“I’ve seen the world, been to many places
Made lots of friends, many different races
I’ve had such fun around the world it’s true
African skies with a Nairobi mood, ooh
I fell asleep in Tuscany and dreamed
The one thing missing was you…”
– from the song “Runaway” by Janet Jackson

his is part 4 of my 6 part blog from 2004-2010 how the EarthBall became my symbol. I conclude these multi-part story how my April 10, 2010 photo of me with my EarthBall at Copper Harbor, Michigan with Lake Superior behind me became my favorite Earth Ball photo.

Part 1: Everglades National Park, Florida in 2004 to Crater Lake Nat. Park, Oregon in 2009
Part 2: My Pacific Northwest spring travels to living in Ashland, Oregon in Autumn 2009
Part 3: December 2009 cross country travels to spending winter in St. Louis, MO in 2010
Part 4: Seeing Door County, Wisconsin in April 2010
Part 5: Exploring the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in April 2010
Part 6: Getting my ideal EarthBall photo in Copper Harbor, Michigan in April 2010

Part 5: Seeing the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for the First Time

On April 8th, Dean Shumway and I went to a diner in Sister Bay, Wisconsin to meet with a friend of his for breakfast. It was snowing lightly with some of it sticking on the ground to form a fresh white cover. It was another reminder from Mother Nature that she did not want to give up her winter hold on this area yet. I felt a bit uneasy that morning hoping the roads would be safe as I traveled north into Michigan on the next part of this adventure. I ate a hearty breakfast of pancakes and Bernie packed a lunch for me for the road. After a good conversation with Dean and his friend over breakfast, it was time for me to hit the road to see new places that day.

As I drove south to try to leave Door Peninsula, the snowy weather persisted. I wanted a beautiful sunny day for this road trip, but Mother Nature insisted that it should snow throughout that morning. I had to drive south to go around Green Bay, Wisconsin. It felt odd to drive south to Green Bay. This is the home of the Green Bay Packers National Football League team. Their mammoth football stadium, Lambeau Field, dominates the Green Bay skyline. With the deep cold weather that the Packers play during their football season in November into January, Lambeau Field, has the nickname of “the frozen tundra.” With the snowy weather I encountered driving through the city of Green Bay on April 8th, that nickname seemed appropriate to me.

From Green Bay, I drove an hour north to Marinette, WI to cross into Michigan. The road paralleled within a few miles of the northern shore of Green Bay. During that hour, it was interesting to see northeastern rural Wisconsin. At the same time, I was full of anticipation to cross into Michigan to experience the Upper Peninsula or U.P. As I drove through the town of Marinette and crossed the Menominee River, I finally saw the sign I was eager to see. It was blue sign shining brightly on this overcast snowy day. It proudly beamed the words “Pure Michigan.”

I did it! I crossed into the U.P. of Michigan. I reached a new goal for this trip. I had been to Dean and Bernie’s house before in Door County. Now I felt like a traveler experiencing uncharted territory for first time. Fortunately, Michigan Highway 39 hugged the Green Bay shoreline for the next hour or 64 miles up to Gladstone, Michigan. I then headed straight east on U.S. Highway 2 through the Hiawatha National Forest to Manistique, Michigan. I don’t remember the forest driving through this part of the U.P. However, I looked forward to seeing Manistique since it was nestled on the north shore of Lake Michigan. The view did not disappoint. From the highway, I could spot a bright red lighthouse that seemed to stand out on this overcast snowy day. The lighthouse only connected to Michigan with just a narrow strip of land.

The scene was ideal for me to pull into the Carl D. Bradley Lakeview Memorial Park to take multiple photos of the lighthouse with Lake Michigan behind it. The snow on the ground and on the vegetation made the view even more spectacular. I was glad to see winter was not over in this part of the country. It was another cold blustery day on this spring break trip. Yet, I was thrilled to see what nature wanted to show me of the winter scene of this area. I ate my lunch inside my cold car while I enjoyed the view. While I was there, I went on a 20-minute walk to get as many photos and views as I could enjoy before I felt the need to explore further east that day.

I then had a 45-minute drive through the interior of the U.P to get to Naubinway, Michigan, which lies at the northern most point of Lake Michigan. From Naubinway eastward, I had views of Lake Michigan as the road stayed close to the water’s edge for the next 44 miles or 50 minutes. The road twisted with the lakeshore all the to Saint Ignace, Michigan, the northern shore where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron met. This was my next destination to see what the view was where these two Great Lakes met. As I journeyed along Highway 2 towards St. Ignace, the road would climb up tall cliffs giving me wide birds eye views of the forest behind me with Straits of Mackinac in the most northeastern parts of Lake Michigan in front of me. The scenery was too awe inspiring to drive. I had to pull over at some of the overlooks to just take in the views and capture the beauty in photographs.

At a pullout a few miles west of St. Ignace, a bridge started coming into view. It had two tall crème colored spanning towers like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco or the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in New York City. It was the Mackinac Bridge. I loved bridges like this since I was a child. I had picture books of the Golden Gate Bridge as a young kid that I looked at frequently. I was enthralled to see that bridge when we drove across it on a family vacation to San Franciso when I was 9 years old in 1977. Three years later, my dad drove our family across the Verrazano Bridge when we traveled to New York City in 1980. This bridge looked just as majestic as those bridges. Unlike those bridges, it did not have a big city skyline on one side of it. The Mackinac Bridge just had Lake Michigan on the west side and Lake Huron on the east side with the forests and small towns of the Upper and Lower Michigan peninsulas at either end of the bridge.

The goal of this trip was to see the U.P. of Michigan. However, I had to drive across this bridge just to experience it. As I drove south across it, I did something dangerous of taking a couple of photos with my point and shoot digital camera while driving my car. Looking back, it takes full concentration to drive across that bridge with the other traffic and the winds of the Straits of Mackinac tugging at your car. The photos while driving on the bridge turned out well. However, I shudder to think of all the things that could have gone wrong driving a car while trying to get photos with my digital camera at the same time.

After I drove south across the bridge, I stopped at Michilimackinac State Park on the shore of Lake Michigan, just off I-75 in Mackinaw City. There was a lighthouse there I did not even notice. I was on a mission to take more photos of the Mackinac Bridge from the southwest shoreline sandy beach. This was my only time in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan during this trip, which was just for a few minutes. I then drove across the Bridge again, admiring how Lake Huron was on one side of the Bridge and Lake Michigan was on the other side of the bridge. I tried to take in the whole view of the area while driving as safely as I could to make it to the other side.

When I reached the U.P. on the north side of the Mackinac Bridge, I then drove an hour on I-75 to spend the night in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. I easily found a hotel on the east side of town. I would have liked to have crossed the St. Mary River to see Sault Ste. Marie, Canada. However, I did not have a U.S. Passport at that time. Thus, I was going to have to enjoy staying in the U.S. and experience as much as possible in the U.P. of Michigan. This was a full day with a lot of driving and spectacular scenery. Now I was full of anticipation for the next day to drive from Sault Ste. Marie to Houghon, Michigan on the western part of the U.P. I would be seeing Lake Superior and the northern shore of the U.P. for the first time in my life. As country singer Willie Nelson sang years ago, ‘I could not wait to get on the road again.’

Seeing Lake Superior for the First Time

I woke up on April 9th similar to the anticipation of opening gifts on Christmas morning. This was the pinnacle for this trip: the possibility to look at Lake Superior for the first time. I saw Lake Michigan several times as a child when my parents took trips to Chicago. I viewed Lake Ontario on a family vacation in 1983 when we visited Toronto, Canada around the time of my 15th birthday. But I was curious for decades afterwards to see Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes. It is bigger by volume of water than all the other Great Lakes combined. It has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in the world. Even more, Lake Superior holds around 10% of all the fresh water in the entire world. I longed to see this gigantic freshwater sea.

I was meeting my friends Cherie Barth and her boyfriend Dan for dinner and staying with them. They lived in Houghon, Michigan, on the northwestern part of the U.P. Thus, I had to make the most of the day and the daylight. It was going to be a 4-and-a-half-hour drive without stopping to get to Cherie’s house, so I had to get up early to make the most of this day. From the beautiful sights I experienced that day, it was one of the most memorable days of my life.

My first destination was Whitefish Point, Michigan. It was an hour and a half drive west of Sault St. Marie, Michigan. The land around Whitefish Point juts out like a shark fin for the eastern U.P. Whitefish Point sits at the very top edge of the protruding land. The way it sticks out into Lake Superior this location would give me a panoramic view to see the lake for the first time in a more meaningful way. It snowed about an inch overnight. The ground was covered white with the snow, but it was too warm for the snow to stick to the payment. Thus, it was an ideal day to drive to take photos of the U.P still impacted by winter, but warm enough to not worry about driving in icy or snowy slick covered roads.

On my way to Whitefish Point, I drove through the town of Paradise, Michigan. The name acceptably fit the area with its quiet location. I saw no one or no traffic as I passed through this rural bedroom community. I stopped to take photos of the picturesque view of the snow on the ground, no leaves on the trees, and gazebos looking out into Whitefish Bay, the eastern most part of Lake Superior. From Paradise to Whitefish point, the road stayed close to Whitefish Bay, giving me my first glimpses of Lake Superior. It looked impressive, but not much different than the previous memories I had of Lake Michigan and Lake Ontario.

I could not drive any further at Whitefish Point when I got to the parking lot of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. When I pulled up to the parking lot to take photos, I was listening to Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” several times on my iPod connected to my car stereo. At one spot driving up to Whitefish Point, I had the song playing as I quickly left the car running to run out to get a quick photo. If the locals saw me, they probably thought I was another stupid tourist. Lightfoot’s song commemorates the November 1975 tragic sinking of the American cargo ship the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The Edmond Fitzgerald happened not far from here. As Gordon Lightfoot sang in the song,
“The searchers all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay
if they’d put fifteen more miles behind ‘er.”

When I arrived at Whitefish Point, it was just me and a couple other cars with visitors in the parking lot. In front of me was a white lighthouse with a white residential house next to it with an orange roof. The orange roof stood prominent with the snow on the ground, the lighthouse keeper’s house and lighthouse were white, and it was a mostly cloudy day with some blue sky. The inside of the lighthouse and the Shipwreck Musuem were not open. The summer tourist season was still many weeks away for these buildings to be open to welcome visitors.

Behind the lighthouse, I had to walk on a long beach to get to the edge of Lake Superior. From the edge of Whitefish Point, Lake Superior looked massive. The winds blew strongly bringing a frigid chill to the air. I bundled up in my winter coat, hat, scarf, and gloves. The winds created numerous whitecaps on the water and small breaking waves on the shoreline. The winds churning up the water of Lake Superior gave it a grumpy appearance that morning. My first impression of Lake with the white caps and shoreline tidal waves is that the lake seemed to be saying to me, “Don’t fuck with me! I am not in a good mood today!”

