulted in increased organizational problems and frustrations for the move- ment. As more volunteers have come forward to serve, more demands have been placed on leaders to use them effectively. As a few agency doors have opened a crack to allow citizens to participate in decisions affecting the environment, the number that still remain closed has loomed larger. The good anti-pollution bills that have become law remain to be enforced. The environmental impact statements that have been prepared remain to 23 ------- be interpreted, and challenged if necessary. And inevitably, as the environ- mental movement has gained momentum and shown muscle, interest groups and government bureaucracies that oppose some of the movement's objec- tives have looked to bolster their defenses. We have summarized in this chapter major findings based on our own experience and on our recent study of the volunteer environmental movement patterns of growth and participation, strengths and weaknesses in organization, problems in relations with government and industry, and the potential for further growth and achievement. Like other volunteer move- ments, the environmental movement shows great diversity. As indicated in following chapters, experiences differ from city to city and region to region. To each of our findings there will be exceptions. We believe all of the findings, however, reflect the shared experiences of a significant number of groups and volunteers. Patterns of Growth and Participation A multitude of environmental problems some national or international in scope and some local, many of crisis proportions, and all increasingly felt in the daily lives of countless citizens have led to rapid growth in the environmental movement in recent years. An oil-spill, the cumulative evidence on effects of pesticides, a blighted and rat-infested urban neighborhood, a species of wildlife threatened with extinction, an air pollution alert, a waterway threatened with thermal pollution from a new atomic power plant any one or combination of these and other environmental problems have led concerned individuals to join the volunteer environmental movement and to act. Eighty-two percent of the respondents to our questionnaire for individuals said that personal exposure to a particular environmental problem was impor- tant or vital in motivating their initial involvement in an environmental activity or organization. Over half of our total respondents listed the personal experi- ence as vital to their involvement. Many of these individuals have joined existing organizations. Many also, newly concerned about environmental problems, or acting to meet a particular crisis, have formed a new organization. Hence both the number of environmentally active organizations, and the number of environmental volunteers have shown rapid growth in recent years. Over half of the 609 organizations we surveyed began their active concern with the environment within the last five years. Out of this group, about half again became active around the time of Earth Day (22 April 1970) or later. In our interviews, Earth Day 1970 was widely perceived as the peak point of public interest in environmental issues and of volunteer activity. Our ques- tionnaire data clearly shows, however, that growth in the volunteer movement, which appears to have surged around the time of Earth Day, has continued since. Not only have a clear majority of organizations reported growth in total membership; 24 percent of the organizations surveyed reported their 24 ------- total membership as remaining steady, and only 13 percent noted a decline in total membership. Most important, a clear majority of organizations also reported growth in environmentally active members while 36 percent of groups surveyed reported their active members as steady in number. Only 13 percent of our respondent organizations reported a decline in total membership, and a mere 6 percent reported a decline in environmentally active members. In sum, among the volunteers caught up in the excitement of Earth Day there are some who have since dropped out of the movement. But the core of dependable hard-working volunteers has grown. It is this core which does the bulk of the work in the environmental movement today. Despite growth, the core of dedicated environmental activists remains rela- tively small. Fifty-one percent of all organizations surveyed indicated that 32 percent or less of their current membership actively participates in their organizations' work. Only 27 percent reported participation levels of 67 per- cent or better. Since about half of the organizations we questioned were not exclusively "environment/conservation" organizations, these percentages do not necessarily reflect levels of participation in environmental activities. A better idea of current participation levels in environmental activities, and of what participation means in terms of volunteer man-hours contributed, can be gained from responses to our individual questionnaires. Fifty-seven percent of individual volunteers said they devoted an average of four hours or less per week to environmental activities. Twenty percent reported an average of five to eight hours per week, and 16 percent reported between nine and twenty-four hours. Seven percent contributed more than twenty-five hours (four or more days) per week to the environmental movement. It might be concluded that the 7 percent of volunteers devoting four or more days per week constitute the real moving force of the volunteer environ- mental movement. Such a conclusion would not convey the whole picture. The active core of the movement is indubitably small. But neither leadership nor leg-work can be measured in hours contributed alone. The busy executive or U.S. Senator who takes a few hours to chair a meeting, to make some telephone calls, to raise funds, or even merely to lend his or her name and letter-head to a cause, has made a significant contribution. This is equally true for the man or woman who holds down a part-time job, manages a household, and still finds time to organize a letter-writing campaign and to visit members of a state legislature on the average of one-half day a week. In sum, the activist core of the volunteer environmental movement might be said to comprise all those individuals who go out of their way on a regular basis to contribute their time, their money and their prestige to the movement. This core is a minority of environmental volunteers, but it is a minority that is undoubtedly far larger than the 7 percent of volunteers contributing four or more days per week to the movement. 25 ------- Strengths and Weaknesses in Organization Two striking features of the volunteer environmental movement today are the issue-orientation of groups making up the movement and the proliferation in number of groups. These features help to account for some similarities we have found in the structure and problems of environmental groups and for some characteristic patterns of action we have identified. These features are great sources of strength for the environmental movement; they are also sources of weakness. Indubitably, the issue-orientation of environmental groups has reflected the issue-orientation of their volunteers. Environmental volunteers have become involved in the movement because they wanted to pursue specific goals and to get results. They have joined a group to solve problems, and often they have perceived these problems as crises. The environmental movement has benefited enormously in terms not only of membership growth but also of energies galvanized and expended without stint. And it has gotten results. At the same time, intensely focused on goals and moving from crisis to crisis, neither leaders nor volunteers have had adequate time and energy, or sometimes the inclination, to tend to the tasks that can assure long-term viability and increased influence for their organizations. Leadership develop- ment and volunteer training have suffered. If the group is between crises, it may have enough time, but not enough volunteers to perform unglamorous but essential work such as reviewing environmental impact statements for projects in the group's region. If the group is engaged in a full-blown crisis, it may have more than enough volunteer manpower, but no one with the time to manage that manpower. The issue-orientation of environmental groups fosters crisis involvement, but not crisis prevention. It fosters effective cooperation among groups on an ad hoc basis, but not on a permanent basis. The proliferation of environmental groups has also been a source of strength for the movement. In some areas, the new group is the only environ- mentally active group; it fills a vacuum. In other areas, where environmentally active groups may already exist, the new group may focus on issues that existing groups have been unable or unwilling to tackle. More often than not, the new group, whether national or local, has a particular point-of-view on environmental issues or is intent on concentrating its attention on one particular problem. As a result, it may be able to attract volunteers who would have remained inactive but for its existence. On the other hand, the proliferation of groups creates problems for the movement. First and most obvious, is the problem of competition for funds and volunteers. Only in rare instances do groups with similar interests decide to pool their limited resources. The large number of groups also makes coordination of efforts and com- munication among groups more difficult. Not infrequently, several environ- mental groups working on the same problem in the same community arrive at different solutions. These different positions are picked up by the media, 26 ------- confuse the public, and give fuel to the opposition. A representative of the Bay Area Council in San Francisco (a board-of-trade type organization) stated that he regarded the major problem of the environmental movement to be its fragmentation. Speaking as a member of the business community he added: "If they (the environmental groups) ever got together, we'd be in trouble." Money and Time As might be expected, most volunteer organizations in the environmental movement need more funds to operate efficiently and to carry out their mis- sions. All of the groups we interviewed considered lack of funds to be a major problem. Among the organizations we surveyed, over 60 percent reported funding to be a problem, and well over half of these said that funding is a major problem. A majority of the groups we surveyed depend on memberships for the bulk of their funds. These groups are more likely than others to have small budgets. Annual budgets for 30 percent of our organizations are under $500. Another 24 percent report budgets of between $500 and $2000, and still another 16 percent report budgets of between $2000 and $10,000. Eleven percent of the organizations have budgets of over $50,000. In many areas of the country, we found that the groups we interviewed looked to the federal government as a potential source of financial support for their activities. Very few of these groups, however, seemed at all concerned about their ability to maintain their independence if they received substantial government financing. Our questionnaire data shows that government funding may well influence to some degree an organization's choice of activities. For example, organiza- tions receiving their primary financial support from memberships are likely to rely heavily on lobbying. On the other hand, organizations reporting govern- ment funds as their primary source of support are less likely to mention lobbying as an activity, ft is possible, of course, that the most activist organiza- tions either do not seek government funds, or do not receive such funds even if they seek them. Our data also shows that groups reporting government funds only as a secondary means of support are engaged in lobbying as often as groups relying on membership support. For most of the groups we interviewed, increased funds were seen as a means to meet their need for full-time staff. Our survey shows that groups currently having some staff, whether volunteer or paid, are likely to be active on a wider variety of issues, to use a wider variety of tactics, and to engage more often in cooperative efforts with other groups, than groups lacking staff support. Our survey data also shows that nearly half of our organizations stand in need of clerical help, central office space and office equipment. Time is another resource in short supply. Almost half of the individuals responding to our questionnaire listed the expenditure of great amounts of time as well as money as a major consequence of their participation in the environmental movement. Time is eaten up by crises; it is also eaten 27 ------- up by meetings. Many activists belong to several different groups working on similar problems. Because these groups usually have not pooled their resources, their activist members may well attend a different meeting on the same subject every night of the week. Despite long hours, most activists find that they can't accomplish all the tasks they have set for themselves. Leaders and Volunteers The time pressures felt by activists contribute to leadership problems. And in turn, leadership problems intensify time pressures. Most of the volun- teers we interviewed were also leaders of their groups. Preoccupied by crises and meetings, they lacked time to train others to share their burdens. More interested in issues than in techniques of effective leadership, many were also disinclined to use the time between crises for their own training as well as for the training of associates. Fifty-four percent of the organizations we surveyed listed leadership development as a problem they faced, and over half of these identified it as a major problem. We often found lack of knowledge of how to delegate authority among the leaders we interviewed, and sometimes, little recognition of the need to learn this ski II. Some leaders said that they would rather do a job themselves than take the trouble to teach others to do it. As a result of inadequate leadership development, some groups become excessively dependent on one or two individuals to keep the organization going. When these individuals move to a new location, or become exhausted and drop their environmental work, the group may fold or go through a difficult period of reorganization. Another result of inadequate leadership development is inefficient use of volunteers, particularly of those volunteers who need to be assigned tasks appropriate for the few hours per week they can contribute. In virtually all of our interviews we were told that the group being discussed needed an individual who could concentrate more time on the placement and supervision of volunteers. Usually, such responsibilities were envisaged for someone other than the person we were interviewing. For some leaders, a choice must be made between working on issues and working with volunteers, and the choice is a traumatic one. They see the need for volunteer supervision but experience tells them that only the energies of a full-time or half-time staff person can meet this need. They cannot afford to hire such a person. And they feel that they cannot meet the need themselves lest they neglect the issues that have brought the group into existence. Along with funding, the problem of motivating volunteers for service