After more than 40 years of passionate, steadfast leadership, Will Baker, the intern-cum-president who has devoted his entire professional life to the Chesapeake Bay, retires from CBF's helm. Baker was nothing if not relentless in his singular pursuit to save the Bay.
Transcript
[Truman Semans, CBF Founder and Honorary Trustee]
Well I first met him he was only 15 years old and like most 15 year olds in those days, sort of had a little beard and some long hair.
[Mary Tod Winchester, Retired Vice President for Administration]
He was a hippie.
[Truman Semans]
He was doing some work for people like myself pruning trees and I said to him, "Will why don't you come down out of that tree and I want you to save the Bay."
[Mary Tod Winchester]
We were kids when we were running this place.
[Will Baker]
I had absolutely no idea I'd work for something like an environmental organization.
[Mary Tod Winchester]
I don't want to say anything goes but we had a board that supported the direction we wanted to go.
[Will Baker]
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation marks the early 80s as the nader. The very bottom, the worst the Chesapeake has been in history. One of the early successes was getting government and our elected officials to accept that the Chesapeake Bay's water quality had degraded due to human influence as opposed to natural cycles. Once government admitted that then there was a fertile ground plow, to try to have government solutions to the problems.
[Don Boesch, Ph. D., Professor and President Emeritus, University of Maryland center for Environmental Science]
I actually met him for the first time when I was working in Louisiana and we were at a congressional hearing together. I said, "who is this tall, thin, brash young man who seemed to be overconfident for his age." But that's Will.
[Will Baker]
In 1982 U.S. Senator Charles Mack Matthias held a hearing at which the Reagan administration's EPA was one witness and a young Will Baker was the other witness. Tthat hearing led to long-term state/federal/local partnerships which are a hallmark of the current effort to save the Bay.
[Scientists (from archival video)]
The temperature is 29.3, six meters.
[Don Boesch]
Well, Will and I developed a very effective relationship. Almost a symbiotic relationship in which he understood that the science was fundamental and necessary and I understood that we needed advocacy organizations to make sure we did the right thing with that science. That's kind of a tension often because the scientists think that the advocates go well beyond the science and the advocates think that the scientists are far too cautious about the science.
[Will Baker (from archival footage)]
The dead zone is getting smaller when I started in 1976 at CBF I never thought I would be able to say that.
[Mary Tod Winchester]
Will has been very successful because he understands the issues, almost as well as the scientists and the attorneys and along with that was he is one of the best fundraisers any organization would ever want to have. When we went through three economic declines and we had to tighten our belts one of the first things he said is, "we are not laying off any staff", and we didn't. That's the Will that most people don't see. On the other, side he's a cut up.
[Music]
[Will Baker]
The best long-term investment in the future of the Chesapeake Bay is education. Our young people are the ones who are very quickly taking over, that's the future.
[Music]
[news reporter (from archival footage)]
Since its founding in 1967 the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has been working to save the Bay. Its mission is no less ambitious than changing how people think and behave in an entire watershed.
[Will Baker (from archival footage)]
To walk the talk if we say save the Bay we say people should do the right thing. We built the building it was as good as it could possibly be.
[former CBF Staff (from archival footage)]
It was an outrageous bold move.
[former CBF Staff (from archival footage)]
To do anything other than what we did would be slightly hypocritical.
[Mary Tod Winchester (from archival footage)]
This building works.
[former CBF Staff (from archival footage)]
We're learning a lot about what we preach. Nutrients, energy, and water all in conservation.
[former CBF Staff, showing a fish to students]
He is more of a more of a visitor to the Bay he's going to be leaving soon.
[Will Baker]
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation from the beginning has really done three primary things. We educate students and teachers and even principals. We advocate for good policy and when all else fails we're willing to litigate.
[Will Baker (from archival footage)]
I've just returned from Washington, DC where CBF and several partners filed a lawsuit to compel EPA to enforce the Clean Water Act. This lawsuit is about one thing, asking the federal court to require the Environmental Protection Agency to do its job.
[Mary Tod Winchester]
By understanding the issues he also knew how important it was to clearly explain them; to audiences, to donors, to elected officials. Because if they understand it they're going to more easily want to join our forces. And yes there were times, many times, we went "Will, you're going overboard, you can't do this". He'd look at us and say, "Well if we don't, who will? How are we going to save the Bay if we don't push the boundaries?"
[Will Baker (from archival footage)]
44 trees in honor of the 44th president. Are you ready? We're gonna do it.
[Don Boesch]
CBF is just remarkable. Really one of a kind of a regional environmental organization that is as large and has as many members about any part of this country or any similar part of the world and so the fact that it's been sustained over these periods, most of the time in which with Will at the helm is testimony itself.
[Mary Tod Winchester]
Whether it was staff, whether it was board, whether it was elected officials, it was "we need to do this" and if we didn't have that drive, that energetic drive, CBF would never be where it is now.
[Will Baker (from archival footage)]
We're here today to announce a historic agreement between the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency. This agreement is a game changer it spells out what EPA will do in detail, it sets deadlines, it has accountability, it will lead to pollution reduction.
[Mary Tod Winchester]
Will has set a standard for how we approach saving the Bay, saving the earth.
[Will Baker (from TED Talk footage)]
Let me show you a stunning example of how we can begin to change the world. This is the Brock Environmental Center, at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, it's the greenest building in the world.
[Will Baker (from archival footage)]
- Pollution is slowly killing the Chesapeake Bay, causes an explosion of algae...
- Our 2014 report has mixed news...
- We seek to stop the agriculture industries who want to derail Bay restoration. If it's a fight they want, it's a fight they will get.
- The Chesapeake Bay foundation has stead fastly opposed...
- Will we give up? Will we leave our children a legacy...
[Will Baker (from archival footage)]
For five years the American Farm Bureau Federation has been suing in federal court to stop the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay and just today the Supreme Court announced it's over. They're not taking the case. No more, it's the law of the land.
[Truman Semans]
He's a fellow of great talents. Highly intelligent, a great environmentalist, tireless, and ambitious not for himself but ambitious for the the institution, for the Bay itself.
[Mary Tod Winchester]
You put all of those talents together and you've got one incredible human being.
[Gina McCarthy, White House National Climate Advisor and Former EPA Administrator]
Hey Will it's Gina, congratulations on your retirement but more importantly congratulations for decades of incredibly consistent, passionate and at times obnoxious pursuit of how we actually learn to respect the Chesapeake and bring it back to its finest hour. You the man Will. You have been an amazing leader, thank you!