With the cold winds and choppy disturbed water that day, Lake Superior demanded respect. It was not a day to irritate her with swimming, boating, sailing, fishing, or any activity on her waters. I dared not to do anything foolish to make her angrier that day. I was elated to see Lake Superior for the first time from the safety of the sandy beach. I found another visitor to take a photo of me with my digital camera to capture the moment.

From Whitefish Point, I drove 40 minutes southwest to Tahquamenon Falls State Park to see the waterfalls there. I read beforehand that Upper Tahquamenon Waterfalls, over 200 feet wide, is one of the largest in the eastern United States. After I parked my car in the parking lot, I walked on the short trail to see the falls. It was one of the most splendid waterfalls I saw in my life.

Because of the river’s brownish hue is due to tannins from the surrounding swamps, the water looked like Coca Cola going over the waterfalls. Soda, such as Coke or Pepsi, was a treat my parents bought occasionally when I was a kid. I still love the taste a cola soda, even though I don’t drink much soda now because of all the sugar content. I loved the natural beauty of this area. At the same, the tannin in the river and seeming a bit bubblier going over the waterfalls, made me crave a Coke. I was not having a Coke though because I did not bring one. Even more, there was no concession stand, store or restaurant open in this park this time of year. Besides that, it was too cold to drink a Coke or any kind of soda that day.

With its 50-foot drop and steady partial horseshoe flow, Upper Tahquamenon Waterfalls looked like a mini–Niagara Falls. I walked on the forested paths with no leaves on the trees to see the lower and upper falls with an inch of snow blanketing the ground. It felt refreshing to be in nature that day. I still had a three-and-a-half-hour drive west to Houghton MI to meet Cherie and Dan for dinner and stay with them. However, I did not want to leave this park. As I write this 16 years later, I long to return to see these waterfalls and hike in the forests again.

In the parking lot, I spotted a red fox. I worked 25 years in the national parks, but this was one of my top wildlife experiences in my life. The red fox looked bewildered. I was basically the only car in the parking lot. It looked used to having the area to itself. I took numerous photos of it with my digital camera. It was like it was posing for me like a fashion model. Maybe it was fed by humans the way it observed and was curious about me. At the same time, it was leery and it did not want me to get close to it. I was lucky to take many photos of it with my digital camera. A middle-aged woman in the parking lot also saw the red fox and took several photos. We both marveled seeing the red fox. I shared with her that I worked 18 years in the national parks and had never seen an animal pose like this for me. She was too caught up in the moment to acknowledge when I shared my national park background with her.

Tahquamenon Falls State Park was small compared to national parks I visited, such as Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, North Cascades, etc. It is close to 50,000 acres stretching over 13 miles. However, seeing the large waterfalls, hiking on the trails, and photographing the red fox, ranked up there with the experiences of some of the national parks I visited. This was the only time in my life I visited this park, but I wanted to return ever since then.

From Tahquamenon Falls State Park, I had a close to a two-hour drive to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The National Park Service managed it. It is known for its towering cliffs with amazing views of Lake Superior. Heading towards seeing the lakeshore cliffs, I was impressed seeing robust waterfalls flowing in the park, such as Miner Falls, which drops over 50 feet. When I reached the Miner’s Castle overlook, I had a blue sky with no clouds to get a broad view of Lake Superior. The winds lessened much since I visited Whitefish Point that morning. Lake Superior looked like a bright blue freshwater ocean extending to the horizon to join with the light blue sky. Below and in front of me was with the white sandstone round rocks of Miner’s Rock. This shoreline rock with the expansive waters of Lake Superior behind it is the ultimate iconic photographic location for Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and the U.P. of Michigan.

This was the clearest weather I had so far on this trip to Wisconsin and Michigan. There was still a chill in the air, but it felt like spring was starting to get a toehold in the U.P. I am so glad the weather cooperated at this location. I wanted to spend more time at Pictured Rocks hiking in the woods, seeing the waterfalls, and admiring the views of Lake Superior from the vantage points on the tall cliffs. I was running out of time that day to make it to the home of my friends Cherie and Dan in Houghton.

After leaving the Miner’s Castle Overlook, I then stopped by to see Munising Falls, another 50-foot waterfall. I walked a paved 800-foot trail to see it. This waterfall is located at the very southwest corner of the park, next to the small recreational town of Munising, Michigan. From there, I still had a 3-hour drive to Houghton to connect with my friends Cherie and Dan. I reached their home as it was getting dark close to 7 pm. From her 10 years of knowing me, Cherie figured I would do a lot of sightseeing from Sault Ste. Marie to Houghton. Cell phone signals were limited that day, but I might have tried to call from Munisang or elsewhere to give Cherie my estimated time of arrival. Or, maybe I didn’t call in advance. I don’t remember.

The main point was that I made it safely to Cherie and Dan’s house that evening. They were happy to see me. After I visited Cherie and Dan at Sequoia National Park in March 2009, they found jobs working at Isle Royale National Park later in 2010. Isle Royale is in the northern part of Lake Superior. Even though the island is closer to Canada and Minnesota, it is part of Michigan. The only way to access Isle Royale is by ferries or by a sea plane during the summer season. The transportation to the island would not be running for a few weeks yet. Otherwise, Cherie and Dan might have been able to assist me to get access to the island. I would have loved to have seen Isle Royale, but on a different trip. This trip, I was focused on seeing the U.P. of Michigan for the first time and friends in Wisconsin.

Like when I visited all my fellow ranger friends working in national parks, it was fun to swap park stories and learn more about the park where they lived and the area where they resided. Cherie and Dan agreed with me that there was a lot to see in the U.P. of Michigan, even if they expressed regret that they could not show me Isle Royale. Both of were off work the next two days to explore around the Keweenaw Peninsula. Houghton lies in the middle of the Keweenaw Peninsula, which is a land area connected to the northern most part of the U.P. of Michigan. The Keweenaw Peninsula looks like a bent index finger sitting on top of the U.P. of Michigan. Thus, it is a smaller peninsula connected to a much larger peninsula.

I hoped to achieve a quality of photo of me holding my Earthball with Lake Superior behind me when we explored the Keweenaw Peninsula the next day. Stay tuned for Part 6 of this blog to find out what happened the next day.

Stay tuned for part 6 of this blog: Getting my ideal EarthBall photo in Copper Harbor, Michigan in April 2010.

Hearts afire creates love desire
Take you high and higher to the world you belong
Hearts afire creates love desire
High and higher to your place on the throne

We come together on this special day
Sing our message loud and clear
Looking back, we’ve touched on sorrowful days (well)
Future, past, they disappear

You will find (you fill find) peace of mind (yeah)
If you look way down in your heart and soul
Don’t hesitate ’cause the world seems cold
Stay young at heart
Ah, ’cause you’re never, never old at heart

That’s the way (that’s the way)
Of the world (of the world)
Plant your flower (gonna plant your flower)
And you grow a pearl
Child is born with a heart of gold
Way of the world (gonna plant your flower)
Makes his heart so cold

Hearts afire creates love desire
Take you high and higher to the world you belong
Hearts afire, love desire
High and higher
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Hearts afire, love desire
Ah, higher

We’ve come together on this special day
Sung our message loud and clear
Looking back, we’ve touched on sorrowful days
While future disappear

You will find (you fill find) peace of mind (eh, eh)
If you look way down in your heart and soul
Ah, don’t hesitate
‘Cause the world seems cold
Stay young at heart
‘Cause (’cause you’re never, never, never)
You’re never, never, never

That’s the way of the world
Plant your flowers and you’ll grow a pearl
Child is born (child is born)
With a heart of gold (listen now, with a heart of gold)
Way of the world (way of the world)
Makes his heart so cold (makes his heart so cold)

– “That’s the Way of the World” sung by Earth, Wind, and Fire.
The track was produced by bandleader Maurice White, who also wrote the song along with his bandmates Charles Stepney and Verdine White.

This is part 4 of my 6 part blog from 2004-2010 how the EarthBall became my symbol. I conclude these multi-part story how my April 10, 2010 photo of me with my EarthBall at Copper Harbor, Michigan with Lake Superior behind me became my favorite Earth Ball photo.

Part 1: Everglades National Park, Florida in 2004 to Crater Lake Nat. Park, Oregon in 2009
Part 2: My Pacific Northwest spring travels to living in Ashland, Oregon in Autumn 2009
Part 3: December 2009 cross country travels to spending winter in St. Louis, MO in 2010
Part 4: Seeing Door County, Wisconsin in April 2010
Part 5: Exploring the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in April 2010
Part 6: Getting my ideal EarthBall photo in Copper Harbor, Michigan in April 2010

Part 4: Seeing Door County, Wisconsin in April 2010

Around this time, everything was aligning for me to visit Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan in April 2010. My friend Cherie Barth and her partner Dan at that time shared a house in Houghton, Michigan near the northern tip of the UP of Michigan. My friends Dean and Bernie Shumway lived in Sister Bay, Wisconsin, near the end of the Door County peninsula. Ty and Carna Manthey were in the process of moving to Baraboo, Wisconsin. They planned to be settled in my April 2010. All these friends were excited for me to come visit.

On April 5th, I would first drive from St. Louis to Sister Bay, Wisconsin to spend a couple of days with Dean and Bernie in Sister Bay, WI. I then would head to Green Bay, WI to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan to see if I could get glimpses of upper Lake Michigan. From Sault St. Marie, I would go to Houghton Michigan to see what I could of Lake Superior and visit Cherie and Dan for several days. From Houghton, Michigan, my next stop would be Baraboo, Wisconsin to see Ty and Carna Manthey. From Baraboo, I would return to St. Louis on April 14th. I would be on the road for about 11 days. Somewhere along this trip, I hoped to get a photo of myself holding the EarthBall with a scenic view of nature behind me that will promote taking care of our planet.

With my trip to Hawaii in October 2008, I had traveled to all 50 states. Since then, I was interested in visiting what I called ‘the nooks and crannies of America’ that I had not seen yet, such as the U.P. of Michigan. When I was a child growing up in St. Louis, my parents took my sisters and me on a couple of trips to see Chicago Illinois. It was a huge megacity compared to St. Louis. I was equally impressed with the size of Lake Michigan. It looked like the ocean compared to the small lakes I in Missouri. After seeing Lake Michigan, I developed some intrigue about the Great Lakes. I especially wanted to see Lake Superior, the largest by far of all the Great Lakes.

I planned to start my cross-country drive from St. Louis to Crater Lake National Park, Oregon at the end of April. I would be working at Crater Lake from May until probably the beginning of October. After that, I had no idea what I would do next. The stars were aligned for me to visit the U.P. of Michigan and see Lake Superior then. I did not know when I would get another chance like this. With having my friends living in Houghton Michigan, this trip would fulfill a lifelong dream to see Lake Superior. As I started preparing for this trip in March and April 2010, I could not wait for this adventure.