between crises was seen as a major problem by everyone we interviewed. Volunteers often drop out of a group once a crisis has passed. Leaders are unprepared to show that work between crises matters as much as work during crises. Our questionnaire data confirms that many groups in the environmental movement experience some difficulty in motivating and making effective use 28 ------- of volunteers. Forty-six percent of our groups said that utilization of volunteers is a problem, and of these, 20 percent said that it is a major problem. For 32 percent of the groups we surveyed, training of volunteers is also a problem. And for as many as 58 percent of our groups volunteer recruitment is per- ceived as a problem, with 35 percent citing it as a major problem. Our data shows that organizations that have been environmentally active for from three to nine years mention problems of recruitment, training, and utilization of volunteers more often than organizations that have been active for shorter or longer periods of time. We surmise that drop-out rates may be strong after the excitement and flurry of activity accompanying pursuit of a new project or formation of a new group have died down. Hence recruit- ment of new volunteers may loom large as a problem for these organizations. At the same time, having acquired a few years of experience in environmental activities, these organizations may be focusing for the first time on problems such as training and utilization of volunteers. Two special problems of volunteer recruitment in some areas of the country should be mentioned: job intimidation and a decline in the availability of women for volunteer environmental work. Pressure on employees from their employers to stay out of environmental work or to reduce their activity can take forms ranging from outright threat or dismissal to veiled hints that privileges may be withdrawn or advancement denied. A far greater proportion of the volunteers we interviewed perceived job pressures to be a risk of their involvement in the environmental movement than of respondents to our questionnaire for individual volunteers. Only 7 percent of questionnaire respondents listed pressure from their employers as a major risk of involvement; and only 3 percent stated that loss of job was a major risk. The individuals we interviewed, however, are among the most active and visible in the environmental movement, and in all probability are therefore most liable to be subject to job pressures. A decline in the availability of women for volunteer environmental work is a phenomenon that was remarked on chiefly by groups and volunteers 'n the eastern part of the country. It may be that in this region paid job opportunities for women are expanding more rapidly than in other areas of the country. As women take advantage of these opportunities and combine a job with housework and raising a family, they may have less time or no time for volunteer work. The pool of volunteers may diminish accordingly. Among volunteers responding to our questionnaire, 55 percent nationwide w©re male and 45 percent were female. In four eastern states alone the Percentage of male respondents was also higher than the percentage of female respondents. In four western states taken alone, the opposite was true. These data can support the regional phenomenon reported above. However, since we have no data from our individual or organization question- naires on relative numbers of men and women volunteers in the environmental movement prior to 1972, we have no way of telling whether or not an apparent Predominance of men among volunteers nationwide is a new development. 29 ------- Communication and Cooperation Rapid growth and the crisis orientation of the environmental movement have hindered the development of adequate mechanisms for regular com- munication and cooperation among volunteer groups. A tendency on the part of some groups to jealously guard their autonomy has also been a hindrance to cooperation. Patterns of communication and cooperation differ state by state and region by region. In a few states we found contacts to exchange information and to arrange joint efforts to be regular and fruitful. But in most states, such contacts are sporadic at best. And in most regions, such contacts across state lines are almost non-existent. In theory, contacts and cooperation between local groups affiliated with the same state, regional or national organization should be more easy to arrange than those between groups not so affiliated. But in fact, communica- tion tends to be vertical between the organization's central office and its local affiliates rather than horizontal among the organization's affiliates in different areas. Moreover, to the extent that communication among local affiliates does take place, it involves relatively few groups. Only 22 percent of groups responding to our questionnaire reported themselves to be local affiliates or chapters of larger organizations. Forty-seven percent of the groups we surveyed said that lack of intergroup coordination of environmental activities is a problem, and among these, 19 percent maintained that this lack is a major problem. When our groups were asked how often they cooperated with other non-governmental organizations on environmental issues, only 41 percent said such cooperation was frequent. Forty-seven percent said that it was occasional, and 12 percent said that it was rare or non-existent. When cooperative efforts are undertaken, they are far more likely than not to be informal and ad hoc rather than formal. Only 13 percent of our groups reported that they frequently engage in the formal exchange of person- nel and material with other voluntary organizations working on environmental issues. Twenty-five percent reported that they often cooperate formally on joint projects. But only 3 percent said that they had formal joint budgets for projects. And only 9 percent reported formal written agreements on policies and programs. Among the 347 organizations answering our open-ended question "What things can be done to foster greater cooperation among various environmen- tally concerned non-governmental groups?" 32 suggested greater atten- tion to the reduction of duplication in efforts resulting from a plethora of local groups. Forty-nine specifically suggested the formation of an umbrella or coordinating council. Thirty-two percent of the organizations responding to our survey reported that they belong to coordinating councils. However, both our interview infor- mation and our survey results showing low levels of formal cooperative efforts lead us to suspect that many of these councils are chiefly paper organizations, or that they coordinate the efforts of only a few out of many groups. 30 ------- In those states and metropolitan areas we visited where coordinating coun- cils have been active and effective, the following features have contributed to their success: Their competition with existing organizations for funds and volunteer energies has been minimal. They have focused on areas of agree- ment rather than those of disagreement. Meetings and communication among member groups have been regular; and areawide participation has been encouraged, particularly by holding meetings in different parts of a state or region. Experienced leadership and at least a modicum of staff have been available. Information Many environmental groups experience difficulty in obtaining the informa- tion they need to deal with current environmental problems. They have even more trouble in obtaining the information they need in order to anticipate and deal with potential problems. Thirty-six percent of groups surveyed reported that a lack of good environ- mental information services is a problem. Thirty-three percent called lack of technical advice a problem. And 45 percent of groups responding consi- dered lack of staff/membership expertise to be a problem. In part, difficulties in obtaining information cati be linked to inadequate training for environmental volunteers. One volunteer just starting to work on a problem may not be aware that another volunteer in the same group has tackled a similar problem, and hence may repeat all the false starts and fruitless telephone calls made by the other before finding a source of information. Inadequate communication between environmental groups also means that different groups may cover the same ground and not learn from the experience of others. The scarcity in some areas of scientific experts independent of government and industry and willing and able to give time, exacerbates the problem of obtaining good technical information. Further, the ordinary citizen often feels, or is made to feel by government agencies and others, that he or she cannot possibly hope to match wits with the experts. In fact, however, the local resident who has studied an environmental problem in his area may well have more to offer on the subject than the experts. Sometimes the information problem takes the form of too much information rather than too little. Some local groups complain of being inundated with paper from the proliferating national environmental organizations. They are confused by the different positions taken by these groups and uncertain where to turn for the best advice and most reliable information. Many groups expressed the need for a central source to which they could turn for infor- mation. Some suggested a need for a central source from which they could obtain positions on issues reflecting a consensus of environmental groups. The committee believes that coordination of information services within the environmental movement can and should be improved and that a central clearinghouse to which groups could turn for guidance on information sources, and how to tap them would be helpful. The committee does not believe, 31 ------- however, that one central source of guidance on issues is either feasible or desirable. The diverse viewpoints and different approaches to problems represented within the environmental movement have contriSuted substan- tially to its strength. Relations with Government and Industry The information problem reported by many environmental groups appears most acute in their relations with government and industry. The information willingly provided by government and industry, and sometimes in great quan- tities, seems self-serving. On the other hand, the information that groups really need to develop responsible positions and to act effectively on environ- mental decisions is usually provided grudgingly if at all. Sometimes it has taken litigation or a vast campaign in legislatures and the media to pry loose needed information. But environmental issues are too numerous and the resources of volunteer groups too limited to permit the use of these methods in any but a few cases. Most important, information when it is forthcoming, is usually provided at the last possible moment before a final decision is made or a project goes into construction. Government and industry reluctance to provide infor- mation in the initial planning stages of a project accounts in large measure for the crisis orientation of environmental groups. Forced to act in the late stages of the planning process, citizen groups must concentrate their efforts on rallying enough public opposition to delay the project indefinitely or to stop it at a point when it already represents a substantial investment. Alternatives that should have been considered earlier may no longer be feasible. Government and industry waste vast amounts of time and money as a result of a system under which so many projects reach the brink of implementation before a public confrontation on their merits takes place. Environmental groups, in turn, must expend energy and money to stop projects when they would rather use their scarce resources for constructive efforts. Problems in relations with government in particular go beyond those of obtaining timely information to those of effective citizen participation in decision-making. Fifty-two percent of our organizations listed the unrespon- siveness of government as a problem. Over half of these said that the unres- ponsiveness of government is a major problem. Among those we interviewed there was a strong feeling that the mechanisms that have been developed to allow citizen participation are mere formalities, staged for the public record but in fact having little impact. Government agencies, it was felt, are defaulting on their basic responsibility to aggressively promote citizen participation in decision-making. The hearing process was specifically singled out for criticism. In many areas of the country which are remote from Washington and the federal regional centers, hearings may provide the only opportunity to participate in environmental decision-making. Vet hearings, it was felt, usually take place after the basic decisions have been made. Moreover, citizens wishing to testify are discouraged from doing so by requirements that they state their 32 ------- technical or other qualifications to make a contribution. Often the information on which they are being invited to comment requires lengthy study but is provided only a short time before the hearing is to take place. Good relations with agency field representatives can be a source of frustra- tion because these representatives are often overruled by supervisors in regional or Washington offices. It is not unusual, in western areas of the country to find a local Forest Service agent who is well-liked and respected. He lives in the community and understands its problems. But residents of the community do not transfer their liking for him to the agency. They believe the local agent is as impotent as they are. Some of the volunteers interviewed felt that they had had good access to agency information and some impact on decision-making. Usually, how- ever, they attributed these experiences to the personal convictions of the agency official involved rather than to agency policy. The Potential of the Volunteer Environmental Movement In a relatively short span of years, the environmental volunteer movement has become a significant force for constructive change on the American scene. It has had an impact on the economic behavior of individuals and corporations. It has changed the ways Americans interact with one another and their environment. It has been heard by all levels of government and government has begun to respond. Our committee believes that the environmental movement holds the poten- tial to effect further change on the American scene to grow, to add to its achievements, and thereby to contribute further to the building of a healthy and just society. The extent to which this potential is realized in coming years will depend in large measure on three factors: (1) the willingness of government to live up to the rhetoric of citizen participation in decision- making; (2) the capacity of environmental volunteer groups to reshape their organizations and mobilize their volunteers for sustained positive action; and (3) the ability of the environmental movement to reach out to, and appeal to an ever broader spectrum of the American public. Effective Citizen Participation in Governmental Decision-Making We have recorded throughout this report assessments by environmental groups and volunteers of governmental agencies, policies and personnel. Often these assessments have been negative. They reflect not just disagree- ment with this