Conservation Corner: November 1, 1999

U.S. Senate Loses A Friend
by James L. Cummins

On March 20, 1996, I received a telephone call from the Wildlife Management Institute about obtaining a keynote speaker for the 61st North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Their scheduled speaker had to cancel at the last minute. I told them I would do what I could. Then, they dropped a bomb on me. "The conference is on March 25, 1996," they said. As you can imagine, there was a long silence on my end.

"You're kidding," I responded. They said that they would prefer the speaker to be on either the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry or Environment and Public Works. "Ok, let me get to work," was all I said.

As with many things, a Mississippian saved the day. I met this lady in 1989 on the side of Interstate 95 near Newark, New Jersey, when the bus I was on broke down. I was on the way from Washington, D.C. to New York City for The Mississippi Picnic. Although the bus was full of Mississippians, who, by the way, could easily think of many other places where they would rather be broke down, the one I am referring to is from Corinth.

I called my friend and after much work, she called to tell me that Senator John Chafee of Rhode Island has agreed to give the speech. The next several days were spent talking to Senator Chafee and his staff about the speech and making travel arrangements. And five days later, this honorable and modest U.S. Senator gave the keynote address to the 61st North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Three and a half years later, on October 25, 1999, my mother called and told me to turn on C-SPAN. Senator Chafee had died.

Senator Chafee and I did not always agree, but he always treated me with respect and kindness. I remember having a disagreement with him in his office over the spotted owl. Our discussion centered around how the significantly decreased timber harvest in the Pacific Northwest added great pressure on forests in the South. Nevertheless, after our discussion, we continued to remain friends. In fact, he was one of only a handful of non-Mississippi Senators that I knew.

Senator Chafee served as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. His most noted accomplishments include the Coastal Barrier Resources Act of 1982, the Atlantic Striped Bass Conservation Act of 1984, which helped restore a valuable fishery along the Atlantic Coast and in our own Gulf of Mexico, and the National Wildlife Refuge Improvement Act of 1997.

I will always remember Senator Chafee for giving me something that, now, I can't give him. Time.

James L. Cummins is Executive Director of the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Stoneville, Mississippi. Known as "Wildlife Mississippi," the Foundation is a non-profit, conservation organization founded to conserve, restore and enhance fish, wildlife and plant resources throughout Mississippi.