Meeting Dean and Bernie Shumway and staying with them in Sister Bay, WI in 2005

By 2010, I knew Bernie and Dean Shumway for 7 years. I met them during my first winter working seasonally in Everglades City, Florida for the National Park Service (NPS). This was my first job working as an Interpretation/Naturalist Guide Ranger in the national parks. They were volunteers mostly working at the Visitor Center Desk answering questions to tourists planning their visit to Everglades National Park. Dean was an opinionated old curmudgeon who saw the world in simple black and white terms. He was a retired FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations) agent who spent his career in law enforcement. He was quick to fire off his beliefs, but he still wanted the best for everyone. Bernie was the opposite of Dean. She was reserved, slow to criticize, and let Dean do most of the talking. She nearly always had a smile and wanted to share kindness with the world.

In Everglades City, there were about 8 of us rangers plus volunteers working out of the NPS Visitor Center (VC). The NPS had 3 seasonal housing units a half a mile up the road from the VC. I can’t remember if Bernie and Dean lived in their own RV (Recreational Vehicle) or in one of the seasonal housing units. Either way, I enjoyed working with them at the VC desk and when we would socialize monthly with our employee potlucks. Dean was more on the conservative side. Working at the bookstore in the VC was primarily Wendy who was a progressive feminist atheist and outspoken in her opinions. Dean and Wendy would get into shouting matches about politics, feminism, and their views on the world. The funny part was that both of their views veered sometimes towards conspiracy theories. It was tough to know who to root for in their nonsensical arguments during our social gatherings, while being entertaining at the same time.

Dean would apologize to everyone the next day that he got too spirited in his comments. Wendy would never back down from her beliefs. Throughout the season, Dean and Wendy held some grudges against each other because their strongly held views were so different. Working in the national parks develops bonds like family. We work and live in the same area and had a love for the national parks. We socialize over holidays since we are not with our own families. Long term deep friendships are built. Over the season, I felt a special bond with Dean and Bernie, along with my other co-workers.

Dean and Bernie delighted in talking about their home in Sister Bay, Wisconsin in Door County. Their home sits from a short distance from Lake Michigan with Green Bay on the other side. In the national parks, the employees like to talk about our hometowns when we are not talking about work, park management, our day off excursions in the park or in town, or what’s going on in the world. The way Bernie and Dean talked with fondness about their home in Sister Bay and Door County, I had to get out a map of Wisconsin to see where they lived. I saw that it is that skinny peninsula that sticks out from Wisconsin jutting into Lake Michigan. Sister Bay was near the northern tip of the Door Peninsula. I loved seeing Lake Michigan growing up. On the map, with Door County surrounded by water from Lake Michigan and Green Bay, they had me very curious to see their home and Door County. When I shared that that I would like to come up to see their home in Sister Bay, they enthusiastically responded, “Come visit us anytime, Brian!”

Dean and Bernie worked in Everglades City for only one season, but we stayed in touch and exchanged a few letters in from 2004 onwards. In 2005, I dated a woman Marie that lived in Chicago, Illinois that I met when we were working at Crater Lake that summer. After she left the park near the end of August to return to her teaching job, we had a long-distance relationship that felt miserable for me. The good news was that I was dating someone. The bad news is that we would get into heated arguments on the phone. We liked each other, but our relationship was not jelling well. When I left Crater Lake for the season in October, my plan was to drive across country to visit Marie in Chicago for several days. I would drive down to St. Louis for a few weeks to see family before heading to Everglades City for the winter.

On my 2005 cross-country drive from Crater Lake to Chicago, I planned to stop in Madison, Wisconsin to visit my friend Hilary that I met in 2004 at Crater Lake. Hilary and I were strictly friends. We exchanged a few letters. She invited me to go back packing with her in South America in 2005, but I planned to work at Crater Lake and the Everglades. Hilary was enrolled in a graduate program at the University of Wisconsin. I wrote to see if I could visit her in Madison and she said yes. When I arrived in Madison, I was stunned by the beauty of the city sitting between two lakes with the white dome of the state capitol building in the middle of the urban land bridge between the two lakes. I enjoyed walking around the city with Hilary and having a pleasant conversation about our families, life, and hopes for the future. We had dinner at a local Thai restaurant and watched a rented movie at her apartment. I slept on the fold out couch.

The next morning, Hilary said she felt no chemistry between us, not even on a friendship level. She did not want to stay in contact with me, and she wanted me to leave. I was flabbergasted that she did not want to be friends with me. I never had a woman do this to me before this. It stung bad. Between all the drama with Marie and Hilary deciding out of the blue that she didn’t want to be friends with me, I needed to go somewhere to clear my head. I was not due at Marie’s house for another day. However, I was in no mood to see her, at least not yet. I wanted to go somewhere, but I was not sure. I then remembered that Dean and Bernie lived several hours away in Door County. I called them up to ask if I could stay with them. They were excited and told me to “Come on up! We are looking forward to seeing you!”

This was mid-October. The fall leaves were at their glorious vibrant yellow peak. Door County was an area known for the “Leaf Peepers,” people who like to travel to scenic wooded areas in the autumn and photograph the fall foliage. I happened to be hitting Door County at a peak time for leaf peeping. I was so grateful to see this and spend time with my friends Dean and Bernie. I shared what happened with Hilary and how I was miserable in my relationship with Marie. They were like loving parents or grandparents interacting with me giving me advice and cheering me up. I then went down to Chicago to have a rocky visit with Marie. The turmoil of our relationship was too much. She broke up with me a month later. I didn’t know how to end this stressful relationship with Marie. However, my body was so relieved, I comfortably slept for long hours for days afterwards as the tension dissipated.

My relationship with Marie ended, but my friendship with Dean and Barbara endured. I saw their home in Sister Bay in October 2005. Now I was eager to see it in April 2010.

Seeing Door County in April 2010

April 6th was my first full day in Sister Bay on the upper part of the Door County Peninsula. The weather was overcast and blah with temperatures in the upper 40s. The area still seemed more in moody weather of winter with little to no signs of spring yet. Bernie and Dean took me to see local sights, such as a small rocky cliff looking out into Lake Michigan, with a rock out cropping that jutted out just a few feet above the waters edge. We then walked along a sandy beach area in Newport State Park. After that, we had lunch in a small wooden café in the Bailey’s Harbor.

Just a few miles from Baileys Harbor, Dean and Bernie eagerly took me to see Mud Lake National Wildlife Refuge. The freshwater marshes reminded them of Everglades National Park. I could see the similarity when we were there. It was too wet to hike there with all the standing water of the marsh. The wetlands looked like a shallow lake that stretched into the distance. Fortunately, a long wooden boardwalk gave us great views of the area. A Great Blue Heron stood at the water’s edge hoping to catch fish, which reminded me of the Everglades. Winter still made its presence here with some ice still on the ground in the grassy edges of the marsh.

Dean and Bernie then took me to see Cana Island Lighthouse. It looked abandoned this time of year with zero tourists, except for the three of us. The lighthouse was the north facing view from the parking lot. The south side of the parking lot had a beach with a mixture of sand, hard rock shoreline, and some hardy brown plants determined to thrive in between the sand and rocks. The overcast sky and frigid temperatures with the light wind blowing across the water seemed like winter did not want to give up its grip on Door County yet, even if it was April, according to the calendar.

The overcast frigid weather stubbornly hung around the next day as we took a car ferry to Washington Island, off the north tip of the Door County Peninsula. We took the 30-minute ferry ride in the morning to spend a full day on the island. We were all bundled up in our warmest winter clothes, especially for the ferry ride. The movement of the boat and the light wind across the water made it feel frigid, like it was a better day to just be inside by a warm fire than to do exploring outside like a tourist. When we arrived on Washington Island, it looked deserted and lonely. It was way too early in the season for any tourists or the few residents of the island to be joining us. Yet, it was peaceful to have the island nearly to ourselves.

As the ferry arrived on the island, a humble and small white lighthouse greeted us that reached barely above the forest of trees. As we drove onto the island in Dean and Bernie’s car, we had a white wooden sign “Welcome to Washington Island” in front of us to welcome just the 3 of us to the island that day. Such a lack of people that day that it felt like the beginning of a Stephen King novel to an abandoned vacation island where trouble awaits. During our visit we walked by the appropriately named Bitter End Motel. It was a simplistic looking white wooden quaint motel ready to be written about for a horror novel or film.

We first found a beach with many pebbles to walk along. We made sure to get photos of ourselves dressed bundled up in multiple layers for this brisk winter like day. It was too cold for the sun to come out. Another overcast day for my Door County visit. The wind was strong enough to push small waves along the shore at a steady pace that Lake Michigan gave a tidal noise like it was a small ocean. We ate lunch at a local pub in town. We finally saw a few other human inhabitants on this island. A few locals and a bartender content to stay inside on this chilly day. It was a beautiful island of mostly tall trees with zero spring leaves and ringed by a picturesque shoreline to view Lake Michigan.

After lunch, we climbed the steps to the top of a tower in the middle of the island. It gave us a panoramic view of the forests broken up by fields and Lake Michigan surrounding us in the distance with far horizonal views of the land of Door Peninsula to remind us that we were still connected to Wisconsin. When we when walked to a sandy beach, I took advantage of the opportunity to get my photo with my Earth Ball. It was a good photo, but not the perfect promotional photo I wanted to promote myself as the “Climate Change Comedian.”

However, it was still great to capture the joy of this day to experience this island on this blustery day. It was one of those days as a tourist that you just wanted to stay inside a warm car to see the sights. Yet, in spite of the cold temperatures, you still wanted to be outside enjoying this day in this northern natural setting.

Soon afterwards, we loaded the car onto the ferry to head back to Door County to warm up in Dean and Bernie’s cozy and comfortable two-story home in Sister Bay. It was about a 20-minute drive from when we got off the ferry in Northport to their house. From my excitement of experiencing Washington Island, I probably dozed into a comfortable nap during that car ride back. We then had a lovely dinner at Dean and Bernie’s home. They had a large room in their upstairs attic for me during their visit. I felt so at home in this space and spending time with them that I did not want to leave. At the same time, I was eager to set off the next morning to see the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Stay tuned for part 5 of this blog: Exploring the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in April 2010.

“If I could tell the world just one thing it would be
That we’re all okay
And not to worry ’cause worry is wasteful
and useless in times like these
I won’t be made useless
I won’t be idle with despair
I will gather myself around my faith
For light does the darkness most fear.”

– from the 1998 song “Hands,” written and performed by Jewell

This is part 3 of my 6 part blog from 2004-2010 how the EarthBall became my symbol. I conclude these multi-part story how my April 10, 2010 photo of me with my EarthBall at Copper Harbor, Michigan with Lake Superior behind me became my favorite Earth Ball photo.

Part 1: Everglades National Park, Florida in 2004 to Crater Lake Nat. Park, Oregon in 2009
Part 2: My Pacific Northwest spring travels to living in Ashland, Oregon in Autumn 2009
Part 3: December 2009 cross country travels to spending winter in St. Louis, MO in 2010
Part 4: Seeing Door County, Wisconsin in April 2010
Part 5: Exploring the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in April 2010
Part 6: Getting my ideal EarthBall photo in Copper Harbor, Michigan in April 2010

My December 2009 cross-country adventure driving from Ashland O to St. Louis MO

On December 10, 2009, I left Barbara’s house for my cross-country traveling adventure to spend the winter in St. Louis MO. I started this journey with a variety of emotions tugging at me. I loved living in Ashland, Oregon for two months, yet I felt so lonely there living most of the time in a two bedroom house all by myself. I felt I had made a commitment to Barbara to housesit for her for the winter. Yet, I felt betrayed that she came home from her RV excursion in early November. She now wanted me to leave her house after I planned to stay there for the winter.