agency decision or dislike for the way that agency goes about its business, but a deep sense of frustration and distrust that extends to the whole governmental process. Despite their many achievements we often found a feeling of helplessness among the volunteers and leaders we interviewed. Government bureauc- racies were viewed as monoliths, unresponsive to the elected officials charged with their direction as well as to the citizens they are supposed to serve. Agencies had infinite resources at their disposal to delay and resist changes 33 ------- for which citizen groups with minimal resources had mustered significant public support. In part, the frustrations we found can be attributed to the suddenness with which the environmental movement has emerged as a major force on the national scene, and the newness and complexity of some of the issues being tackled. There are bound to be time-lags between action on a problem by an environmental group, widespread public recognition of the problem, and response by the cumbersome machinery of government on which other interests are also pressing. In part also, there may be a tendency on the part of some groups and volunteers to externalize the problems of their organizations. Rather than set about the tasks of gearing up their groups for sustained action, and for the long process of winning less-than-convinced environmentalists to their side, it may be easier to blame government or industry, or lack of funds for an effort that has not met with instant success. But in far greater measure, we believe that the discontents expressed by volunteer environmentalists relate to significant and very real flaws in our governmental process. Moreover, the discontents we have reported are by no means limited to the environmental movement or to volunteer groups. A sense of alienation from government is shared by many sectors of the public. In the chapter that follows we make numerous recommendations for improvements in agency procedures. We do not pretend that these recom- mendations offer any more than partial solutions to the problem of making government more responsive to its citizens. But overall, they do reflect our conviction that our governmental institutions can be made to work better and that an effort to press for improvement is far from futile. An Environmental Volunteer Movement Organized for Sustained Action The intense excitement of Earth Day has died down. But it has left behind a substantial and still growing body of environmental volunteers. These volun- teers are the present and future mainstay of the environmental movement. It is essential that the movement focus more attention on their motivation, training and effective utilization. It will probably always be true of the environmental volunteer movement, as well as of other volunteer movements, that a minority of dedicated activists carries the greater part of the work-load. But this minority needs to renew itself and grow in number. And it needs to tap more efficiently than it does at present the energies and diverse talents of the majority of volunteers. In particular, trained volunteers, in greater numbers, wilt be necessary to perform the critical daily tasks of planning and agency watchdogging that will enable the movement to turn more of its attention to crisis prevention and to constructive participation in environmental decisions. The movement will continue to have to deal with full-blown environmental emergencies. But it must also work to reduce their frequency. 34 ------- Further, we believe that cooperation and communication among environ- mental groups at all levels neighborhood to nation must occur on a more regular and formal basis than at present if the movement is to use to maximum effect its available resources. Wherever possible these resources should be pooled to support such basic common needs as staff, office space and equipment, and information. We do not mean to suggest that present ad hoc forms of cooperation should be supplanted, so much as to suggest that they should be sup- plemented. The environmental movement has gained much of its force from ad hoc coalitions formed to address a particular issue or to meet a particular crisis. To increase its effectiveness over the long run, however, the movement must develop additional and more permanent modus operandi. An Environmental Movement Prepared to Reach Out to All Americans Finally, the environmental volunteer movement needs to mount a deter- mined effort to broaden its base of public support. The long-term viability of the movement and its future as a significant force for social change depend perhaps in greatest measure on the outcome of this effort. Increased attention to education, and to communication with the public will be necessary. The environmental movement cannot alone shoulder the task of restructuring the American education system to include more emphasis on the environment. But it can suggest to others what is needed and prod them to act, even as it increases its own efforts in the field of education. It can also develop more sophistication in the use of communication techniques to get its message across. But building public support is not just a question of environmentalists getting their message to others and winning converts to their cause. It is also a question of environmentalists being sensitive to the messages of other groups seeking social change, and taking the needs of these groups into account in seeking solutions to environmental problems. For such two-way communi- cation to take place, the environmental movement must reach into more homes and communities than it does at present, particularly in urban areas. And it must reach out to other social movements and arrange for mutual cooperation when possible. The environmental movement today already comprises many and diverse interests and groups. Its volunteers look on environmental issues as touching every facet of their daily lives. Hence perhaps more than other social and political movements, the environmental movement holds the potential of relat- ing to the aspirations of all Americans. It can and should realize this potential in full. 35 ------- CHAPTER IV RECOMMENDATIONS INTRODUCTION The recommendations we present in this chapter have been developed from careful consideration of the needs and problems of volunteers in the environmental movement. We have tried to cover all aspects of environmental volunteerism: political activism, community service, consumer groups and youth groups. As we began our project, the EPA Task Force on Environmental Education was completing a report on EPA's mandate and program needs in education, which was submitted to EPA on January 7, 1972, Since we did not wish to duplicate the work of this task force, we did not deal with EPA's mandate to assist institutionalized environmental education. We did consider commun- ity needs for environmental information, however, and EPA's legitimate role in meeting these needs. Our two reports are complementary in many respects, and we have therefore included among our specific proposals to EPA, a strong recommendation that the report of the Task Force on Environmental Education be made public. Although we have focused on the needs of volunteer environmental groups, we believe many of our proposals would be equally helpful to other volunteer groups. We have therefore drafted some of our recommendations broadly, so that they could apply to all types of volunteer activity. Where we have not made this expansion, we urge others to do so. Because we operated on an Environmental Protection Agency grant, we made many recommendations concerning ways EPA can best relate to vol- unteer environmental groups. We had neither the time nor the funds to conduct an in-depth study of the other federal agencies with environmental mandates. Several of the recommendations we make to EPA are equally applicable, however, to these other agencies. We urge EPA to circulate our report to these agencies. And we urge these agencies in turn to give the report their most careful consideration. We have organized our specific recommendations under the following six umbrella recommendations: The federal government should improve procedures and expand oppor- tunities for effective citizen participation in agency decisions affecting the environment. The Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency should estab- lish machinery for the redress of citizen grievances concerning agency procedures. Government and industry should encourage the growth and activism of the volunteer environmental movement. Volunteer environmental organizations can and should work to increase the effectiveness of their organizations. 37 ------- The quality and flow of information and technical assistance to environ- mental volunteers should be improved. The Congress, federal agencies, and private philanthropy should act to increase the financial resources available to volunteer environmental groups. I. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD IMPROVE PROCEDURES AND EXPAND OPPORTUNITIES FOR EFFECTIVE CITIZEN PARTICIPATION IN AGENCY DECISIONS AFFECTING THE ENVIRONMENT Recommendations Concerning EPA The EPA should establish 10 Regional Citizens Advisory Boards to the regional EPA administrators, and a National Citizens Advis- ory Board to EPA's national administrator. The members of the advisory boards should be representative of environmental inter- ests. Relation to Existing EPA Advisory Boards The advisory boards we propose will differ from existing EPA advisory boards in that they will represent EPA's natural constituency -*¦ environmen- tally concerned citizens and only this constituency. In this sense, they will be comparable to the National Industrial Pollution Control Council, which reports to and represents the constituency of the Department of Commerce. There are currently thirty advisory boards to EPA, only two of which are non-technical in nature. These are the Presidentially-appointed air and water quality boards, which include members from private industry and universities and at present, only two individuals who come from recognizable environmen- tal backgrounds. The two boards have focused public attention on particular pollution problems by holding hearings in various areas, but have been dis- couraged from getting involved in EPA policy decisions. Their small staff is responsible to the EPA administrator, and their combined budget is $94,000, as opposed to $450,000 for the National Industrial Pollution Control Council. While the air and water quality boards serve a useful function, we foresee for the advisory boards proposed here a more significant role in the provision of policy advice. To those who would take exception to the exclusive represen- tation of environmental interests on these boards we respond that industry and other interests have ample access to the policy-making machinery, in part through their membership on other boards. Further, industry has greater resources for media campaigns and lobbying than environmental groups. EPA, we believe, should welcome the backing an advisory board of environ- mentalists could provide for the fullest exercise of EPA's regulatory authority. Environmentalists, we are convinced, have acquired valuable experience which should be made available to EPA on a regular basis. 38 ------- Membership of Boards Members of regional and national advisory boards will be appointed by the respective EPA administrators. Appointments should be made only from recommendations submitted by organizations that are clearly associated with efforts to improve environmental quality and that are independent of any major economic interests. In the case of the regional boards, recommenda- tions should be solicited from appropriate state and local organizations, and the states in each region should be represented on the boards in numbers roughly proportional to their population. In the case of the national board, two-thirds of the members should be appointed from recommendations sub- mitted by the regional boards with each region equally represented, and one-third should be appointed from recommendations submitted by approp- riate national organizations. Individuals recommended for board membership should be strongly associated in either a volunteer or vocational capacity with efforts to improve environmental quality. Representation on the boards should include but need not be limited to environmental, conservation, youth, inner city, consumer and academic groups. At least one-fourth of the members of each regional board and of the national board should be grass-roots volunteers. Board members should serve for fixed periods and terms of service should be staggered so that new individuals are worked into the advisory process at regular intervals. Board Meetings All of the advisory boards should meet at regularly established times. Meeting locations for the regional boards should rotate among the states in the region. Meeting locations for the national board should rotate among the EPA regions. In all instances when decisions are being reached on recommendations, the proceedings of both regional and national boards should be open to the public. Funds and Staff EPA should request and Congress should appropriate funds for the hiring of staff by the regional and national boards and for publication of board reports. Each board should be responsible for hiring its own staff, and the staff in turn should be responsible only to the board. In addition, funds should be made available for the payment of all expenses incurred by members of the advisory boards in the performance of their duties. In a report we cite in chapter six (House Report 91-1731), the House Committee on Government Operations states: "Public advisory committees dealing with public policy issues should be as independent as possible and free from the source of their appointment." We concur. 