Dr. Eloise Kailin of Blyn and Sara Doyle of Port Townsend have been awarded the 2018 Eleanor Stopps Environmental Leadership Award from the Port Townsend Marine Science Center.
Kailin — longtime activist, president of Protect the Peninsula’s Future and co-founder of the Sequim-based Olympic Environmental Council — and Doyle, stewardship coordinator for the North Olympic Salmon Coalition, were recognized for their environmental efforts at the Sept. 28 breakfast.
The award is given in the name of Stopps, an active member of the Pacific Northwest conservation community. She founded the Admiralty Audubon Chapter and was the major force behind establishment of Protection island National Wildlife Refuge in 1982. She died in 2012 at the age of 92.
The theme of Fridays awards breakfast was “Empowering the Future.”
“The work we all do is hard. We don’t do it alone,” said Janine Boire, executive director of the marine science center.
“This is about one generation and how it inspires the next, how dedicated citizen science affects all of us, and how our real strength grows from the work we do together.”
Kailin, 99, was not able to attend the breakfast. Accepting her award in her place was Darlene Schanfald, a fellow board member of Protect the Peninsula’s Future, spokeswoman for the Olympic Environmental Council and a member of the Sierra Club North Olympic Group.
After a clinical career as an allergist and immunologist in Washington, D.C., Kailin retired to the North Olympic Peninsula in the early ‘70s. She served on the Washington Environmental Coalition, and co-founded the Olympic Environmental Council. She also led the nonprofit Protect the Peninsula’s Future organization as its president.
Kailin battled to block a nuclear power plant from being constructed on the Miller Peninsula in 1973 which led to the formation of the nonprofit Protect the Peninsula’s Future (PPF). A 15-year court battle initiated by PPF led to the city of Sequim constructing a water reclamation facility in 1998.
In the mid-1980s, PPF and negotiated an agreement with the Port of Port Angeles for a boat launch and park at the John Wayne Marina as well as the replacement of creosote pilings.
She was the driving force behind a successful campaign to stop the city of Port Angeles form adding fluoride to the municipal drinking water in August 2016, a move seconded in an advisory vote in November 2017.
“The environmental groups don’t owe me thanks,” Kailin said in a phone interview Friday. “I’m delighted to be part of this award, but it’s important to be useful in this world. It’s important to keep making waves.”
She said she is trying to button up all the projects she continues to work on, including her part in Protect the Peninsula’s Future.
“I appreciate the awareness and desire to protect and improve the environment. I encourage everyone to keep vigilant forever.”
Doyle, 30, began work with the North Olympic Salmon Coalition in 2009. She had an immediate impact through her work in riparian restoration along creeks, rivers and marine shorelines, according to the marine science center.
She was also a catalyst for tree planting and the eradication of invasive plants, the marine science center said.
Doyle created strong relationships with private landowners and collaborative partnerships with conservation districts, land trusts and the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, the marine science center said and attributed funding for the Washington Conservation Corps, a six-person crew that does restoration projects in Jefferson and Clallam counties, t her work.
“Eleanor Stopps was a powerful voice in our community so to be given an award in her honor is really special to me,” Doyle said.
Doye added that her goal “my whole life to be a mentor for future generations to be environmental stewards to fight for protecting and restoring the environment.
“I started out as an AmeriCorps volunteer. For me, the most special part of the work I do is with middle school through seventh grade — being a mentor and role model for them. Female scientists in the environmental world aren’t necessarily common. I was lucky because mine were. A career in this field is possible.”
She said just as Stopps and Kailin were important to stewardship, women can be a big force for change in the environment.
“I’m optimistic for the future,” Doyle said.
“I’ve been able to witness students go on to become leaders in the environmental community. That one person has a ripple effect for future generations.”
Previous Eleanor Stopps Environmental Leadership Award winners are Katherine Baril, 2005; Anne Murphy, 2006; Tom Jay and Sara Mall Johani, 2007; Al Latham, 2008; Peter Bahls, 2009; Sarah Spaeth, 2010; Dick and Marie Goin, 2011; Judith Alexander, 2012; Rebecca Benjamin, 2013; Ray Lowrie, 2014; Jude Rubin, 2015; Pete Schroeder, 2016 and John Fabian, 2017.
Jeannie McMacken is the Jefferson County Editor/Reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. She can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jmcmacken@peninsuladaily news.com.
