ABOUT CAMERON DAVIS:
Cameron Davis is a vice president at GEI Consultants, where he leads resilience efforts, especially for coastal, sediment cleanup, green infrastructure, climate adaptation, and water resources. He’s also an elected commissioner at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, where he joined the board after one the most unusual races in Illinois history, beating the previous statewide write-in record set by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1944.
From 2009 until 2017, he was President Obama’s Great Lakes “czar,” coordinating the work of 11 federal departments and serving as the Administration’s liaison to Capitol Hill in investing more than $2 billion under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. During his tenure, he led the federal effort to block invasive carp from reaching the Great Lakes through the Chicago River. He also helped write and pass the Great Lakes Legacy Act, which has been responsible for providing nearly more than $200 million in sediment cleanup and similar projects.
Cam has dedicated his entire career to the public’s interest in water, having served as a public interest Clean Water Act attorney, professor at the University of Michigan Law School, and President & CEO of the Chicago-based Alliance for the Great Lakes. But his proudest achievement is having started his career as a volunteer.
He is also an author and small-scale organic blueberry farmer in South Haven, Michigan, working to conserve water and habitat through sustainable agriculture
ABOUT LISA WOZNIAK:
Lisa’s career spans over two decades of environmental and conservation advocacy in the political arena. She is a nationally- recognized expert in non-profit growth and management and a leader in Great Lakes protections. Lisa is a three-time graduate from the University of Michigan, with a bachelor's degree and two ensuing master's degrees in social work and Education.
Lisa serves a co-host and content partner in 89.1 WEMU's '1st Friday Focus on the Environment.'
RESOURCES:
Michigan League of Conservation Voters
TRANSCRIPTION:
Rebekah Warren: This is 89.1 WEMU, and welcome to the July edition of First Friday Focus on the Environment. I'm Rebekah Warren, your new co-host, stepping into this role as David Fair enjoys his well-earned retirement. This is my first edition of the show, and I'm thrilled to be here as we delve into a critical and timely topic, threats to our precious Great Lakes. What has been done over time to protect them? What needs to be done moving forward? I have some background to bring to the conversation as a former state Representative and state Senator and former member of the Great Lakes Commission, but so too does my partner on First Fridays, Lisa Wozniak. Lisa is CEO and President of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters and has served as co-host of this show for over 15 years. We didn't have to look too far to find a perfect July guest. Did we, Lisa?
Lisa Wozniak: We didn't have to look far at all, Rebekah! The Great Lakes have been at the center of our guests work for decades. Cameron Davis is a nationally recognized Great Lakes policy leader and environmental advocate. He served as senior advisor to the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during the Obama administration, where he was appointed the nation's first "Great Lakes Czar" and helped launch and oversee the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, one of the largest freshwater restoration efforts in American history. Today, Cameron serves as a commissioner on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of greater Chicago, where he focuses on water quality and infrastructure, climate resilience, and protecting the Great Lakes for future generations. And maybe as an aside, but maybe not, he's also a blueberry farmer. So, thanks so much for joining us today, Cam! And we so appreciate it!
Cameron Davis: Well, it's great to be on with such amazing champions here! You guys have done amazing work yourself over the decades!
Lisa Wozniak: Well, you've spent so much of your career working to protect the Great Lakes. And I'd like to know what drew you to this work in the beginning. And now, as an elected official and as a farmer, what keeps you engaged today?
Cameron Davis: Yeah, my hunch is that the fire was first lit inside of me in the way that it happens for a lot of people. When I was a kid, my brother, sister and I would go to the beach with our parents, and I used to just look out over the blue water and see the white sails of the sailboats. And to me, they just kind of look like angels floating in the ether. So, I think it was a real emotional tug. But also probably, like a lot of us, I didn't really think about the Great Lakes much as a kid It was as an adult, when I started to think, "Oh my God! What we have here in our backyards or front yards or whatever yard you want to call it is amazing!" It is a global treasure! You know, it's 20% of the earth's fresh surface water. We share the Great Lakes with our beautiful amazing neighbor to the north, Canada. We share the Great Lakes with 35 federally recognized Native American tribes. It really is the Great Lakes ecosystem. It is an incredible treasure, and we just cannot take it for granted!
Rebekah Warren: Well, Cam, during the Obama administration, you became known as the nation's first "Great Lakes Czar," as Lisa said. What was the challenge facing the Great Lakes at that time, and what did success look like for you?