39 ------- Functions of Proposed Regional and National Advisory Boards The principal function of these new boards will be to receive citizen views on EPA policies and to transmit these views along with board comments to the respective regional and national EPA administrators. The boards will also solicit and transmit views on pending EPA policy decisions and on alternatives to current policies. Where citizen comments on EPA policies and rule-making procedures have been made directly to the national administrator or to other government agencies, the national advisory board should be entitled to receive copies of these comments. Both regional and national boards should have access to all information that goes into the making of major EPA decisions. We believe that both regional and national boards should follow the practice of making public their reports to EPA administrators, and that the boards should have full authority to make public their official recommendations to the administrators. In general, it should be EPA policy to consult the advisory boards while decisions are being made and not merely after decisions have been reached. A sounding board is a more useful and constructive body than a board limited to reacting after the fact. Each regional advisory board, jointly with its EPA regional office, should sponsor an annual seminar on EPA programs and policies in one or more central locations in the region. These seminars should be aimed at environmental citizen leaders, but be open to the public. The purpose of these seminars would be not merely to inform, but to obtain a genuine give-and-take discussion of EPA policies, programs, and legislative requests those in the proposal stage as well as those already implemented. Problems of particular concern locally for example, those of predator control, strip mining, or nuclear power should be featured along with those of national concern. The citizen advisory boards should have the chief responsibility for develop- ing the agenda for the annual seminars. It should be EPA policy to require the attendance of the regional EPA administrator at these seminars. The seminars should be preceded by the widest possible publicity, and their cost borne by the regional EPA offices. In areas of great geographic diversity or extent, seminars should be held annually in each state of the region. In regions where annual seminars in each state are not held, the locations of the seminars should rotate. In order to maintain contact with citizen groups, a citizen participa- tion unit, modeled on the Region III team, should be established in each EPA regional office. The functions of these citizen participation units would be to reach out to environmentally active groups, to keep them informed on a day-to-day basis of agency statements and actions of interest to them, and to ensure that the regional offices are kept aware of the range and variety of environmen- 40 ------- tal groups active in the region. Unlike the regional advisory boards, the citizen participation units would not have a representation function and would not be a source of formal advice to the regional administrator. The citizen participation unit in the Region III Philadelphia office (see chap- ter 6) currently consists of two law students working part-time for EPA. The youth interns presently in the regional offices could also serve these functions. We do not mean to tie this recommendation to either law students or youth, however, but merely to suggest ways in which citizen participation units could be rapidly established with a minimum of expense and/or reor- ganization. The Citizen Support Division of EPA's Office of Public Affairs should be revived and expanded. The Citizen Support Division, formerly known as the Public Service Division, has offered refreshing evidence that public affairs can mean more than routine public relations. The Breathers' Lobby (see Chapter 6) is a good example of the innovative programs developed by this division to promote genuine citizen participation in EPA actions to protect and enhance the environment. As the result of a recent reorganization of the Office of Public Affairs, the Citizen Support Division acquired its present name, suffered a severe cutback in staff, and received instructions to work more closely with interest groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Sheepherders Association. The division narrowly missed being disbanded and its functions transferred to EPA's regional offices. We recommend that the Citizen Support Division be adequately staffed, and that its mandate to promote genuine citizen participation in agency prog- rams be restored without ambiguity. We further recommend a continuing effort to develop new citizen participation programs, and the appointment of an individual in each of EPA's program offices to cooperate with the Citizen Support Division in this effort. We recognize that the move to decentralize administration of the Citizen Support Division's programs arose in part from a legitimate feeling on the part of some regional administrators that they had not been adequately con- sulted in the awarding of grants to local groups, and as a result, inappropriate groups had received funding in some instances. We recommend that this problem be met by improved communication between the Citizen Support Division and the regional offices. On balance, we believe that central administ- ration of the grantee selection process affords needed protection against local political pressures. The EPA should develop a program for citizen participation in the granting of effluent permits. We believe it essential that informed citizens participate in the analysis of applications for effluent permits and in decisions to grant such permits. To facilitate this participation, we recommend an EPA program of small grants to citizen groups for the purpose of conducting statewide educational campaigns regarding pending permit applications. This program should be 41 ------- modeled on EPA's successful Breathers' Lobby program. If and when a new water pollution control bill emerges from House-Senate conference committee and is signed into law, the currently stalled effluent permit program will be revived, and a tremendous number of permit applica- tions will have to be evaluated in a relatively short period of time. The grant program we propose will help to ensure that an informed public stands ready to participate in this process. Our committee strongly supports the Senate version of the proposed water pollution bill, which gives EPA meaningful controls over the issuance of individual effluent permits, and which is more responsive to the needs of citizens both in its citizen suit provisions and in its hearing procedures. It is possible, however, that a weaker version will emerge from conference committee under which basic permit-granting authority will totally reside in the states, and EPA will be able to step in only if it is willing to make a finding that the whole state program is inadequate. It is also possible that citizens will be able to take court action only if they have previously intervened in the administrative process or can show that the proposed permit directly affects their interests. A water pollution control law weaker than the Senate version would render even more necessary the citizen group grant program we have recommended. Whatever the provisions of the final law, EPA will find it necessary to issue guidelines to the states on instituting the permit process. We strongly recommend that these guidelines provide for citizen participation in the permit program. Specifically, the guidelines should require: adequate public notification of both an application for-a permit and the intention to grant a permit; public hearings; and release of all technical documents supporting a permit application. The EPA should encourage formation of and fund a task force composed of representatives of independent, environmentally concerned citizen organizations to study and report on the statut- ory mandates for citizen participation in EPA's decision-making process, and to recommend legislation needed to fully carry out these mandates. The task force we propose would address two basic problems: First, both EPA personnel and citizen groups lack understanding of the range of legislative acts, administrative regulations and Executive Orders mandating citizen participation in EPA decision-making. In the case of EPA personnel, the technicians' attitude too often prevails despite known citizen participation requirements: "I know best...I'll make the decision, and you support it." Second, the Office of General Counsel of EPA currently interprets EPA's laws to say that when funds have not been specifically appropriated for citizen education and involvement, money cannot be spent for these pur- poses. Hence if the proposed water pollution control bill emerges from confer- ence committee with a requirement that EPA's Administrator establish 42 ------- guidelines for citizen participation in water quality programs, these guidelines cannot be implemented unless EPA requests and receives an appropriation earmarked for this purpose. The Office of General Counsel has also ruled that citizens' travel expenses to hearings and workshops sponsored by EPA cannot be paid by EPA. At least one half of the members of the task force should have legal competence. Further, the task force should be funded by an EPA grant rather than by contract in order to ensure the task force's freedom to reach independent findings and make them public. Using the task force's report, EPA should prepare a basic brochure for citizens and EPA personnel setting out citizen rights to influence agency policy as defined by statutes, regulations and Executive Orders. EPA should also prepare, on the basis of the task force's recommendations, a legislative package for Congress in which the necessary authority and funding for the agency's citizen information, education and participation prog- rams are requested. The EPA should release for public discussion the report of its Task Force on Environmental Education along with formal EPA comments on the report. We find it of very considerable interest that the report we have prepared on the environmental volunteer complements in many respects the January 7, 1972 report of EPA's Task Force on Environmental Education. We are particularly struck by the fact that independently we have come up with many recommendations that parallel those of the task force both in substance and philosophy. We are, for example, in basic agreement with the following four task force propositions on the information policies under which the EPA might eventually operate: 1. In order to equitably perform its primary task of pollution control, the EPA should be concerned with virtually every environmental issue (e.g. population, land use, poverty, urban decay, overconsumption, transpor- tation). Therefore, 'informationally' the agency should be comprehen- sive; 'operationally' it should be limited. 2. As a regulatory agency independent of any promotional interest (other than protecting the environment), EPA is unique. As such, it could provide the public with various views on a broad range of environmental issues. 3. White eventually there wifl be a net of federal advisory organizations and operating agencies sharing the burden of maintaining environmen- tal quality EPA should move ahead as one of the nation's general environmental advocates. 4. It is the basic obligation of any agency of the federal government to both define its central mission and seek support for that mission from the public. This obligation justified EPA to be deeply involved in environ- mental education. 43 ------- We are further in basic agreement with the following task force conclusions: EPA should be devoted to action and should make every sensible move to foster the organization of citizen groups and encourage them to become concerned with the environment. These groups are potentially the most independent force in our culture. All others, political, industrial, agricultural, military, transportation are con- cerned with promoting needs and issues that may present a conflict of interest with environmental protection. It follows that we are greatly disappointed that EPA has thus far declined to release the report of the Task Force on Environmental Education, or indeed even to comment formally on the report. Since the task force has dealt with EPA's basic mandate to serve the public and to involve the public in its proceedings, we believe it particularly important that EPA release the report for public discussion, and urge that this be promptly done. Recommendations Concerning Other Federal Agencies The Office of Management and Budget, in consultation with the Administrative Conference of the United States, should establish guidelines for uniform public hearing procedures to be followed by all federal agencies. These guidelines should appear first in draft form in the Federal Register with sufficient time allowed for comment by interested citizens. Our committee recommends that these guidelines include the following new or improved procedures: 1. Public hearings, where required, should be held as early as practicable during agency consideration of potentially controversial actions. In this way hearings can serve as forums for genuine consultation and not just as forums for citizen protest. 2. A notice of each hearing should appear in the news media and be mailed to interested private and public sector parties as soon as the hearing is scheduled by the agency but no less than 45 days before the hearing is to take place. When appropriate, other means of notificationfor example, radio, telephone and telegraph should be used to ensure that the largest number possible of potentially interested parties is informed. 3. Any hearing on an issue that holds more than local interest should be convened at several different locations in a state, or a region, or in the nation, as necessary to ease travel hardships and to facilitate attendance and testimony by a cross-section of the concerned public. 4. Filing fees for hearings and requirements for the submission of state- ments in more than one copy should be abolished. 5. Witnesses should be scheduled in advance in order to ensure maximum participation and allotment of adequate time for testimony, provided that such scheduling is not used as a bar to unscheduled testimony. 6. Full opportunity should be provided for exhibits, including maps, draw- ings, films and slides, by both public and private sector witnesses. 44 ------- 7. Cross-examination or questioning of government witnesses should be permitted, particularly in instances where these witnesses are acting as propo- nents of the action or project at issue in the hearing. The hearing guidelines should set out the ground-rules for such questioning. 8. Records of hearing proceedings, including a summary thereof, should be promptly reproduced and made available to the public at cost. No quantity limits should be imposed. At least one free copy of the proceedings should be made available to all parties participating in the proceedings and to all those wishing to submit comments for the final record or to participate in further consideration of the proposed project or action. This requirement is needed to assure the provision of data essential for informed action to citizen groups who cannot afford to buy this data. If the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) changes an agency decision that has been subject to public review in a hearing, a new hearing should be held by the OMB on the change. The OMB should be required to explain publicly its decision to overrule the agency. A frequent complaint of volunteers we interviewed was that decisions made in the field are overturned in Washington. Another frequent complaint was that decisions made by a publicly accountable agency are sometimes over- turned by the OMB an agency unaccountable to and unreachable by most citizens. While we recognize the need for a professional staff that is directly responsible to the President, we feel that this staff should also be publicly accountable when it changes decisions based on public review. The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) should amend its guidelines to the National Environmental Policy Act in the following respects: 1. The term "major federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment" should be clarified to give the agencies more specific guidance on the stage at which a federal action becomes significant enough to war- rant an environmental impact statement. The CEQ guidelines (section 10[aJ) state that: "Agencies will need to identify at what stage or stages of a series of actions relating to a particular matter the environmental statement procedures of this directive will be applied." In actual practice the agencies have chosen to complete and make public a draft statement just before final action is to be taken or construction begun, that is, after the agency's basic decision to go ahead with a project has been made. The citizen who wishes to comment is relegated to protesting a fixed decision, or at most, to achieving some minor modification of the program. 