The time has come to take a step back to honor a lifelong conservationist. Norm Berg, our US policy representative, passed away on March 18, only three days after his 90th birthday. Berg remained devoted to conservation until the end. As you can see, one of his latest Congress updates appears in an earlier blog, posted March 7. His guidance and leadership will be sorely missed. We welcome your stories and memories of Norm Berg. Just click on “comments.”
8 comments:
Norm was an inspiration throughout my entire 25-year career. He was a teacher, a mentor, and a friend. Norm's guidance and love for the land motivated an entire generation of dedicated conservationists. I am very thankful to have known Norm and to help further his conservation legacy. -Ross Braun
Norm Berg was a mentor to many and an inspiration to everyone who knew him. His leadership and life long devotion to conservation are an enduring legacy. He profoundly influenced our thinking and our commitment to conserving, using, and cherishing our natural resources. I will remember your soft spoken but firm nature and your passion for conservation. You led by example and quietly achieved a lifetime of conservation. I easily compare you to H. H. Bennett or Aldo Leopold. God speed Norm!
I didn't personally know Norm--only met him once--but even those of us who weren't personally connected most assuredly benefitted from Norm, his values, and his work for conservation. It may take a number of us, but hopefully the contributions will continue as he would want.
-L Harrington
I want to offer a sincere “thank you” to Norm for his many gifts, large and small, to conservation. You were our last professional Chief, the administrative leader of thousands of conservationists. Yet upon retiring you were happy to return to being a simple District Commissioner in your home state because you recognized that conservation leadership needs to be build from the local level up. You never gave up in your efforts to persuade our elected leaders to see the importance of investing in conservation. Yet while walking the halls of Congress you also created the Berg Fellows because you recognized the most important investment we can make is in getting young professionals involved in soil and water conservation. You were recognized by all as a conservation leader who had inspired both the powerful and the brilliant. Yet you were content to sit in the back of the room at conservation meetings where a quick hello, a comment, or a sharing a copy of a recent editorial could make all feel they were part of the larger conservation community. You earned many honors and achieved a number of different roles across your long and distinguished career. Yet among all these honors and titles, somehow I know that being called a “conservationist” was the most important to you. So, thank you Norm for showing us all how to be, first and foremost, a conservationist. You did it with class, and you did it in an open and honest way that was appreciated by all who knew you.
Pete Nowak
Every once in a while a great person and a great conservationists comes along. That was Norm Berg.
Older members of the SWCS should continue their membership past retirement to act as mentors to the younger conservationists. The older members have lots of hands-on experience that is unique to their particular discipline. If they discontinue their membership all of this experience will be lost. We need to figure a way for older conservationists to post some of their unique hands-on experience into some form of online database that can be accessible to all members of SWCS. What do you all think? Have a great day.
Older members of the SWCS should continue their membership past retirement to act as mentors to the younger conservationists. The older members have lots of hands-on experience that is unique to their particular discipline. If they discontinue their membership all of this experience will be lost. We need to figure a way for older conservationists to post some of their unique hands-on experience into some form of online database that can be accessible to all members of SWCS. What do you all think? Have a great day.
Post a Comment