Cameron Davis: Yeah. So, the challenge was to get the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative off the ground and maybe I'll share a war story or two here because it's kind of fun. I had known state Senator Obama since 1998 and had always thought the world of him. I still do. And so, whenever he ran, even when he wasn't running and just doing his job, I would try to help him, and he would always try to help the organization that I was running at the time, the Alliance for the Great Lakes. So, I just think we had a lot of mutual respect. The real challenge to answer your question is when he was campaigning, he committed to a $5 billion, what was called, trust fund to restore and protect the Great Lakes. At the time, the Everglades was getting money, the Chesapeake was getting money, but here in our region, our eight states, we were just kind of scraping along and not making a whole lot of great progress and cleaning up our toxic hotspots, shielding the Great Lakes from invasive species, restoring habitat, fighting climate change, the list goes on. And I remember working on the campaign, putting together his campaign promise and turning it in, submitting it like a homework assignment to your high school teacher or something, and a new draft came back of this pledge calling for somebody who could take the role of coordinator of 11 federal departments. And my first thought was, "Don't know where that came from. But, wow! Do I pity the person who has to take that job?" Because that sounds like a monster. And next thing you know, a few months later, I got the call to be that guy. So, I went from running a non-profit organization, Lisa, much like you do, and going from that to coordinating 11 federal departments with, by the time I left, more than a $2 billion trust fund. So, that was really the challenge, was just getting this behemoth, this monster, brand new program off the ground, and I really got to credit the staff at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Great Lakes National Program Office and all of the agencies that just did heroic work behind the scenes that nobody will ever really fully understand. I think that was the big challenge. But we did it! And we did it, when I say we, I really mean all of us. League of Conservation Voters, Alliance for the Great Lakes, National Wildlife Federation. Our partners in the state legislatures wanted to know about it and partner on it. I got some tough questions from state legislators at the time, like, "Was this going to be Washington coming in and directing and telling the states what to do? What is restoration?" So, there was a whole lot of education with people in really important positions from the nonprofit world to the academic world to the legislative world on the hill and in the states to just help people understand what this new thing was and why it was and still, to this day, is so critical.
Rebekah Warren: WEMU's First Friday Focus on the Environment continues with Cameron Davis, nationally recognized Great Lakes policy leader and environmental advocate.
Lisa Wozniak: Well, Cam, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, an initiative that Rebekah actually helped champion while she was serving in the State House, which, working very closely together, has now become arguably one of the most successful government initiatives, period, across anything. And I'm curious to know. Given sort of the challenge to create bipartisanship, what are we looking at right now in terms of safeguarding this critical, critical initiative?
Cameron Davis: Really good question! And I think making it work has been a function of continuing to treat the Great Lakes and the protection of this ecosystem is not just a bipartisan, but a nonpartisan issue. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether you wear blue or red or purple or somewhere in between, you have to care about the health of your drinking water. You want to be able to take your kids to the beach to go swimming and not have to worry about them getting sick. You want be able to fish, especially for subsistence. Anglers who, in this day and age where groceries are getting more expensive, are looking for an inexpensive protein source for them and their families. So, I think the real key has been, first of all, to be aware of being baited into having partisan discussions about the Great Lakes. And when you're aware, you can prevent them and avoid them. S, when I was with the Obama administration, I made it a point whenever we were going to celebrate a local project success, to invite the legislators. I didn't care what party they served. And at first, there was, I would say, a little bit of suspicion because this was an "Obama program." It wasn't. It was a bipartisan Congress that voted to fund it. But over time, I think a lot of legislators at the federal level, and then with Rebecca's colleagues at the state level in Michigan and beyond, started to understand that this was a program that really wanted to get things done. And as one Republican Senator and friend of mine said on the hill to me, "You keep showing me that you're making progress with this money, and I'm going to keep advocating for it."
Lisa Wozniak: Well, I have great memories of Rebekah Warren working with Patty Birkholz, Purple Patty, right? Senator Birkholz from Republican, right, from the west side of the state to get it done here in Michigan. There is so much we could talk about, but you've worked at the federal, state, and local levels, and when Washington pulls back from environmental protections, which, unfortunately, we've seen happen, where can states and communities still make the most meaningful progress?
Cameron Davis: Right now, I would say, part of my advice is kind of that old advice, which is to act locally. One of the things, for example, that I'd never saw myself doing was running for public office myself. But in 2018m I ran, and I ran for the reasons that we should all be running, which is public service and to try to do the right thing for the public. Get involved in a local organization, support good candidates. I always say the best thing people can do is a four-letter word: Vote!
Rebekah Warren: Cam, thank you for the time today and for offering us your keen insights into all of these important issues! That was Cameron Davis. He served as senior advisor to the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during the Obama administration, where he was appointed the nation's first Great Lakes Czar. My partner in First Friday Focus on the Environment is the other voice you've heard today. Lisa Wozniak is CEO and President of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters. Lisa, it's been great launching this new chapter of First Fridays with you!
Lisa Wozniak: Looking forward to working with you, Rebekah!
Rebekah Warren: For more information on our conversation today and to access the First Friday Archive, visit our website at WEMU.org. I'm Rebekah Warren, and this is your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU, Ypsilanti.
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