2. CEQ Guidelines 6[a(IV)j should be amended to require that agencies, in their studies and reports on alternatives to a proposed project, develop procedures to solicit sugges- 45 ------- tions from concerned groups and citizens on which alterna- tives should receive such agency consideration. Too often, agencies appear to overlook either through inadver- tance or conscious policy the most feasible and least disruptive alternatives to the project they are proposing. As a result, when and if these alternatives are introduced into public debate it may be too late to give them the serious study they deserve or it may no longer be practical to implement them. The CEQ guidelines should be amended to require early consultation with the interested public on alternatives, and at the very latest, at the outset of prepara- tion of an impact statement. 3. The CEQ guidelines should direct federal agencies to pre- pare and maintain lists of each major agency action for which a determination to initiate a draft impact statement has been made. The address of the regional or other office responsible for draft preparation should also be listed. These lists, revised monthly, should be available to the public upon request. Each agency should be required to develop procedures for notify- ing potentially interested parties of the availability of such lists. Each draft environmental impact statement should include an appendix listing every study or report considered in the preparation of the draft which may contribute to public understanding of the subject matter. The name of the bureau or office responsible for draft preparatibn and a summary of the disciplines used in preparing the statement should also be included. Studies or reports listed in this appendix should be available to the public on request. 5. CEQ guidelines (section 10[b]) should be amended to detail specific procedures to ensure the "fullest practicable provi- sion of timely public information and understanding." Both the National Environmental Policy Act and Executive Order 11514 to implement the Act require that impact statements be made available to the public. At present, CEQ guidelines do not spell out this requirement but simply instruct the agencies to "develop procedures to ensure the fullest practicable provision of timely public information and understanding of federal plans and programs with environmental impact in order to obtain the views of interested parties." Currently, the only regular way citizen groups appear to receive information on what environmental impact statements have been submitted is through CEQ's 102 Monitor. This publication is issued only once a month, and some of the information it contains may be over seven weeks old (or nearly two-thirds of the required time between circulation of a draft statement and construction on a project). To the extent that agencies have developed procedures 46 ------- to ensure "timely public information," these procedures are not working. The phrase "available to the public" that appears in NEPA and Executive Order 11514 should be construed to require more than the publication of legal notices in news media, or the publication of summaries in the 102 Monitor, tt should additionally be defined to require that the agencies contact directly by correspondence, or other appropriate means those in both the public and private sector who the agency knows to have a special interest or expertise concerning the project or program. 6. The CEQ guidelines should be revised to clarify under what conditions an agency should decide to hold a public hearing. This portion of the guidelines should put greater pressure on the agencies to hold hearings. At present, public hearings are not usually held unless there has been a vociferous citizen outcry regarding a specific project. 7. CEQ guidelines (section 10[bJ) should be amended to expand the time allowed for agency and public review. A two-step comment process should be required; first agency comment, then public comment. Basic problems are often not uncovered until other agencies, such as EPA, have completed studies and released findings. It is only at this point that meaningful public reaction and review begins. The public is frequently unaware that a project is even planned until the draft impact statement is released. Citizen groups should be allowed a decent length of time to complete their own analysis of the statement. II. THE CONGRESS AND THE EPA SHOULD ESTABLISH MACHINERY FOR THE REDRESS OF CITIZEN GRIEVANCES CONCERNING AGENCY PROCEDURES The United States Congress should establish on a pilot basis an Office of Environmental Ombudsman in at feast two federal regions. If this pilot program proves successful, as we believe it will, the Congress should proceed to establish Ombudsman offices in all ten federal regions and to expand the jurisdiction of these offices as needed to agency actions in fields other than the environment. We have limited our initial proposal to a pilot program and to the environ- ment because a pilot program can be speedily established, and because our study has focused on the needs of the environmental volunteer. We are convinced, however, that many sectors of the public could use the services of regional federal ombudsmen, and urge other interested groups to expand our proposal accordingly. 47 ------- According to an Administrative Law Review article, "The Ombudsman and Human Rights," by Bernard Frank: The 'Ombudsman' is an independent government official who receives complaints against government agencies and officials from aggrieved persons, who investigates, and who, if the complaints are justified, makes recommendations to remedy the complaints. Ombudsmen have been described as both "citizen protectors" and "external critics." The current trend of establishing ombudsman offices began in Sweden in 1809 with the creation of the office of Justitieombudsman. Ombudsmen now exist at the national level in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, New Zealand, Guyana, Tanzania, Great Britain, Mauritius, Northern Ireland, and Israel. In the United States, ombudsmen have been established at the State level in four States, and in 1971, proposals for ombudsmen were pending in 26 other States, as well as Guam and Puerto Rico. At the local level, some 44 cities, school districts and counties have established comparable complaint-handling machinery. Typically, the ombudsman is either a lawyer or has some legal background. He is usually appointed by the legislative body predictably, none of the ombudsmen have been empowered to examine the work of legislatures. There are significant jurisdictional variations from country to country. Some ombudsmen have authority over the courts, others over the national adminis- tration, the military, or local governments. Services of the ombudsman can be sought by individuals or organizations without any formality. In five countries, complaints to the ombudsman must be written and signed. Only one country requires a small filing fee. Ombud- smen services are generally limited to matters not otherwise reviewable. In most countries ombudsmen do not have to wait until a complaint is filed, but can investigate matters on their own initiative. Some of the ombudsmen regularly inspect governmental establishments within their jurisdiction. Others automatically review rules and regulations promulgated by the authorities subject to their oversight. The bulk of the ombudsman's activities, however, invariably involve the investigation of citizen complaints. Ombudsmen offices are staffed and funded in all countries we have studied. The ombudsman can decline to act on complaints, but must give the citizen a detailed reason for his decision. Ombudsmen frequently seek to informally change official determinations that offend some citizens but that are not strictly illegal or otherwise open to criticism. Another valuable service the ombudsman can perform is to explain seemingly arbitrary agency decisions to the citizen. Walter Gellhorn (Ombudsmen and Others: Citizen Protectors in Nine Countries) states that: "Ombudsmen have made invaluable contributions where the problems they have investigated have been perceived as a sym- ptom of a general problem rather than a self-contained episode." 48 ------- In two countries, ombudsmen can commence disciplinary procedures against recalcitrant officials. Usually, however, they rely on voluntary com- pliance frequently using public opinion to goad change. Ombudsmen often suggest changes in legislation or administrative practice. ***** The Congress, in recent years, has held hearings on several ombudsman proposals. One such proposal, sponsored by Representative Henry Reuss of Wisconsin, would establish an ombudsman office within the Congress to process constituent complaints. We note with interest, that a related prop- osal, introduced by Senator Jacob Javits of New York and Representative William Steiger of Wisconsin, provides for a demonstration program compar- able to the one we have suggested. Under their proposal, regional ombud- sman offices would deal with individual complaints against federal administra- tive actions particularly affecting the poor, and hence would have jurisdiction chiefly over the Departments of Health, Education and Welfare, and of Labor, and the Office of Economic Opportunity. Our committee recommends that the pilot Offices of Environmental Ombud- sman and an eventual full-scale ombudsman program, meet the following criteria: Both the pilot program and the full-scale program should be organized on a regional basis with the ombudsman offices located in the headquarters cities of the federal regions. The geographic size and population of the country would make a single ombudsman operating out of Washington ineffective. To handle the volume of complaints, a centrally located ombudsman would need such a large staff that his office would become another bureaucracy, with the ombudsman unable to keep track of all the decisions made in his name. Each ombudsman should be appointed by the Congress in a manner designed to assure his independence of the executive branch, and his political impartiality. His term of office should be fixed, and his removal from office should occur only if he fails to perform properly his official duties. Whether two or ten in number, the ombudsmen should meet at least semi-annually to pool information on problem areas, and to make recommen- dations based on common experience for improvements in administrative regulations and guidelines. Experience may show the need for a permanent coordinating office in Washington to keep each regional office informed of complaints being processed by other regional offices and to promote joint processing of similar complaints. The EPA should establish on a trial basis an Office of Citizen Advocate. The Citizen Advocate would handle complaints from the public regarding EPA actions at both the regional and national levels. To be effective, the Citizen Advocate should be as independent as possible from the regional and national EPA bureaucracies. His appointment by and 49 ------- direct access to the national EPA Administrator would ensure a certain measure of independence. Obviously, the Citizen Advocate would not have the independence of a congressionally established ombudsman. Further, the jurisdiction of the Citi- zen Advocate would be limited to EPA actions, and would not extend to the environmental activities of other agencies. Despite these limitations, the Committee believes that the need for machin- ery to handle citizen complaints on environmental decision-making is suf- ficiently urgent to warrant an experiment with an EPA Citizen Advocate. Congressional action to establish an environmental ombudsman program would probably take a year to complete. Action to extend the program to all ten federal regions would require still further congressional consideration. As long as a ten-region ombudsman program is not in effect, and perhaps even after such a program is established, the Office of Citizen Advocate can play a useful role. We recommend that an EPA Office of Citizen Advocate meet the following criteria: The Citizen Advocate should be appointed by the Administrator for a fixed term of service. The Advocate should be on leave of absence from his permanent job and have a guarantee that he may return to the permanent job when his term as advocate expires. The Citizen Advocate should be someone who is highly respected and well known by citizen environmentalists. Presumably, he would rather lose his job as advocate than his reputation. The Citizen Advocate should receive complaints directly from the public concerning actions taken by the EPA regional offices and by the national office. The Citizen Advocate should report findings and recommendations to the EPA Administrator, and to the complainant. The complainant and the EPA Administrator should each have the right to make these findings public. Comments on Ombudsman and Citizen Advocate Recommendations Steering Committee members Joseph Browder and Ross Vincent would like to have their dissent from the ombudsman recommendation and the citizen advocate recommendation noted. They feel that "both recommenda- tions create new government mechanisms for carrying out what should be citizen responsibility, divert citizen volunteer energy away from action aimed at real decision makers and toward processes that are unlikely to be truly independent of bureaucratic control, and would probably diminish the amount of citizen activity available for work that would in fact influence policy making." 