I came to Ashland OR at the beginning of October uncertain what to do with my life and how to follow this climate change passion. I was now departing Ashland with a firm idea of pursuing this Climate Change Comedian role. My friend Naomi advised me that receiving this new vision for myself, I got what I needed from my time in Ashland. It was time to move onto the next thing. My parents were eager for me to come home for the winter to spend time with them in their new home. I missed family living by myself in Ashland, so I was looking forward to seeing them. Even more, Naomi and I felt I would be more productive in St. Louis for the winter developing my Climate Change Comedian PowerPoint, website, and marketing for myself.

I had partaken in many cross country drives in my life, so it seemed like a bit of a drag to have to do this again, when I was not expecting it. I loved spending my summers working and living in the Pacific Northwest. It was always a bummer for me to leave Oregon in the autumn each year after my seasonal job ended at Crater Lake. On the other hand, I looked forward to seeing friends on this journey and experiencing new U.S. locations I never traveled to before. I had some new places I chose to drive to see, such as the central California Coast. This trip might offer some unexpected thrills that might happen. You never know! Let the adventure begin!

Leaving Ashland OR, the sky was blue with some fresh snow on Mt. Shasta as I drove around the mountain on Highway 97 and Interstate 5 by Weed, California. The mountain dominating the landscape with its high rising cone summit and Little Shastina volcanic butte nestled against the west side of it. With this clear view of the Mt. Shasta, it felt as if it wanted to say goodbye to me as I left the Pacific Northwest to head home to St. Louis for the winter. I had several hours ahead of me to drive to get to San Francisco. However, I stopped at a pullout to admire Mt. Shasta and take a couple of photos of the mountain. I wanted to wish it a farewell since I would miss seeing snowcapped mountains when I stayed in the Midwest for the winter.

As I left Weed CA to merge onto I-5 to head south, I noticed a large deer jumped onto the interstate hoping to somehow cross this very dangerous highway with a steady stream of cars, pick up trucks, and large 18 wheeler trucks. Even more, a concrete divider was in the middle of the freeway, which made a safe passage for the deer even more slim. Sure enough, I saw a large truck hit the deer, killing it instantly. It was one of the most gruesome scenes I witnessed in my life. The carcass spun around several times heading not far the direction I was driving. Somehow, I avoided getting into an accident or the remains damaging my car. It was a reminder to me that these cross country drives are dangerous. I must continue to be vigilant for potential dangers when I drive and I was fortunate for all the times I drove across the U.S. safely.

I stopped in San Francisco to stay with my friend Dana Ostfeld. She was another female friend that I had a crush on for years, but we always kept our friendship on a platonic level. I first met her when we worked as rangers at Crater Lake National Park in 2002. Dana and I, plus two of her friends went to an evening holiday celebration at the California Academy of Sciences downtown San Francisco. The museum had an excellent climate change exhibit. It was another indication that I needed to pursue this path. Two years later in the summer of 2011, I applied for a job there. I told the manager interviewing me that I loved their climate change exhibit. Sadly, she told me that they were going to be getting rid of the exhibit soon. The other bad news: they decided later to hire someone else as a museum docent position that I interviewed.

The next day, on December 11th, after I said goodbye to Dana and left her home. I needed to start my road trip down the central California Coast. However, I was not ready to leave San Francisco yet. I serendipitously choose to I hike up a nearby tall hill to get an expansive view of the city skyline of San Francisco. It was a foggy overcast cool day in this city but it still had its charm standing on this high hill. The high rise buildings rose in the distance with numerous houses, apartment complexes, and businesses highly packed together under the scene of this hill. The fog barely allowed any look of the tower spires of the Golden Gate and the Oakland Bay Bridges behind the tall downtown buildings.

In the late morning, I departed the San Francisco metro area. I drove on Highway 1 south stopping in Monterey, California to walk on a beach. I then continued driving further south about 15 miles south of the last developed city on this route Carmel-by-the-Sea. I pulled over to see and photograph the iconic Bixby Creek Bridge. I saw it in numerous photographs over the years that I yearned to see it in person. The bridge hugs close to the mountain it is on while straddling high above the beach and ocean with its underside white arching concrete supports. I stopped and parked my car to admire the bridge and snap lots of photos. Several young men were jumping off the bridge with parachutes. One asked, half joking and half serious if I wanted to jump off the bridge with a parachute. I have a fear of heights, so the answer was an easy, “No!”

Besides, I could see me donning a parachute and jumping only to land aways out in the Pacific Ocean. Thus, jumping off the bridge was not happening for me.

I then drove down spectacular scenic Highway 1 with tall coastal mountains on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other side. There were no towns the 70 mile drive from Big Sur to San Simeon. The road was basically on a high cliff, with a dramatic drop off to the Pacific Ocean just to the right of me as I drove south. Even with the guard rails next to the highway, it was an intense driving experience. I loved the sweeping ocean views, but I was glad I made it safely to San Simeon, California to spend the night.

The next day, I achieved another life goal seeing Heart Castle, the former home of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. It was a gloomy, rainy, foggy, blah December day. As impressive as the architecture was for the home, it was not conducive to take outside photos that day. It had the feel of an American attempt for a European style castle. The tour was memorable for the stories of the grandiose personality of Hearst, especially how he had a special door to slip in when he hosted dinner parties so he could be the center of attention in his own way.

The following day, I headed east across California. I saw a sign at the intersection where California State Route 41 and Highway 46 converge near Cholame, California. The sign noted the spot where movie star James Dean hit another car and died in a fatal car crash. He lived way before my time. He only made three movies, but my parents talked about him now and then when I was growing up since he was a well-known actor of their teenage years. It was a sad reminder that life is temporary and fleeting.

The next stop on my trip was Death Valley National Park to visit my friend Stephanie Kyriazis. I worked in Death Valley in the spring of 1994. I like living around trees and water, so I felt very uncomfortable living in a desert with almost no plants, trees, rivers, and lakes. I could not leave quick enough to head back to Crater Lake for the summer. It was interesting for me to visit Death Valley a couple of times since 1994 to appreciate the subtle beauty of the brown and tan desert. I especially like hiking in Golden Canyon where a couple of scenes from the original Star Wars was filmed in 1976. Stephanie took me to an isolated box canyon to hike that had some steep terraces to climb. I appreciated her hospitality on this long road trip.

After Death Valley, I spent the night in Las Vegas, Nevada. I had an interesting time walking down the Vegas strip in the evening to see the neon lights of the mammoth towering casinos. I had not written a roller coaster in years. I took advantage of the opportunity to ride the Big Apple Roller Coaster that circles around the exterior of the New York New York Casino.

My next stop was Flagstaff, Arizona to visit with my friends Steve and Melissa. Flagstaff sits at almost 7,000 feet above sea level. Steve and Melissa’s neighborhood had a couple of feet of snow piling up all around their streets, which made it hard for me to try to find a place to park. It was a little over a week before Christmas, so their area looked like a winter wonderland in the holiday spirit. Melissa gave birth to their son Heny just six weeks before I visited. They took me hiking to a desert slot canyon south of Sedona during my stay. However, it was hard for them juggling taking care of a new baby, plus Steve’s sister was there to meet Henry for the first time.

Out of the blue, Steve asked me if I wanted to hike down the Grand Canyon. Steve worked at that time as a backcountry law enforcement ranger at Grand Canyon National Park. He could easily set me up with the gear to hike to the bottom, plus make arrangements for me to stay at the ranger station at the bottom of the Grand Canyon at Phantom Ranch. I am always game for a new adventure, so I immediately said yes!

With less than a week before Christmas, I went on a two-day overnight hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. It was a sublime peak life experience to walk to the floor of the canyon. The top of the canyon was sprinkled with snow, giving it a holiday winter look. I wrote an entire blog to my Grand Canyon visits. All I can say is that the canyon is so huge and all-encompassing to be there that I have longed to return to this day.

When I finished hiking in the Grand Canyon, I only had about four days to make it home to be with my family to celebrate Christmas. I got an oil change in Flagstaff before the long drive. I ran into heavy snow showers as I drove across Missouri on Christmas Eve. I made it to my parents’ home that evening. They were thrilled to see me and excited for me to see their new home. I was exhausted from the long car ride.

Spending 2009-10 winter in St. Louis to work on my Climate Change Comedian persona

After spending the holidays with my parents, it was time for me to start thinking about developing this Climate Change Comedian thing. I spent weeks putting together my own climate change PowerPoint presentation. I utilized taking photos of my nieces and nephews to put them in my PowerPoint. When my 13-year-old niece Rachel and my 9-year-old nephew Andrew came to visit my parents when they were off from school on Presidents’ Day in February 2010, I was in the middle of creating my first climate change PowerPoint. I struggled trying to think of a way to illustrate the greenhouse effect at the beginning of my talk. One of the best examples I heard putting more fossil fuel pollution in the air was like putting more blankets around the planet.

Thus, I took photos of them sitting on the couch comfortably. Then I photographed them freezing on the couch pretending the Earth had no atmosphere. Then I took subsequent photos of them where I piled on blankets in each photo and looking more unhappy to demonstrate the greenhouse effect or impacts of burning fossil fuels to create climate change. They were the perfect willing fun models to show climate change in an easy and understandable way. I snapped photos of them that I used at the end of my climate change talk for years afterwards. I envisioned ending my climate change talks on a positive and uplifting note. My nephew Andrew held my Earth Ball and my niece Bailey held a sign that read, “Thank you for saving our home.”

Near the end of my PowerPoint, I had a photo with all four of my nieces and nephews, Andrew, Bailey, Sam, and Andrew, plus me, to show that our kids future was at stake with climate change and that was my reason for giving this talk. I spent several months from January to March 2010 creating this PowerPoint by researching the science as I knew and attempting to sprinkle humor throughout this talk. I gave it the title, “Let’s Have Fun Getting Serious About Resolving Climate Change.”

During the winter months of 2010, my sisters Mary Frances and Lisa kept me busy by booking me to give brief talks about what it is like to be a park ranger at my nieces and nephews’ schools. My very first talk outside of the national parks was at my nephew Sam’s second grade class on February 5, 2010. To try to make it more relatable to the students, I had a couple of images of Sam in the PowerPoint. Afterwards, Sam came up to me to meekly and half heartily say that I embarrassed him a bit. At the same time, he seemed to take it in stride and soon forgot about it. The highlight of the program was that I made 20-foot fountains with 2-liter cokes and 7 Mentos in the backyard of the school to show how volcanoes, such as Crater Lake erupts.

