Board interview with Kevin Talbert
Kevin Talbert had a 26 year career as Director of Extended Campus Programs and CIO of Southern Oregon University. He served in the Oregon Senate. Currently, Kevin is on the boards of Rogue Community College, Oregon Community College Association, and the Crater Lake Natural History Association in addition to being President of the SOLC board. With all this experience and dedication, we stopped to ask, “How did you get so engaged in the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy?”
Well I was a longtime volunteer of The Nature Conservancy and I noticed that a lot of the local decisions were being made nationally. Then I learned there was an organization that was local, making local decisions with local people that were concerned about the land right here in southern Oregon. That was an organization I wanted to be part of. So I asked to be on the board. I recruited myself!
I hope through our work and the work of partner organizations that we will be able to protect enough land— private land—so the next generation, the people that come after us, will still be able to have the kind of experience we are having living in this wonderful environment. We don’t want this to be a compromised environment. We all joined the Land Conservancy for the people, and the plants, and animals that make southern Oregon what it is.
What is great about SOLC is that it is not a political organization. We are people that simply love the land, whether conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat, Green Party, etc. - we are apolitical in terms of our approach. What we share is this value and love of the plants and creatures and the land we live on and that we should preserve it. And people should know that they have an opportunity to preserve their land in perpetuity. People can really make a difference with land that they own and think of what they can do with it. For me personally it is about equity and an equitable society.
July 17, 2019