50 ------- III. GOVERNMENT AND INDUSTRY SHOULD ENCOURAGE THE GROWTH AND ACTIVISM OF THE VOLUNTEER ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT Recommendations Concerning the Federal Government Congress should expand the ACTION agency's mandate to include development of a Corps of Environmental Volunteers within ACTION. A volunteer environmental corps has been proposed and discussed in many forums. Notably the Environmental Task Force of the White House Conference on Youth recently recommended the creation of a National Environmental Corps. Our committee envisages such a corps within ACTION, one that would furnish low paid volunteers to work with local voluntary environmental organi- zations. The corps would be composed of young men and women who would serve for two years upon completion of training. We recommend that the proposed corps be a possible alternative to military service. We emphasize that the programs in which ACTION environmental volun- teers serve should be totally created and managed by local voluntary environ- mental organizations. The only exception to exclusive program responsibility for local groups would be in cases where ACTION environmental volunteers are placed with local governmental agencies. But such placement should occur only in those areas of the country where it is clearly established that there are willing volunteers but no local environmental organizations applying for those volunteers, or in those instances when volunteers express a clear preference for work with local governmental agencies. Typical assignments for volunteers working with local environmental groups might include: serving as a coordinator of volunteers; running a recycling center; directing a community education program; conducting a monitoring program on local pollution; watchdogging relevant actions of the state government; and carrying out technical research needed by local organizations. We also emphasize that the bulk of volunteers should be recruited by the local organizations, and recruited from the communities in which they will serve. We anticipate that the only volunteers to be recruited by ACTION would be those with specific technical skills, such as biologists, hydrologists, engineers, economists and attorneys. ACTION would recruit such volunteers only to the extent local groups were unable to find volunteers with these skills in their community. These nationally recruited volunteers also should be placed only in programs created and supervised by local organizations, or in exceptional cases, by local government agencies. ACTION'S major roles with respect to the environmental corps would be to provide training for all local as well as national recruits, and to provide 51 ------- funds for modest allowances comparable to those currently received by VISTA volunteers. The domestic mandate of ACTION is currently limited for the most part to poverty programs. New legislation would be required to expand this man- date to include environmental volunteerism. We believe that this legislation should establish the environmental corps as a separate program within ACTION, independent of VISTA and other existing programs, and fully funded in its own right so that the environmental and poverty programs would not compete for funds. Pending establishment of an environmental corps we believe that ACTION should identify key environmental problems in poverty areas and encourage within the context of current programs volunteer work on these problems. The United States Civil Service Commission should develop guidelines to encourage the participation of federal employees in the activities of volunteer organizations of their choice. These guidelines should include new provisions for the earning and use of limited amounts of paid leave time, in addition to annual leave, for the pursuit of volunteer activities. No federal employee should be made to feel any obligation that he or she must participate in such activities. Many of the volunteer environmental leaders we interviewed complained of conflicts between their hours of employment and participation in volunteer activities such as workshops, training seminars, and hearings. Some of these leaders were federal employees and some not. (See below our recommenda- tions on private sector employees.) Most of them were using vacation leave they had earned to pursue their volunteer environmental interests. We recommend that federal employees be allowed to accumulate at least one hour every pay period (this would amount to a little over three days per year), in addition to annual and sick leave, for volunteer activities. The guidelines should set broad criteria for the types of organizations and activities for which such leave could be used. Activities involving formal proceedings or other dealings with any governmental body should not be excluded. This proposal might be implemented on a trial basis in one or more agencies, or throughout the government for a limited period of time, to deter- mine the breadth of its appeal and its costs. In addition, we recommend that the Civil Service Commission study and report on the feasibility and desirability of a system of "sabbatical leave" under which federal employees could take a year off at partial or full pay for education or volunteer work after a certain number of years service with the government. To the extent that the resources of state and local governments permit, we recommend that these governments also put into effect systems of paid leave for employees to engage in volunteer activities. 52 ------- Recommendations Concerning Business and Industry Businesses and industries that have adopted explicit "free speech" policies with respect to the outside volunteer activities of employees should make every effort to ensure that all of their employees in all offices are informed of these policies, and that immediate supervisors as well as higher-level management adhere to them. Job intimidation has been cited as a serious problem by many of the volunteer environmental leaders we interviewed. Cases where actual reprisal for environmental activism is alleged are relatively few. Cases where reprisal is feared for example, by employees of a polluting industry are far more numerous. We have not been able to conduct a case-by-case study of the instances where job intimidation has been cited as a risk of environmen- tal activity. It is entirely possible that some perceptions of risk are not well- founded on fact. It is clear, however, that whether well-founded or ill-founded, these perceptions can be a deterrent to environmental volunteerism. Some companies have issued directives designed to assure employees that on their own time they are free to speak out and participate in volunteer groups acting on issues of interest to the company. Others have endeavored to promote frank on-the-job discussion of and suggestions for improvement in company practices. We urge companies that have officially sponsored such policies to make every effort to see that they are known by all employees, and that they are followed in spirit and letter by all levels of supervisory personnel. We urge other companies to follow suit. Employers in the private sector should encourage participation by employees in the activities of volunteer organizations of their choice by allowing them to earn a limited amount of paid leave time, in addition to vacation leave, for such participation. This proposal has the same rationale as our recommendation for additional paid leave time for federal employees. We envisage a similar system in private industry under which employees or their trade unions would work out arrangements with employers for the earning and use of a certain amount of paid leave in the course of a year to pursue volunteer work. A few firms already have in effect "sabbatical leave" plans under which employees after certain terms of service can take several months or more off with pay to continue their education and training or to participate in public service volunteer work. We urge that other companies experiment with such plans. We believe that environmental volunteer groups and other volunteer groups stand to gain, along with both employers and employees. We stress that any leave, "sabbatical" or otherwise, should be taken only on the initiative of the employee. 53 ------- IV. VOLUNTEER ENVIRONMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS CAN AND SHOULD WORK TO INCREASE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THEIR ORGANIZATIONS >A program of leadership workshops should be developed for local leaders of volunteer environmental organizations. We recommend that one or more nationally-based environmental organiza- tions, in cooperation with local environmental groups, develop and carry out a two-stage program of leadership workshops for local environmental leaders. In the first stage, workshops would be conducted at several locations in each state, and would be oriented to local leadership problems. In the second stage, selected local leaders would attend one of two national work- shops to be held each year in Washington, D.C. The local workshops would focus on the following problems: How to administer a volunteer program; how to motivate and make effective use of volunteers; How to manage particular activities such as a lobbying campaign or a recycling center; How to raise funds and to make effective use of the media; and Ways to approach the bureaucracy and to obtain information. In addition, the local workshops would develop plans for continuing leader- ship training to ensure the steady emergence of new leaders. The local workshops should be planned by steering committees of local environmental leaders, who would also serve as the official sponsors of the workshops. The steering committees would be responsible for issuing invitations to participate in the workshops and for ensuring that the workshops meet local needs and use local experts. Participants selected for the work- shops should have the capacity to transmit their workshop experience to others. The national workshops would introduce key local leaders to the different agencies of the federal government, and brief them on the procedures and policies of these agencies. In addition, national- environmental issues would be discussed, and details would be provided on the resources of the various national environmental organizations. Participants in the national workshops should be selected in consultation with the local workshop participants. The national organization or organizations responsible for coordinating the workshops program should endeavor to see that as many local environ- mental groups as possible are informed of the program, and to assist all those taking the initiative to organize local workshops. The national organiza- tions should also provide advice and assistance to workshop participants seeking to put into practice their workshop experience. Finally, the national sponsoring organizations should evaluate the workshops, and after a trial period of one or more years, should issue a report on the program. Environmental volunteer leaders, looking for ways to train and make effective use of their volunteers should consider the following techniques: 54 ------- Develop and maintain a card file on every member of the organization. Know each member's past experience and special skills, and know how these can be used in the organization. Also keep a record of the number of volunteer hours per week that the member is willing to work. Be aggressive with the membership when help is needed. Call people who are on file as willing to work on a specific and delimited task. Ask a member of the organization to work with the leadership in developing programs to make use of the maximum number of volunteers. Whenever a new volunteer calls offering help, give this individual something specific and goal-oriented to do, for example making phone calls to alert members to a new crisis, or typing a letter needed for testimony now. Make maximum use of periods between crisis activity to train new volunteers. There are many goal-oriented and important tasks that untrained volunteers can perform. If the leadership of an organization takes the time to identify these tasks, the untrained volunteer can be made to feel a key part of the organization. An untrained volunteer can attend a hearing for the organization. This volunteer should either be told specifically what to look for or should, for the first few times, be accompanied by someone who knows what to look for. New volunteers can assist in the compilation of items for newsletters or other publications. Volunteers can work on compiling the voting records of state legislators. "Ehey can prepare and staff exhibits sponsored by the environmental organizations at conventions, meetings, fairs, and other gatherings. Taking the time to work with untrained volunteers can lighten long- term workloads and swell the pool of sophisticated assistance available during crises. As volunteers grow in number, more segments of the community are brought into the organization, and at the same time more volunteer man-hours can be devoted to further broadening the organization's political base in the community. Whenever possible environmental groups should pool their financial, office, and staff resources with other environmental groups. The leaders of environmental groups should work with groups of similar goals to develop effective programs to reach all sectors of the com- munity. Pooled resources and joint programs can facilitate activities such as development of a volunteer speakers bureau, public service environ- mental T.V. programs, and regular lines of communication to the media. Volunteer environmental organizations in given geographic orpolit- 55 ------- ical areas should form permanent councils for the ongoing coordi- nation of actions of mutual interest. Among the problems repeatedly mentioned in our interviews with local leaders were: the proliferation of environmental groups, resulting in increased compet- ition for money and volunteers; and the fragmentation of environmental groups, resulting in cooperative efforts being undertaken chiefly under crisis conditions. When political action is needed to respond to an environmental crisis, ad hoc coalitions of existing organizations usually form. There is a continuous process of such groups forming, dissolving and reforming. These coalitions are an effective way to harness quickly an enormous amount of volunteer effort. Indeed, where success is realized, an ad hoc coalition more often than not has probably been at work. Certainly this appears to be true of the most visible political efforts at the national and local levels. Reliance on ad hoc coalitions alone to achieve coordination of environmen- tal efforts has these disadvantages, however: The answers to the problem may be predetermined by the founders of the coalition. Those environmental groups that do not fully support the position of the coalition, or groups that prefer alternative solutions, may be excluded from the coalition and indeed, excluded from an open-minded presentation of their views to other groups. This can lead to squabbles among environmental organizations that are reported by the media and confuse the public. Groups become so busy fighting brush fires that they have little time to concentrate on the large picture, or to cooperate in oversight of governmen- tal activities on a day-to-day basis. Their crisis orientation in dealing with all environmental issues is reinforced. In some regions, citizen groups have gone beyond ad hoc cooperation to the creation of permanent coordinating councils to formalize coordination of their efforts. A permanent coordinating structure must be tailored by local organizations to meet their particular needs. It appears, however, that a successful coordinating council almost always meets the following criteria: It is a coordinating structure of existing organizations, not a new mem- bership organization. To the extent that it is a new membership organization, it may incur the animosity of existing organizations who will view it as a competitor for funds and volunteers. Existing organizations may lend their names in such a case, but will probably give very little support to the council's program. The council members focus on working together on issues on which they agree. Member groups continue to work separately on issues on which there is no consensus. Meetings are held regularly with frequent, written communication between meetings. If the council is a statewide structure, it meets in various parts of the 56 ------- state, thus encouraging new participation. (A case study on the founding of the Conservation Council of Virginia appears in Chapter Five.) Regional or statewide coordinating councils should use pooled resources to establish offices in state capitals to monitor the activities of all branches of state government, and to supply infor- mation on these activities to the councils' member organizations