One month later, I gave a similar program but upped the complexity a bit speaking to my niece Rachel’s 7th grade class. I had a few images of her in my presentation like what I had for the talk I gave at Sam’s school. Toward’s the end of the talk, Rachel raised her hand to ask, “Can you please share that you are my uncle because no one here knows how you know me?”

I thought everyone knew that and possibly recalled the teacher introducing me as Rachel’s uncle at the beginning of my talk. However, Rachel’s friends kept asking her who I was during the talk. Like Sam’s talk, the highlight for the students, teachers, and me was the combustible fountains of 2-liter cokes and Mentos in the school’s backyard. Climate change is a complicated subject to engage with kids before middle school and high school. However, giving a presentation at my nephew Sam’s second grade class and Boy Scout troop, speaking to my niece Bailey’s Girl Scout Troop, and speaking at my niece Rachel’s 7th grade class, I was able to share about the importance of protecting nature.

In the spring, my first climate change PowerPoint was ready to give to someone or anyone. I first shared it with a family friend who knew me my whole life, John Dantico. He did not think it was that funny. He was still quite skeptical if the science of climate change was real. At the same time, he gave me a lot of tips to help me improve my talk.

In March 2010, I knew I needed promotional images of me with my Earthball to promote my talk. When I attended Oakville High School in south St. Louis County in the 1980s, my best friend was Scott Manthey. I admired his parents Ty and Carna Manthey. Scott and his father Ty were excellent photographers. Ty and Carna lived in Oakville Missouri in March 2010, but not much longer. They were in the process of moving to Baraboo Wisconsin, the town where they both grew up. When I contacted them in early March 2010, I offered to help them pack up some of their belongings. At the same time, I asked Ty if he could take some outside publicity photos outside in nearby Bee Tree Park of me holding the Earth Ball. Ty was happy to oblige taking promotional photos of me in return for my assistance helping them pack.

Ty did a terrific job of getting serious and goofy photos of me holding the Earth Ball for future publicity photos for a website, promotional ads, etc. However, I knew these photos were not enough. I wanted a dramatic photo of me holding the Earth Ball with a spectacular scene of nature behind me in the photo. I was not sure where I wanted this photo yet.

Stay tuned for part 4 of this blog: Seeing Door County, Wisconsin in April 2010

“It is in your hands, to make a better world for all who live in it.”
– Nelson Mandela

This is part 2 of my 6 part blog from 2004-2010 how the EarthBall became my symbol. I conclude these multi-part story how my April 10, 2010 photo of me with my EarthBall at Copper Harbor, Michigan with Lake Superior behind me became my favorite Earth Ball photo.

Part 1: Everglades National Park, Florida in 2004 to Crater Lake Nat. Park, Oregon in 2009
Part 2: My Pacific Northwest spring travels to living in Ashland, Oregon in Autumn 2009
Part 3: December 2009 cross country travels to spending winter in St. Louis, MO in 2010
Part 4: Seeing Door County, Wisconsin in April 2010
Part 5: Exploring the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in April 2010
Part 6: Getting my ideal EarthBall photo in Copper Harbor, Michigan in April 2010

My Pacific Northwest spring travels in at the end of May and the beginning of June 2009

In the last week of May and the first week of June, I had a two-week vacation from Crater Lake National Park. I visited friends in Salem, Oregon. On Saturday of Memorial weekend, my friends Gary and Melissa Martin, as well as their daughter Shelby, took me on an excursion to Silver Falls State Park, located on a 35-minute drive east of Salem. I was eager to hike on the 10 Falls Trail to see the numerous tall waterfalls in that park. Some of the falls you can hike behind on the trail. It was a goal of my mine for years to see this park since I saw pictures of it in scenic photography coffee table books about Oregon.

The length of the 10 Falls Trail is around 8 miles with an elevation variation of almost 1,600 feet. It took most of the day to complete, especially to take photos and admire each of the waterfalls. This trail was up there with the scenic grandeur of any national park trail. In fact, after I visited Silver Falls, it felt overlooked that it was never made into a national park.

From Salem, I spent a day driving up to see best friend from high school, Scott Manthey. He lives across from Seattle in Grapeview, Washington. I stayed a couple of nights with him and lovely wife Nikki. I then headed to the Port Angeles area on the Olympic Peninsula. I camped a for several nights the Heart O’ the Hills Campground at Olympic National Park. The campground is located just 7 miles south of Port Angeles at the northern Hurricane Ridge entrance in Olympic. I camped there for two nights to fulfill my plans to see Hurricane Ridge, the Hoh Rain Forest, and other sights in the Olympic area.

It was May 27th and I planned to stay in national park campgrounds while visiting Washington State during this two week vacation. I figured it would probably still be chilly at night to camp, so I bought a cold weather sleeping bag. Oddly, the weather was unseasonably warm and clear for this trip. It was perfect weather to photograph mountains with their spring snowpack and spend my days hiking. I quickly had to return my cold weather sleeping bag and use my summer sleeping bag to sleep more comfortably for this trip. The weather felt like summer, but it was not the summer tourist season yet. Thus, I had this Olympic Campground all to myself.

A highlight was seeing Hurricane Ridge with the panoramic view of the Olympic Mountains. These mountains are not tall compared to the Cascade Mountains, Rocky Mountains, or the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Southern California. Some of the mountains in those ranges are over 14,000 feet tall. The highest mountain in the Olympics is Mount Olympus, just under 8,000 feet tall. Yet, since these mountains lie next to the Pacific Ocean, they get hammered with snow. The winter snowpack clung strongly to the mountains at the end of May. It gave me a terrific opportunity to admire and photograph these mountains from Hurricane Ridge.

The next day, May 28th, I crammed in as much as I could to see the highlights of Olympic National Park. Just west of Port Angeles, I drove into the Elwha Valley Entrance to see another partial view of the Olympic Mountains and view the Madison waterfalls located near the park road. I was surprised to see manmade dams in a national park. They were so ugly in this otherwise pristine mountain valley that I did not photograph them. The good news though was the wayside signs announcing the dams would soon be removed to restore the natural habitat. The damns were later deconstructed in 2011.

From the Elwha Valley Entrance, I had a two hour drive south and west on the Olympic Peninsula to see the Hoh Rain Forest at the western edge of Olympic National Park. It was a sunny clear day when I visited the rain forest. No mist, fog, or rain for me to see that day that is present there much of the year. However, the robust moisture and mild year round temperatures allowed the Sitka Spruce, Red Cedar, Big Leaf Maple and Douglas Fir to thrive. The ideal growing conditions there allowed the trees to be giants in their height and width, almost similar to a Redwood Forest. The long and winding park lot there that was almost empty was an indication that summer brought huge crowds of tourists to this area. However, the opportunity was nearly all mine to absorb this peaceful, quiet, lush green, vibrant area all to myself.

It was well after 3 pm that I left the Hoh Rain Forest and I had about a two and a half hour drive back to my camp spot in Olympic National Park near Port Angeles. Fortunately, the summer solstice was over 3 weeks away, the daylight is nice and long this time of year at the end of May for sightseeing. After the Hoh Rain Forest, I drove almost 3 hours, getting stopped several times for road construction. My next destination that day Sol Duc Valley Entrance, at the northwestern entrance to Olympic National Park. With the robust Douglas Firs and other evergreen trees in the Sol Duc area, the location felt a little dark and menacing with the limited amount of daylight peaking through the trees in this area. This was especially true since I arrived in this area around 6:30 pm, with the sun much lower in the sky. The Sol Duc waterfalls were impressed as they roared and cascaded over the rocks of this small river.

From this diversion to Sol Duc, I still had over a 2 hour drive back to my campsite at the Heart O’ the Hills Campground. It was after 8 pm with the sun setting soon when I arrived at the pullout for Marymere Falls off of Highway 101. It was a 1.8 mile round trip trail to see this slender waterfall with a 90 foot drop. Even though I had very little daylight left to enjoy the sight of this waterfall, it still felt worth it to cap off this very full sightseeing day.

The following day, on May 29th, I took a ferry that morning from Port Townsend, Washington to Whidbey Island. It was another clear and sunny day during this Washington State trip, a perfect day to take the 36 minute ferry ride with calm ocean water in the Admiralty Inlet. As the ferry left the coastal town of Port Townsend, known for its charming 19th century Victorian architecture for its downtown buildings, I could see the snowcapped Olympic Mountains coming into full view. Since the campground I stayed was basically at the base of the mountain range, I felt like I got my best views of the mountains on the ferry. They appeared to be waving goodbye to me as I left them behind to head towards Whidbey Island and then onward to North Cascades National Park. As the ferry carried my car and I to the other port, the white ghost of Mt. Baker appeared in its winter glory. I hoped get excellent views of Mt. Baker later that day. I was glad to see that the mountain was indicating to me that I may get good views of her and other North Cascades Mountains later that day.

Once I drove off the ferry, I was mesmerized just a few miles up the highway by the tall and long Deception Pass Bridge that connected Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands. I then drove to the Mt. Baker Ski Area to fulfill a lifelong dream to see Mt. Shuksan in North Cascades National Park. I spent a night camping in a forest service campground near the Canadian border in Glacier, WA. I next journeyed on Washington Hwy 20 through the middle of North Cascades National Park. I spent two nights at the Colonial Creek campground off Hwy 20 in the middle of the park and hiked to the top of Thunder Knob.

The next day I continued my adventure east driving to see the eastern jagged Cascades Mountains in the eastern side of the park. The weather was unseasonally clear this entire trip, so I intended to immerse myself in seeing the North Cascade Mountains. From the eastern park boundary, I drove east WA Highway 20 all the way Winthrop, Washington. It was a town that looked like it could be a set in an old western movie, I was so blown away by the beauty of North Cascades National Park that I did the reverse route of Hwy 20 through the park to see all the splendid snowcapped mountains in North Cascades. For the second time in a week, I camped at the Douglas Fir Campground outside of Glacier, Washington.

Mt. Shuksan enticed me to return before sunset to get more views of the jagged pointy mountain with a healthy winter snowpack and lots of glaciers clinging to it. It is considered one of the most photographed mountains in the world, and I was drawn to take numerous photographs of it. The next day I snowshoed around the Mt. Baker Ski Area to take in views of Mt. Shuksan, Mt. Baker and the nearby mountains. It was a bright sunny day. I wore sunglasses, but I still got some snow blindness from the bright sunshine on that clear day reflecting off the snow.

The next couple nights, I camped at Mt. Rainier National Park to enjoy photographing that mountain and walk on some of the hiking trails in that national park. While I was at Paradise in Mt. Rainier, the sky was overcast, but the clouds were generous to be high enough to be all to see all the mountain in its full winter snowpack glory. This was my first time seeing Mt. Rainier up close. The previous times I went to Mt. Rainier, it was raining and the clouds were too socked in to see the mountain. The sun was not shining on the mountain, but the winter snow and glaciers clinging to the mountain looked like a glorious sight.

For the first time, I wanted to get a photo of myself with the mountain behind me in the photo. I asked one tourist to get photos of me with the mountain over my shoulder. However, he just took some photos of me. It was not what I wanted. Finally, I was able to find another park visitor to get a good photo of me with Mt. Rainier also framed in the photo.

