Tom Furrer honored as environmental hero

For his lifetime of service to Petaluma children and the environment, beginning as a wildlife biology teacher at Casa Grande High School in 1981 and spending the next 30 years restoring Adobe Creek and founding a fish hatchery, Tom Furrer last week was presented with the American Red Cross Environmental Hero award for 2012.

Furrer founded the United Anglers Conservation Fish Hatchery at Casa Grande in 1983 which, to date, is the only licensed fish hatchery in the nation operated by a public high school. He also founded the Adobe Creek Restoration Project after he and his high school students convinced a then reluctant Petaluma City Council to remove a dam which was diverting water from Adobe Creek into the city's water reserves.

"We chose Adobe Creek because it was close to the school," recalled Furrer. "They were 16-year-old kids and they studied the water system and convinced the city council in 1991 that we were losing more water from evaporation due to old pipes and old technology, than was collected," said Furrer. "We had some long and very loud fights with council members over that. They thought they were making money by diverting that water, when in fact it was costing the city money."

Furrer said he was glad to receive the Red Cross award because it gave him a platform to speak about such issues, but sees his main opponent as an apathetic culture abetted by too much bureaucracy.

"Apathy is our biggest problem and government regulations create that," said Furrer. "Politics is a killer when it comes to getting good things done and that breeds the sense that there is nothing the average person can do."

A graduate of Petaluma High School, Furrer said, "I started out as a park ranger but became a teacher because I wanted to fight apathy in young people. We proved we could make positive, big changes at Adobe Creek and with the fish hatchery when people work together. But it's a lot harder to do now."

Furrer says that if he were starting the restoration or hatchery projects today, they would be nearly impossible to achieve. "The bureaucracy involved in trying to make positive change is so cumbersome and invasive that I don't think we could do what we did," said Furrer.

Likening it to a non-native weed growing over a field and destroying the natural habitat, Furrer said federal regulations and fees, combined with the fear of lawsuits, now prevent local ranchers and property owners from helping to save a water-way or restore species.

"Laws and regulations have been passed without any consideration about the people impacted," said Furrer. "I've talked to so many local ranchers who say they would love to help us clear a summer dam or restore a creek that would bring back some local species of fish and wildlife," said Furrer. "But they say the costs involved in getting permits or paying fees is astronomical. Better to let nature do it than risk getting sued, is their attitude, and I don't blame them."

(Contact E.A. Barrera at argus@arguscourier.com)