and to concerned citizens. In several states, capital offices such as we propose here already exist. We envision these state capital offices as arms of statewide or regional coordinating councils, supported by and chiefly servicing the membership organizations belonging to the councils. However, the offices should be open to all concerned citizens seeking information on state government activities affecting the environment. These state capital offices would have a full-time staff, and could provide temporary office space and services desks, typewriters, and mimeograph for visiting environmentalists. To the extent that the staff of these offices engaged in lobbying, they should be responsible to the directives of the coordinating councils, and in no case should take positions independent of the organizations belonging to these councils. Where membership organizations are already performing several of the services envisioned for the state capital offices, the appropriate coordinating council should endeavor to combine these services under one roof and reduce duplication of efforts before deciding to open a new state capital office. Local volunteer referral bureaus, such as the Voluntary Action Centers affiliated with the National Center for Voluntary Action (NCVA), should increase their efforts to help environmental organi- zations at the local level meet their needs for volunteers. In many communities there is a need for a good referral service for volun- teers wishing to become involved in envirbnmental work. One measure of a good referral service is its knowledge of the range of groups in the commun- ity which are active on environmental issues, and in turn, its ability to direct volunteers to organizations that fit their particular needs and interests. Many volunteer leaders we interviewed reported that they were contacted by volun- teers who promptly lost interest when it became apparent that the organization was not engaged in the kind of work they wanted to do. Too often, these potential volunteers reach out only once and do not seek to find another more suitable organization. The NCVA's affiliated Voluntary Action Centers and other local volunteer referral bureaus could perform a particularly useful function if they organized to help these volunteers. Another function of the Voluntary Action Centers, or of other local volunteer referral bureaus might be to provide management advice and assistance to leaders of environmental groups seeking to make more efficient use of their volunteers. Such assistance, if it can be provided, should be publicized and made available impartially to all groups requesting it. 57 ------- The Committee strongly believes that the NCVA should not in any way encourage its affiliated Voluntary Action Centers to undertake substantive environmental work or to sponsor new environmental groups. These Centers should be limited only to referral work and management assistance. V. THE QUALITY AND FLOW OF INFORMATION AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO ENVIRONMENTAL VOLUNTEERS SHOULD BE IMPROVED Recommendations Concerning EPA The EPA should prepare and distribute widely the following publi- cations: 1) a basic pamphlet explaining in detail the statutory man- date of EPA and EPA programs; 2) a compilation of statutes deter- mining EPA's mandate; 3) summaries of EPA technical documents addressed to the informed layman; 4) basic pamphlets on par- ticular environmental problems such as the current state of technology in solid waste disposal or air pollution control; and 5) bibliographies indexed by geographic area and subject of all EPA substantive publications. This recommendation responds to several problems identified in our inter- views and questionnaires. Current publications describing EPA are vague and directed more toward justification of EPA actions than the provision of factual information. Many citizen groups have no clear idea of EPA's statutory authority, and think that EPA has a much broader mandate than in fact it does. The basic pamphlet on EPA functions that we recommend updated on a regular basis should include names, addresses, and phone numbers of EPA staff in each region to whom citizens can turn for information and assistance. EPA technical documents should be available to all citizens requesting them. Many citizens, however, also stand in need of summaries of the informa- tion contained in these documents, in language the informed layman can quickly grasp. EPA should prepare such summaries for wide distribution. The EPA should make every effort to rely on non-profit environmental organizations for the preparation of basic pamphlets on particular environ- mental problems such as solid waste disposal, air pollution control, effluent permits, and wastewater treatment. Organizations preparing such pamphlets should be funded by EPA grants EPA's program office on solid waste has prepared a useful bibliography of EPA documents on this subject. EPA's publications office should compile a bibliography including all EPA documents prepared or distributed by EPA's program offices, and should update this bibliography at least every two years. Supplements should be published on a quarterly basis in the newsletters of regional offices. Environmental information centers should be established on a pilot basis in at least two EPA regional offices, in addition to the 58 ------- Philadelphia office which already has such a center. If experience confirms the need for these centers, they should be established in all EPA regional offices. Citizens we interviewed across the nation complained of their difficulties in obtaining information on specific issues from government agencies. These frustrated citizens often have to call as many as ten numbers before finding someone able to answer their question. If several agencies have jurisdiction, the number of phone calls required may triple. Citizens who live outside federal or state government centers cannot afford the cost of these calls. We recommend that environmental information centers be established in at (east two EPA regional offices on a pilot basis. These centers should be modeled on the Citizens' Environmental Response Team of EPA's Philadelphia regional office (see Chapter 6). We envisage these centers providing the following services: A toll-free number for citizens to call. This service should be given widespread publicity. The citizen would have to make only one call. The person receiving the call would make any additional calls neces- sary. The service should be equipped to respond to the fullest possible range of environmental inquiries, extending well beyond EPA's jurisdic- tion. It should be the responsibility of the individual receiving the call to make a return call within forty-eight hours with the answer to the inquiry or a report on the status of the investigation. The members of the information response team would be expected to provide only factual information in answer to questions. They would not provide personal or agency evaluations of the problems in question. Some examples of such basic information are: a. What, if any, statutes deal with the problem? b. Which agencies at the federal, state and local level have the first, second or third crack at the problem? c. Where does the problem currently sit? What kind of interest have the relevant agencies shown in the problem? We note that EPA's Task Force on Environmental Education also focused on information problems. On January 7, 1972 the task force reported: ... the task force recommends that EPA develop a comprehen- sive information network designed to gather and disseminate environmental information. The net would provide such informa- tion as: the environmental responsibility of various government agencies; directories of national environmental organizations, citi- zen action groups, and laboratories interested in performing laborat- ory analysis; state and local government offices with purview over environmental matters; and a broad spectrum of general infor- mation, publications, technical data, and legal precedents. Only officially released or published information would be presented: EPA employees would refrain from expressing preferences or views, (emphasis added.) 59 ------- The task force went on to recommend the establishment of a national toll free number which by dialing "... any citizen could find out who has responsibility for and jurisdiction over his problem, and where to go for further information and assistance." Each regional EPA public affairs office should publish a semi- monthly environmental newsletter specific to its region. Several of the EPA regional offices now publish very informative newslet- ters. Others publish what essentially amount to briefs for agency policy. We recommend that the regional office newsletters be limited to strictly factual reporting. Examples of items that might be included in these newslet- ters are: brief descriptions of relevant environmental items in the Federal Regis- ter; summaries of locally relevant environmental impact statements; summaries of EPA's comments on other agencies' draft environmental impact statements; notification of applications for effluent permits; and notification of intentions to grant such permits. The regional EPA offices should mail to citizen groups directly interested in a proposed federal project or action copies of the EPA Administrator's comments on the environmental impact state- ment issued for the said action or project. The CEQ guidelines for NEPA [8(b)], state that the administrator of EPA is required to comment on agency actions related to "air or water quality, noise abatement and control, pesticide regulation,, solid waste disposal, radia- tion criteria and standards, or [when] other provisions of the authority of the administrator... is involved." These comments are to be summarized in a notice published in the Federal Register with copies available to the public upon request. The committee recommends that EPA adopt a more aggressive role in publicizing its reviews of environmental impact statements. Recommendations Concerning Other Federal Agencies A supplement to the Federal Register should be created. The Federal Register is an important medium for informing the public of critical decisions on the environment. However, subscriptions to the Regis- ter are expensive. And in its present bulk and form the subject matter is organized by agency and set in small type it is difficult to use efficiently. A weekly supplement in the form of a detailed index to the Federal Register should be published by the Government Printing Office. This index should be organized by subject, not by agency, and should be available to anyone on request with perhaps a small fee to cover cost. An announcement of the availability of this index should be widely circulated. 60 ------- All federal agencies making discretionary grants to citizen organi- zations should intensify their efforts to ensure public awareness of their grant programs. In addition to notices in the Federal Register and in press releases, the agencies should make a real effort to identify and reach citizen organizations with a potential interest in their grant programs. The regional offices of these federal agencies should maintain up-to-date mailing lists of relevant citizen groups. Federal agencies should notify one another of their grant programs and make sure that notices atso appear in all appropriate regional newsletters. In addition, notices should be mailed to the non-governmental publications that are most likely to be read by potential grantees. Recommendations Concerning Volunteer Organizations A national clearinghouse and referral service for environmental information should be created. This clearinghouse should closely coordinate its efforts with existing regional and statewide informa- tion services. Many volunteer groups we interviewed expressed a need for a national information center that could tell them which volunteer groups where had developed useful information or were working on problems similar to their own. Some groups complained that they received substantial quantities of information from national environmental organizations, but that this informa- tion was often conflicting, and left them confused over where to turn for help. We recommend that one or more existing national environmental organiza- tions develop a proposal for a national clearinghouse for environmental infor- mation. The proposed clearinghouse should have an advisory board including representatives of local and national volunteer environmental groups as well as of existing statewide and regional clearinghouses. Initial funding for the project could be sought either from the Environmental Protection Agency or the Office of Environmental Education, or from private foundations. The main purpose of the clearinghouse would be to gather information from volunteer environmental groups at all levels and to facilitate the exchange of this information. In addition, the clearinghouse could perform the following functions: inform inquiring local groups of work completed or in progress by national environmental groups on subjects of interest to them; catalogue for easy reference reports prepared by federal agencies and non-governmental research groups on environmental issues. facilitate the exchange of information on similar bills and ordinances pending or passed in various state or local legislative bodies; disseminate information on the provisions and status of environmental bills before the Congress; and disseminate factual bulletins on the actions of federal agencies. 