This was my third time visiting Mt. Rainier. Unlike the previous two visits, the weather cooperated enough to be able to see the mountain. The snow, towering rocks, and ice from the glaciers of the mountain dominated over the area. This two-week vacation also felt like a victory to be able to fully admire Mt. Rainier inside the national park. I find I frequently experience serendipitous moments when I visit national parks. Not far from the Paradise Inn, a fluffy red fox stared and observed the visitors. With its hint of red fur on top of his head and shoulders and black fur on its neck, breast, underbelly, and legs, it looked like it was putting on its own fashion show for the park visitors. It looked too calm and unafraid to be totally wild. It looked like someone might have fed it at some point because it had an interest to be around people.

In the second week of June, I headed back to Crater Lake National Park to work for the summer. In between giving ranger talks for the summer, I traveled to Lassen Volcanic National Park in northern California in the last weekend of July. Lassen is a four-hour drive south of Crater Lake National Park in northern California. It has an impressive 10,457-foot volcanic mountain that dominates the park, Lassen Peak. One can hike up to the summit of this volcano in the summer. It has active steam vents and boiling mud pots, so it feels like a miniature Yellowstone. Lassen Peak is still an active volcano. It had an explosive eruption in 1914 and then more sporadic volcanic outbursts for the next 7 years.

My friend Lizzy, who worked at Redwoods National Park, California came up for a weekend to visit me at Crater Lake in the second week of August. She proudly grew up as a ‘river rat’ swimming in the cold mountain streams in Three Rivers, California, near Sequoia National Park. Her top priority was taking a swim in Crater Lake when she came to visit me. Gulp! I hate swimming in cold water. However, when she wore a tiny bikini to swim in the lake, even on a cold windy summer day in the upper 60s, I had to put on my full swimming suit and go swimming with her. I also hate swimming in deep water where I cannot touch the bottom. I jumped off the jumping off rock at the bottom of the Cleetwood Cove Trail after she did to show that I was a macho guy. However, I probably did not look that attractive failing around in the water with water coming out of my nose. Still, it was fun to take her hiking to see my favorite parts of the Crater Lake rim.

For years afterwards, I joked with park visitors that Crater Lake water is so cold, just a few degrees above freezing all year, that I only swam in it once. I would elaborate that a beautiful ranger friend came up to see me wearing a tiny bikini to jump in the lake. Therefore, I had to jump in the lake also. This story always got a chuckle from the audience.

The next weekend I visited Lizzy in the Redwoods. She lived by herself in a park house off U.S. Highway 199, surrounded by Redwood Trees. We hiked a short distance from her ranger house to see nearby gigantic redwood trees in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, located in the northern end of the Redwoods National Park. We swam to hang out on a large rock in the middle of the Smith River.

Lizzy and I talked at length during these weekend trips how both of us were alarmed about climate change. She impressed me that she created a climate change evening campfire program at Redwoods National Park. I wanted to create a climate change evening program at Crater Lake, but I did not feel brave or knowledgeable enough to create such a program at that time. She took time to show me her PowerPoint slides during the Redwood trip and generously allowed me to have a copy of her talk. I used her talk as one of my templates when I finally assembled my own climate change evening program at Crater Lake National Park in August 2011.

I hoped to pursue her romantically on this trip. However, she gave me dreadful news that she just started to a relationship with a man in Portland, Oregon. Thus, any kind of romantic interlude between us was not going to happen. I felt down like I would never end up having a girlfriend or romantic fling.

One week later, I visited my friend my friend Lise Wall who worked at the Illahee Fire Lookout. It was a steep long gravel road to drive up there. It was one of the most remote locations I have been in my life. When I arrived at the fire lookout, which stood erect at least three stories above this 5,300-foot mountain, it was just Lise and her friendly cats. There was not another person for miles around. From the lookout, the view was 360 degrees of evergreen mountains with a few prominent mountains with patches of snow poking out in the distant horizon. I was awestruck to be surrounded by this much wilderness with ridges upon ridges of mountains going into the distance. No signs of human civilization was visible from the bird’s eye view on top of Illahee Rock, except for the lookout tower itself. No sounds of civilization either, just the light wind blowing through the trees now and then.

I did not want to go to sleep at night. The light pollution from any nearby Oregon cities was minimal, so the stars and Milky Way gave a spectacular dazzling show when it got dark. Way too many stars to count. It was jaw dropping and stunning to admire all the heavenly stars with trail of the Milky Way clearly visible on this moonless cloudless night. I didn’t want to miss the stars, nor the ever-brightening glow of the eastern dawn, and the first rays of the sunlight peaking over the distant mountain edge horizon. It was such a sublime wilderness experience that I slept terribly not wanting to miss a thing.

On top of that, Lise and I seemed to have an attraction to each other, but neither of us said anything or pursued it. Sometimes you just don’t want to mess up a good thing with a cherished friend. That was another factor that made it hard to sleep. Even more, after Lizzy told me the previous weekend she was in a relationship. I just could not bear Lise telling me the same thing, we kept things on an unspoken platonic level.

Discovering my Climate Change Comedian Title

When I was at Crater Lake in between my weekend travels, my friend Graham talked me into housesitting in Ashland, Oregon for the winter at his mom, Barbara’s house. I had no plans that winter, except to possibly return to St. Louis to stay with my parents. When I arrived in Ashland, Oregon in early October, the autumn colors were spectacular. I took many photos on long walks around town of the trees with the bright red, orange, and yellow leaves. It was a joy taking care of his mother’s cat Poppy. The cat was very loving with its very long poofy hairy. It would touch my face with its claws extended in the mornings to demand the fresh tuna it was in the habit receiving from Barbara. It insisted to go out into the garden each morning to get a hit from the wild catnip. The cat bonded well with me. I took many photos admiring its beauty and serene personality. It liked to curl up on my lap in the afternoons and evenings.

At the same time, I was restless and bored housesitting. I needed a job, but I was not sure what to do. I tried working at the Ashland Co-op supermarket. It was a disaster. I did not make it past my first day. The new supervisor and I had terrible chemistry. On the first day of work, he insisted on giving me very long lectures to explain all the procedures of the job. However, he would not allow me to ask questions or repeat any responses to make sure I hear him correctly. He kept saying, “Don’t interrupt me!” when I wanted to say anything.

I lost all interest in learning that job and quit at the end of the day. He seemed flabbergasted that I quit. At the same time, he was oblivious to my seething anger throughout the day that he just wanted me to stay quiet while he talked at me about the job. It felt liberating to quit, yet so damn demoralizing that I did not have a job. I went to Taco Bell and ordered a bunch of tacos to consol myself with food that evening. My dad worked 40 years part time in a grocery store and he loved it. That experience soured me from ever wanting to work in the grocery industry.

While I was living in Ashland, my friend Tess who lived in Phoenix, Arizona was in regular contact with me. It felt like we had a great chemistry between us. I was becoming more attracted to her even though it would best be a long-distance relationship. I sent her an email a day before asking if she would like to do a date with me sometime where we both see the same movie around the same day or two and discuss it afterwards. She said she would think about it. I emailed her when I got the job at the Ashland Co-op and she was happy for me. I then contacted her when my first day at work was a disaster and felt I had to quit.

Tess immediately called me to tell me in a very terse tone that she was not interested in dating me. I was in disbelief how curt and abrupt she sounded on the phone. She was always caring and kind in my previous conversations with her. I felt stung and like I had been kicked in the stomach. She did not seem to want to be friends with me anymore. At the same time, she was cold and negative when we chatted. She gave me a very unpleasant feeling talking to her that I did not want to be friends with her either. I had never seen that side of her before that it caught me off guard. Losing my Co-op job and Tess’s phone call was nearly too much to bear for one day. It reminded me of the old expression, ‘To add insult to injury.’

With no job and feeling lonely, I needed to find something productive to do while living in Ashland. I went stir crazy just sitting in Barbara’s home and strolling around town photographing the fall colors. I walked to Southern Oregon University, which was a 10 block walk from where I lived. I was curious to learn what academic programs they had. Before I knew it, I was registered in their master’s program in business management and attending a class. It seemed too rash and crazy for not knowing what I jumped into. The idea seemed great for a day. My undergraduate degree is in Business Administration. However, I quickly realized this was not what I wanted. I made sure to unregister from the grad program as fast as I had registered.

I felt like I dodged a bullet almost committing myself to a master’s program in management, but I really needed to figure out something for my life while I was housesitting in Ashland. I still knew I wanted to do something about climate change, but I had no idea what to do.

I decided to go to SOU and meet Dr. Greg Jones, an SOU professor and climatologist. He specializes in the study of climate structure and suitability for viticulture. Specifically, he studies how climate variability and climate change influence grapevine growth, wine production, and quality. At that time, I was interested in attending grad school to learn more about climate change. I was eager to see if he had any advice for me. Even more, I was curious to see if maybe I could get my master’s degree studying under him at SOU.

My meeting with Dr. Jones did not go well. I shared my background of seeing climate change in the Everglades, plus watching the 2006 documentary about Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth. He immediately let me know he did not like Al Gore. He believed Gore was a bad spokesperson to explain to the public about climate change. That did not sit well with me because it was Al Gore and his advocacy that brought me to meet with him in his office. I left this awkward meeting I not knowing what my next step would be to pursue my climate change vision.

My one-day job at the Ashland Co-op, one day of enrollment in the business master’s program at SOU, and my meeting with Dr. Greg Jones were all a disaster. I felt depressed and uneasy about my lack of a clear life direction, especially to do something meaningful to reduce the threat of climate change. I loved the beauty and small college town urban hippie vibe of living in Ashland, but I hated feeling so adrift being there.

Besides traveling, giving ranger talks, housesitting, and trying to find a girlfriend, I wanted to find meaning to my life. I went to see my friend and spiritual advisor Naomi to brainstorm about what I should do with my life. We had a heated discussion about my hemming and hawing about what I really wanted to achieve in my life. She kept pressing me for an answer.

I finally snapped, “Fine! If I could do anything, I would like to be The Climate Change Comedian!”

She fell off her chair laughing. She responded, “I want you to go home and grab that website domain now!”

I followed her orders and did just that. I bought the website domain, www.climatechangecomedian.com. Naomi then advised me to develop a website, work on creating my presentation, and think about ways to market myself.

In late November, I met up with Lise Wall at the Wildlife Safari in Roseburg, Oregon. We had a terrific time driving in my car to see the wildlife roaming there, such as zebras, bison, giraffes, camels, rams, musk ox, reindeer, leopards, wild turkeys, elk, llamas, rhinoceros, black bears, and other animals. It was a joyful day hanging out with Lise and admiring the animals.

I was tempted to hold hands with her or even reach forward to kiss her, but I did not want to ruin our friendship. I still felt sensitive after the awful phone call with Tess that happened just a few weeks before. I could not bear Lise rejecting me either.

Even though we had a great friendship bond, but I was skeptical how we could ever make a romantic relationship work. Lise spent her summers working at the fire lookout at Illahee Fire Lookout and winters in a remote area of Idleyld Park, located almost 30 miles east of Roseburg. I was too bashful to ask and discuss with her if we were compatible to date. Like many men in these situations, I might have totally misread the signs. Maybe Lise just wanted to be friends, and I was reading signals that were not there. Too often I misread the signs with women and got my heart broken. My life was at a very turbulent place at that time. The last thing I needed was a broken heart when I was making decisions about my life.

With trying to find my passion with climate change and pursue a life path in that direction, I was not in the mindset of dating someone at that time. At the same time, I was desperate for a girlfriend. I felt too unstable on my life path to be in a relationship at that time. Lise and I stayed as friends over the years. I was so blessed to hang out with her as a friend during that period of uncertainty in my life. I did not feel like I found true, lasting, sustainable and compatible love until I met Tanya in 2012 and we started dating in 2013. Tanya and I then got married in 2015.

It was not long after that life changing conversation with Naomi that Barbara came back to her home for the winter in early November. She was not cut out for traveling in an RV across the U.S. At first, she told me I could stay at her home for the winter until I returned to work at Crater Lake National Park the next summer. Then she told me she needed me out of her home by early December. This was infuriating and depressing since Graham and Barbara had initially talked me into staying in Ashland for the winter.

The good news was that my parents moved to a new home in St. Louis, Missouri. They wanted me to come visit them for the winter and stay in a new room in the basement they set up for me. It felt like a bit of a downer to go back to live with my parents, but my expenses would be minimal, and I could work on developing the Climate Change Comedian thing.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of this 6 part blog: my December 2009 cross country travels to spending winter in St. Louis, MO in 2010 to develop my Climate Change Comedian image.

“I see skies of blue
And clouds of white
The bright blessed day
The dark sacred night
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world”
– From the song “What a Wonderful World”
Song by Louis Armstrong
Songwriters: Harold Adamson / Jan Savitt / John Watson

This is my 6 part blog from 2004-2010 how the EarthBall became my symbol. I conclude these multi-part story how my April 10, 2010 photo of me with my EarthBall at Copper Harbor, Michigan with Lake Superior behind me became my favorite Earth Ball photo.

Part 1: Everglades National Park, Florida in 2004 to Crater Lake Nat. Park, Oregon in 2009
Part 2: My Pacific Northwest spring travels to living in Ashland, Oregon in Autumn 2009
Part 3: December 2009 cross country travels to spending winter in St. Louis, MO in 2010
Part 4: Seeing Door County, Wisconsin in April 2010
Part 5: Exploring the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in April 2010
Part 6: Getting my ideal EarthBall photo in Copper Harbor, Michigan in April 2010

Part 1: Everglades National Park, Florida in 2004 to Crater Lake Nat. Park, Oregon in 2009.

Since 2004, I consider the inflatable EarthBall as my symbol for protecting the environment and tackle climate change to reduce its threat on planet Earth. In 2004, I led ranger programs at the Everglades City Visitor Center in Everglades National Park. One day, the lead ranger in Everglades City, Sue Reece, brought out an inflatable Earth Ball that she said park naturalists and I could use for our ranger talks. I immediately started using it for my outdoor ranger talk or Chickee Chat called “Keep the Water Flowing” that I gave from 2004 to 2008.

Towards the beginning of my talk, I used the quote from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who was known as “The Mother of Everglades National Park.” This was the first sentence in her landmark 1947 book, The Everglades: River of Grass:

“There are no other Everglades in the world. The are, they have always been, one of the unique regions of the earth, remote, never wholly known. Nothing anywhere else is like them…”

This ranger talk focused on the ecological damage with draining the Everglades and the federal and state efforts to restore it. I ended my talk with the Joe Podger quote: “The Everglades is a test. If we pass it, we get to keep the planet.”

I proudly held up the EarthBall in the opening and closing segments of my Everglades talks. For nearly all the first decade of the 21st century or the “aughts,” I was angry with the United States. I felt the U.S. Supreme Court decision, poor counting of votes in Florida, and the spoiler third party candidate Ralph Nader robbed Al Gore of winning the 2000 election over George W. Bush.

I was livid that the President George W. Bush and his administration ignored the warning signs of 9/11. President Bush and his top officials used 9/11 as a bogus excuse to declare war on Iraq. The invasion and occupation of Iraq turned into a mess, especially with the torture of Iraqi prisoners by the U.S. military guards at the Abu Ghraib prison in 2004. I thought George W. Bush was a dumb annoying egotistical liar. It crushed me that he was re-elected in 2004. I sat in my car and cried my eyes out when I heard the news on the radio in November 2004 that he won re-election. I felt numb in the years 2001-2007 and not patriotic. Officially, I was supposed to be non-political as a park ranger. The EarthBall gave me something to hang onto.

At that time, I liked to say that my patriotism was for the planet and did not stop at the Canadian and Mexican border. I came up with my own expressions around 2000 narrating the boat tours in the Everglades. My first was

“Think Globally, Act Daily.”

It was my own spin on the common environmental expression, “Think Globally, Act Locally.” Although I became active in the local Miami Sierra Club and attended a couple of Friends of the Everglades meetings, I did not really connect with thinking locally at that time. However, I could get jazzed though about ‘acting daily” to make a difference in the world.

The other expression I created with my time narrating the boat tours in the Everglades and reflecting on my time there was

“Each and every one of us can change the world.
We can do that by:
1. The things we do
2. The products we buy
3. The attitudes we share with each other.” 

The Earthball fit perfectly with my outlook at that time. It still is my symbol today. With my lack of patriotism in the 2000s, my favorite quote at that time was American Founding Father Thomas Paine: “my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.”

Besides the Everglades, I used the EarthBall in 2006 when I began giving ranger talks in Crater Lake National Park. I would hold it up when I talked about how Crater Lake was the 9th deepest lake in the world. Plus, it is considered one of the cleanest and purest bodies of world in the world. I delighted in using my 18-inch EarthBall because it always grabbed the attention of the audience and fixed their eyes on me whenever I held it up.

Around 2006, after the Academy Award winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth premiered in theatres, I became obsessed to do something about climate change. For years, I did not know what to do. By 2008, I decided to quit my winter job in the Everglades to try to figure out some way to organize for climate action. I had no plan of action at that time.

Too distracted by traveling and wanting to date to pursue my climate change passion

I continued with my summer naturalist ranger job at Crater Lake National Park in 2008 and 2009. In between I traveled to Hawaii in October 2008. I worked at REI in November and December 2008 while visiting my parents and family in St. Louis. In February 2009, I received an offer to work at the Classroom at Crater Lake Ranger Program to provide snowshoe hikes from March to May 2009 for school groups visiting the park.

In the second week of March 2009, I started my cross-country journey from St. Louis to Crater Lake, Oregon for my seasonal ranger job. My first destination was briefly visiting my friend Tess in Phoenix, Arizona. We met when she worked as a boat captain at Crater Lake in the summer of 2005. After she left Crater Lake, we found a way to stay in touch as she worked on cargo ships in the ocean. In 2008, she got a job with the Phoenix Police Department as an Investigator. She worked evening shifts, so she was excited when I stopped her north Phoenix home and we went out for a cup of tea. We had a lovely rapport and stayed in touch after this visit. I was curious about dating her. But I am not sure how it would work or how to approach her about this since I spent my summers at Crater Lake and winters in St. Louis while she lived in Phoenix.

After I left Arizona, I camped a coupled nights in Joshua Tree National Park, California. In my years of working in the national parks, I wanted to see other national parks, especially on my various biannual cross-country journeys. Growing up in the 1980s, I remembered the Irish rock band U2 with their 1987 album, The Joshua Tree. The album’s theme was their fascination and love/hate relationship with the United States, American music and culture. The front cover had the band members staring at various directions on the left side of the photo with a desert on right side. The cover photo was photographed at Zabriskie Point at Death Valley National Park. No Joshua Tree appears on the front cover, but the image of the band standing by a solitary tree in the gatefold sleeve would become memorable.

The lead singer for U2, Bono, discovered a single Joshua tree standing by itself during a short road trip of desolate California locations to shoot photos for the album cover. At that time, Bono thought the Bible mentioned Joshua Tree. In fact, Mormon travelers in the mid-19th century gave the tree its common name as they traveled across the Mohave Desert. They believed the tree’s unique shape symbolized the biblical story of Joshua raising his hands in prayer.

I found the trees to have a unique picturesque beauty. They were not huge or magnetic like a Redwood or Sequoia tree, but they looked like an Oak Tree with having yucca fronds at the end of the branches, instead of leaves. I thought they made the Mohave Desert come alive and they were fun to photograph. It was another park for me where hiking and exploring brought a sense of serenity to me. A highlight for me was driving my car up to the Keys View to get a wide-open dramatic view of the desert with nearby mountains with snow on top and a view of the cities of Palm Springs and Palm Desert underneath the mountains.

Two years later, I put together my climate change evening program at Crater Lake. By then, I knew the research suggesting that by the year 2099 climate change could eliminate nearly all suitable habitat for Joshua trees in the park and its reduce habitat in the Southwest by 90 percent. I used one of my photos from Joshua Tree National Park in that PowerPoint program.

After I left Joshua Tree National Park, I had a day long drive to Three Rivers, California to stay a few days with my friend Cherie Barth who worked nearby Sequoia National Park. I knew Cherie for over 10 years. I met her around 1999 when we were both worked in Flamingo in Everglades National Park, Florida. I worked as a naturalist guide narrating the boat tours. Cherie was an interpretive ranger working out of the Flamingo Visitor Center for the National Park Service. She gave various ranger programs such as early morning guided bird walks, canoe trips, evening campfire programs, and answering visitor questions at the Visitor Center information desk. Both of us were avid bird watchers, so we enjoyed hiking and bird watching together.

When we worked in the Everglades, I had a bit of a crush on Cherie, but she always saw me strictly as a friend. Both of us stopped working in Everglades National Park around 2002, but we stayed in touch. For several years, I would visit Cherie for a couple of days when she worked in Canyonlands National Park in Utah during my cross-country drives from St. Louis, Missouri to my summer job at Crater Lake National Park, Oregon. When I visited Cherie at Sequoia in 2009, she was dating Dan who was a law enforcement officer there.

One late afternoon, Cherie and I went to a local tavern in Three Rivers for a drink and early dinner. While we were there, an attractive slender young 20 something gal walked up to a bar stool with some friends. She had a fun bubbly uplifting personality as she conversed with her friends and the bartender. Cherie noticed that the woman caught my eye and I found her attractive. Cherie loved to play matcher. She informed me that “Her name is Lizzy Bauer, and she will be working as a seasonal park ranger at Redwoods National Park that summer.”

My heart skipped a beat. Redwoods is only 4-hour drive from Crater Lake. Cherie offered to introduce us, and I gladly took her up on that. Lizzy was friendly and welcoming when I chatted it her. When she learned that I would be at Crater Lake that summer while she was working in the Redwoods, she was enthusiastic to exchange phone numbers with me. Success! Thank you, Cherie, for being a potential matcher!