61 ------- The national clearinghouse that we envisage would not itself develop new information but would focus its efforts on better retrieval and dissemination of existing information. The clearinghouse should not duplicate the work of existing statewide or regional services for example, the Rocky Mountain Center on Environment and the Central Atlantic Environment Service but instead should channel any supplementary information needed to these services, and refer local groups within the respective regions or states to these services. In areas where regional or statewide information services do not exist, the national clearinghouse might serve as a catalyst for the formation of such services, and provide any needed start-up technical assistance. Volunteer environmental groups at regional, state or local levels should join to conduct surveys of scientific and legal resources in their areas, and to establish rosters of scientists and lawyers willing to work on environmental issues either on a volunteer basis or a fee basis. Rosters or "resource banks" of environmentally concerned lawyers and scientists could be established and maintained on an up-to-date basis either by coordinating councils or regional information services or by consortia of local volunteer groups. The rosters should contain information such as willingness to work on a volunteer basis or for nominal fees, and particular areas of interest and expertise. One purpose of the rosters or "resource banks" would be to save volunteer groups the time spent in making their own search for legal and scientific help each time a problem arises, The rosters might also be used to put together teams of scientists and lawyers and volunteer groups to work on long-term areawide environmental problems. These teams might approach the National Science Foundation (the Research Applied to National Needs program), or the Environmental Protection Agency, or private foundations for funding. Where the teams included experts who had waived usual fees, such waivers could be counted as the local contribution to meet any matching funds requirements. Environmental library centers should be created in the major cities of every state. Volunteer environmental groups in the major cities of every state should take the initiative to create environmental library centers. Wherever possible, these centers should be located within existing public libraries or university libraries which are also federal depository libraries. One library center should be created in each state capital city, and located for convenient access by groups and individuals using the state capital information offices of state or regional coordinating councils. The environmental library centers should be staffed, and should serve as depositories for environmental impact statements as well as for other technical and general documents on the environment issued by agencies 62 ------- at all levels of government. The library centers should also maintain clipping files on current environmental issues. All federal, state, and local agencies should cooperate with the library centers by sending them free of charge all documents relevant to the state's environmental problems. In particular, the Council on Environmental Quality or the National Technical Information Service should automatically send to each library center free of charge one copy of every environmental impact statement (either in original or on microfiche) on agency actions affecting that state. Copies of other impact statements should be sent on request. In cases where federal depository libraries within which the environmental library centers may be located already receive some of the federal documents needed, duplication should be avoided but a separate catalogue of these documents should be established within the library centers. Each library center should have an advisory board composed of environ- mentally concerned civic leaders. This board would continually examine the information available to the library and identify new information sources that should be pursued. In addition, the board should keep abreast of advances in communications technology that would make the library a dynamic part of the community. For example, as the technology of cable television becomes more sophis- ticated, we foresee a day when environmental library centers might have an information channel into every home in the community that has a cable television (CATV). VI. THE CONGRESS, FEDERAL AGENCIES, AND PRIVATE PHILANTHROPY SHOULD ACT TO INCREASE THE FINANCIAL RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO VOLUNTEER ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS Recommendations Concerning the Congress and Federal Agencies The Congress should pass legislation to liberalize present provi- sions of the federal tax code that impose unfair restrictions and financial burdens on citizens and tax-exempt organizations seek- ing to express and publicize their views on legislation, to partici- pate in administrative proceedings, or to press court suits challeng- ing agency procedures and decisions. Present provisions of the federal tax code permit businessmen and businesses to lobby on their own behalf, or to contribute to the support of organizations lobbying on their behalf, and to deduct these expenses and contributions as business expenses. Individual citizens lobbying or testify- ing at considerable expense on social, economic, or environmental issues unrelated to their business concerns do not enjoy comparable tax advantages, further, if tax-exempt non-profit organizations devote a "substantial part" of their efforts to "propaganda or otherwise attempting to influence legis- lation", both their tax-exempt status and their eligibility for tax-deductible contributions may be jeopardized. 63 ------- Two bills pending in the present Congress would help to relieve current restrictions on the activities of tax-exempt organizations, and accordingly, their financial burdens H.R. 13720, introduced by Representative Al Ullman of Oregon who is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, and S. 3063, introduced by Senators Edmund Muskie of Maine and Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania. These bills differ in their provisions; both, however, would liberalize the tax code to permit tax-exempt organizations to engage in more efforts to influence legislation than are currently allowed without jeopardizing their tax-exempt or tax-deductible status. We strongly recom- mend passage of these two bills as good first steps toward equalizing the resources available to business groups and citizen public-interest groups. We recommend further changes in the present federal tax code to meet in full the four principles set forth below. (These recommendations should in no sense be construed as an endorsement of the present tax code with yet more loopholes and exceptions added to it. We believe that the entire system of federal taxation stands in need of basic reform.) 1. All reasonable expenses incurred by a private citizen to advise a legislative or administrative body (or its members or employees) of the citizen's views respecting any legislative proposals should be a deductible expense by the citizen provided that a maximum dollar amount is imposed on the total amount to be deductible. Comment Committee member Howe, while sharing 1he spirit of this recommendation doubts its feasibility. 2. All tax-exempt organizations which are publicly supported, or are operating organizations (i.e., spend most of their money each year to carry out tax-exempt activities), should be permitted to use tax-exempt funds to advise any legislative or administrative body (or its members or employees) of the organization's views on any legislation which is related to the tax-exempt purposes of the organization. The organization should also be permitted to communicate its views to the public and to urge the public to speak out on these legislative proposals. 3. All contributions to tax-exempt organizations should be tax deduc- tible, providing that a maximum dollar amount is imposed on the total amount to be deductible for contributions for lobbying pur- poses. 4. These same three tax changes should be applied to expenses incurred through participation in the administrative proceedings of government agencies. Those federal agencies having grant programs directed toward improved citizen education, information and action on environmen- tal problems should request, and the Congress should approp- riate, increased funds in support of these programs. 64 ------- This recommendation is directed in particular to the Environmental Protec- tion Agency, the Office of Environmental Education in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare's Office of Education, and the National Science Foundation. These three agencies each have at present grant programs that support directly or indirectly education on environmental topics, citizen group access to scientific and technical expertise on the environment, and citizen participation in actions to improve the environment. These programs are either grossly underfunded, or as in the case of the National Science Foundation, the grant application process is so cumbersome and lengthy that deserving groups are discouraged from applying for funds. We have already recommended that the Environmental Protection Agency expand substantially and fund adequately the citizen participation programs of its Citizen Support Division, and specifically, a program for citizen participa- tion in the granting of effluent permits. We further recommend here that the EPA provide start-up funds on a pilot basis for some of the projects we have recommended to volunteer environmental groups. Candidate pro- jects for EPA funding might be leadership workshops, a regional information center and clearinghouse and the national clearinghouse for environmental information. The Office of Environmental Education, either jointly with EPA or alone, should consider funding on a pilot basis a proposal for a national clearing- house or a regional clearinghouse. We particularly urge OEE to give high priority to the funding of proposals for environmental library centers. The National Science Foundation should encourage the submission of proposals from citizen groups for projects which require the use of scientific and technical expertise. Again, we urge the NSF to fund a number of such projects on a pilot basis, and to process promptly the applications it receives. In general, we recommend programs of small grants so that as many volunteer groups as possible can receive support for their projects from the funds available. Volunteer groups are often able to accomplish much with relatively little money. We also emphasize that the initiative for these projects should come from the volunteer environmental groups and not from the agencies. We are convinced that in the long run, volunteer environmental groups will want to seek funding from the private sector for the continuation of projects they have initiated with start-up funds from government agencies. We do not believe that lengthy dependence on federal funds say for periods exceeding five years would be healthy for volunteer environmental groups. In no case, should a dependence on government agencies for non- project-oriented day-to-day operating funds be developed. Recommendations Concerning Private Philanthropy and Volunteer Groups A national non-profit organization should prepare a report on sources of funds and fund-raising methods for wide circulation among focal environmental volunteer groups. 65 ------- This report should survey potential sources of funds, both governmental and private, for projects sponsored by volunteer environmental groups. The report should include an explanation of grant application procedures of agen- cies and foundations, as well as a discussion of techniques for developing and drafting grant proposals. It should also include a review of innovative methods for raising funds that have been used with success by environmental volunteer groups. Individual philanthropists, business corporations, and private and public foundations should give greater financial support to the efforts of volunteer environmental organizations. We have made amply clear in preceding sections of this report the need for additional funds by a vast majority of the volunteer environmental organiza- tions that we surveyed. Almost one-third of these organizations have annual budgets of under $500. Another one-quarter of these organizations report annual budgets of between $500 and $2000. Less than 10 percent of the organizations we surveyed receive substantial support from foundations and individual grants. And less than an additional 15 percent receive limited support from these sources. We consider a number of projects advanced in this chapter to be worthy of foundation support when federal agency support is inappropriate or not forthcoming: environmental library centers, leadership workshops, state capi- tal information offices, a national clearinghouse for environmental information, similar regional clearinghouses or information centers, and areawide projects requiring the use of scientific and legal expertise. In general, we believe that individual philanthropists, business corporations and foundations should be more venturesome in their support of the activities of environmental volunteer organizations. Too often, the limited funds cur- rently made available go to projects that might be labeled as "safe" and "status quo," and are denied to projects that are directed toward aggressive environmental action or fundamental social and economic change. Applicant environmental organizations should make every effort to design the projects they submit for foundation support to comply with the federal tax code provi- sions governing the activities of these foundations. Such applicants should explain their purposes carefully and persuasively, in terms of public interests which foundations are established to serve. By the same token, many more foundations should stretch their imagina- tions and their interpretations of tax code limitations to fund the kinds of innovative volunteer environmental projects supported at present by only a few venturesome philanthropies. Foundations and philanthropists should take pains to discern and support sincere grass roots activism for community improvement. 66 ------- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are deeply indebted to the hard work and creativity of Dr. David Horton Smith, Research Director of the Center for a Voluntary Society, who served as research consultant for the project. His assistance in designing the work plan, developing the questionnaires and analyzing the results has been invaluable. Ms. Elizabeth Stabler served most ably as editor and consultant in governmental relations. Ms. Gail Boyer Hayes also provided valuable editorial assistance. Important contributions, in the form of special studies providing background material for the project, were received from Anthony Z. Rosiman, Mark Battle, Mrs. Jeanne Malchon and William Napier. Finally, we would like to thank all of those who assisted in the interview process, either as field consultants or as interviewees. Without their help, the study could never have been conducted. 67 ------- CONTENTS Chapter Page Introduction to Report 1 I Conclusions 6 II Recommendations 33 III The Role of the Environmental Volunteer in America Today 95 A. Introduction 95 B. The Environmental Movement in Selected States and Communities 99 1. Region III 99 2. Region VIII 189 3. Metropolitan Areas 275 4. Small communities 322 C. Independent Services to Citizen Groups 351 D. Inner City Involvement in Environmental Issues 354 E. A National Profile of the Environmental Organization 364 F. A National Profile of the Environmental Volunteer 386 IV Case Studies of Volunteer Environmental Action 396 A. Citizen Effort Passes Michigan "Right to Sue" Bill 396 B. Volunteer Involvement in the Overton Park Case . 400 C. The Conservation Council of Virginia 405 D. West Virginia Clean Streams Program: A Case History of Cabell County 411 E. Volunteer Recycling Center in Washington, D.C 414 F. The I llinois Prairie Path 417 V How the EPA Relates to the Volunteer Effort 421 A. The Breathers' Lobby 422 B. Summer Program for Action to Renew the Environment 426 C. Youth Advisory Board 428 D. The President's Environmental Merit Awards Program 431 E. How Citizens View the EPA 435 1. Region III 435 2. Region VIM 438 3. Metropolitan Areas 441 4. Small Communities 443 F. Programs of the Regional Public Affairs Offices 445 G. National Office of Public Affairs 453 69 ------- VI How Governmental Agencies Other than EPA Relate to Voluntary Environmental Efforts 457 A. Citizen Relationships with Federal Agencies 458 1. Region Hi . . . ^ 459 2. Region VIII 462 3. Metropolitan Areas 467 4. Small Communities 470 B. Citizen Relationships with State Agencies 473 1. Region III 473 2. Region VIII 477 3. Metropolitan Areas 480 4. Small Communities 481 C. Federal Agency Programs with an I mpact on Environmental Volunteers 483 1. National Environmental Policy Act 483 2. Federal Tax Laws 489 3. Office of Environmental Education 493 VII Bibliography 499 VIII Appendices 506 70 ------- |