As far as Sequoia National Park, I traveled there previously in October 1996 on a cross-country drive from Crater Lake to St. Louis. This would be my first time seeing the Sequoia trees in the winter. The trees looked fantastic with their massive orange girth of the bark on their trunks offset by foot or less of winter snow surrounding the base. Add in the blue sky and the bright green needles on the trees, and it was a colorful delight to see and photograph. I wore myself out hiking as much as I could to enjoy being around these enormous trees.

One of the best parts of having ranger friends is that they know where the best trails are in the national parks where they work. Cherie’s job at Sequoia was a full-time backcountry ranger issuing permits. Part of her job duties was to hike on the wilderness trails so she had familiarity for advising visitors obtaining backcountry permits. During my Sequoia visit, Cherie suggested that I drive my car to hike at South Fork, located at the southwest corner of Sequoia.

The next day, I followed Cherie’s advice to hike at South Fork. It was a long winding steep uphill Forest Service road from the Three Rivers area that led to the parking lot. From the South Fork parking area, I chose to hike on the Lady Bug Trail three miles one way to the Garfield Sequoia Grove. I did not see anyone else on this trail. It was a true hidden gem to immerse myself in this wilderness forest and admire this hidden Sequoia grove. I am not sure now why I did not take any photos that day. Maybe I just wanted to enjoy the solitude of the wilderness and the majestic beauty of the Sequoia trees. I saw very few people that day and the Garfield Sequoia Grove felt like a natural sacred temple with mammoth columns of these bright orange trees. I could not wait to meet up with Cherie that evening to tell her about this experience and thank her. She was thrilled for me because it was one of her favorite areas in the park.

I arrived at Crater Lake National Park on March 21, 2009. The calendar said it was the official start of spring, but it was 3 more months of winter at Crater Lake. It was fascinating to see the tremendous amount of snow on the ground, enough to completely cover some of the buildings at Crater Lake Rim Village. I led snowshoe walks for school groups as a park ranger in that spring. I did not like the directive by the Classroom at Crater Lake Director to teach the students how to use GPS electronic devices. However, I loved teaching the students all about the snow, showing them how to sled down hills on their backs, and challenging them to try to hit me with snowballs at the end of my programs. Overall, it was one of the most fun jobs I ever had.

I had a great team of ranger colleagues working with me at Classroom for Crater Lake, Ross Studlar and Lise Wall. Ross was very tall, lanky, soft spoken, but with a great sense of humor. He was a very talented cartoonist, illustrator, and artist. Lise Wall was also slender but shorter than me had long flowing brunette hair down to her waist and a soft whispering voice. She was proud of her Norwegian heritage and advised that her name Lise be pronounced with a soft S sound. Her name was definitely not pronounced Lee-za or Lease-za.

Lise relished and appreciated my sense of humor. I could always count on her to laugh at my jokes. Or, at least, grimace at me with a painful smile when she did not think I was funny. There seemed to be a latent attractive chemistry between Lise and me. I did not want to pursue her romantically though since we were colleagues working in a very small group. I felt like I made a friend for life though. Lise would talk about how she spent her summers working at the Illahee Fire Lookout, located on an hour and a half drive west of Crater Lake. She described it in such glowing terms that she had me curious to see it. I asked her if I could visit her there during the summer. She was delighted with the possibility that I would come visit her that summer.

The three of us would regularly get together for dinner. We enjoyed each other’s company and our teamwork to make Classroom at Crater Lake a success for the spring of 2009.

The worst day of my job was when I led a ranger snowshoe hike on the Crater Lake Rim with a small group of rural high school students and their adult chaperones from Red Bluff, California. The adult leaders of the group and I got into a heated argument about the reality of climate change as well as allowing guns in the national parks. The students did not know what to think as we debated global warming and other issues.

One guy missing several teeth from what looked like poor dental hygiene habits kept insisting that I was wrong about everything. Another group leader and I had a huge disagreement about the Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch. I had just read a 2008 book, You Are Here: Exposing the Vital Link Between What We Do and What That Does to Our Planet by author and journalist Thomas M. Kostigan. It was frightening to read in that book and with other news stories of that time about the environmental threat and damage of the Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch.

The adult leader refused to accept the Pacific Garbage Patch was real because he could not see it on the Google satellite images. The adults believed that humans cannot harm the planet. They thought it was too big and we are too insignificant to do that. My knowledge about climate change was very limited at that time, outside of seeing the 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth and reading the companion book. I also watched the 2006 HBO documentary Too Hot Not to Handle: Global Warming Is the Most Urgent Threat Facing Humanity Today. The HBO documentary interviewed several climate scientists about the threat and consequences of climate change. When I worked in Everglades National Park, a friend recommended the 2006 Elizabeth Kolbert book, Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change. I probably had read other books about climate change at that time.

Yet, I felt I was not knowledgeable and had the weak responses when they kept pushing me that climate change was not real. I knew then I needed more training, knowledge, and organizational support to be more comfortable talking about the science, evidence, threat, and solutions to climate change. Yet, I did not know at that time where to get this information or any groups to join to become a better climate advocate. All I could do at that time in 2009 was to keep working as a Crater Lake park ranger and keep my eyes and ears open for any opportunities.

To read more of my story, stay tuned for Part 2 of this blog: My Pacific Northwest spring travels, my summer at Crater Lake National Park, and living in Ashland, Oregon in Autumn 2009.

“Testimony, testimony
Declare yourself – I will testify
Testimony, testimony
Speak the truth, I will testify”
– from the song “Testimony” written and sung by Robbie Robertson with U2 in 1987

This is my latest update to oral testimony I gave to the Oregon Legislature, plus oral testimony to the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission, in 2025. In 2025, I previously blogged, “For Climate Action, giving oral testimony to legislative committees,” from 2019 to 2023. I then followed it up with “For Climate Action, my oral testimony to legislative committees Part II” about my oral testimonies from September 2023 to March 2024.

I wrote and published the Part II blog on February 26, 2025, one day before I started giving oral testimony in 2025. This year I gave oral testimony 9 times. I feel like I need a break before I give oral testimony again. It is depressing now because all the bills I testified to support died in committees. These bills did not make it to receive a floor vote in the Oregon House or Senate. In my March 22nd testimony to the Legislative Joint Ways and Means Committee, all those bills that I advocated died without funding. The transportation package that I gave testimony on August 31st passed the legislature on September 29, 2025, but that was a pyrrhic victory. It was a short term budget fix, not a long term transportation package addressing the climate crisis. Now that package will likely be put on hold in 2026 by a petition led ballot measure for the November 2026 election where voters will decide to accept or reject the transportation tax increases.

1. My Testimony for the CEI Hub Bill – HB 3450 on February 27, 2025

In late 2024 and early 2025, I first learned about the problem of Portland’s Critical Energy Infrastructure (CEI) Hub. According the the Multnomah County Government website,

“The CEI Hub is a six-mile stretch of industrial development along the west shore of the Willamette River. More than 90% of all liquid fuel in Oregon is stored at facilities in the CEI Hub. This includes the gas and diesel supply for the Portland metro area, as well as all the jet fuel for the Portland International Airport. Other hazardous materials are also stored at the CEI Hub.”

As Oregon Public Broadcasting reported on March 18, 2025,

“Portland is particularly vulnerable to the 9.0 Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake that scientists predict could happen in the next few decades, based on historical geographic data. The city’s six-mile hub of fuel storage and shipping terminals along the Willamette River is expected to crumble due to an earthquake phenomenon called liquefaction, a type of riverside quicksand effect that could release millions of gallons of fuel.”

If that happened, “It could be a spill that matches the volume of the BP Deepwater Horizon spill, but rather than occurring out in the Gulf of Mexico, it would be occurring in the heart of a major American city,” Multnomah County sustainability director John Wasiutynski told councilors during a Monday work session.

Thus, it is a priority of the City of Portland, Multnomah County, and various environmental groups such as 350PDX, MCAT (Mobilizing for Climate Action Together), Climate Reality Portland Chapter, etc. to work together to lessen the risk of these fuel tanks turning into an environmental and human catastrophe caused by a high intensity earthquake, wildfire, or other causes.

In the third week of February, 350PDX asked for volunteers to give oral testimony to support the package of 4 CEI Hub Bills (HB 3450, HB 2949, HB 2152, & HB 2151) for a hearing scheduled for Thursday, February 27th to the Oregon House Committee On Emergency Management, General Government, and Veterans. I heard about this opportunity to testify from the Portland Climate Reality Chapter. They offered to write up a statement representing our chapter for me to read as my oral testimony for the hearing.

This was a relieve for me not to have to draft my own testimony. I could simply read the statement they sent me by email. My only actions were to find a ride to Salem to testify and to sign up in advance to testify for the hearing on the Oregon Legislature Information System website.

Here is the testimony that I read to the Oregon House Committee:

“My name is Brian Ettling. I live in Portland I am a member of the Climate Reality Portland Chapter, which has members who live and/or work inside the “blast zone” of the CEI hub. As an organization focused on climate justice and public health as well as a just transition to clean energy, we support near-term action to mitigate pollution and emergency-related harms to communities and longer term phase-out of dangerous combustion fuels.

So Climate Reality strongly supports HB 3450, the CEI Hub Transition Plan. We thank Rep. Thuy Tran for this legislation and urge all House and Senate Members to become co-sponsors. The bill calls on Oregon Department of Energy to study and develop an “energy storage transition plan” for the CEI Hub to include:

• Benchmarked short-, medium-, and long-term goals
• A risk bond study;
• Engagement of industry stakeholders, technical experts, researchers, affected
• Community members, state and local govts. agencies, and others;
• May contract with the National Policy Consensus Center at Portland State University.

This bill is urgently needed. Oregon needs a wholistic plan that moves us from bemoaning the
dangers of the CEI Hub to solving the problem. HB 3450 gives Benchmarked goals to allow for
easier steps to begin sooner. Benchmarked goals can support a safe and equitable transition to
renewable sources of energy by recognizing that any flammable, combustible, or toxic materials
stored in the CEI Hub zone poses a danger. An inclusive planning process should ensure that
all interested and affected parties will be at the table; an essential tenet of environmental justice.

Thank you for your time.

The Committee Chair, Rep. Thuy Tran, set time limit for oral testimony at 2 minutes. It felt stressful to squeeze in all the words in time, but my testimony was right at 2 minutes. It always feels beneficial for me to give oral testimony to Oregon Legislative committees to support climate and environmental bills. This was the first of my 9 times giving oral testimony in 2025. I felt like I was off to a good start.

Unfortunately, HB 3450 and all of the CEI Hub bills died during the Legislative session. All of them, except for HB 2151, were passed out of the House Committee On Emergency Management, General Government, and Veterans to be sent to the Joint Ways and Means Committee. HB 2151 died in the committee. The Legislature determined that it would cost money to enact these CEI Hub bills. Because the state economist predicting the state would have half a billion dollars less than formerly expected to budget, the Joint Ways and Means Committee killed nearly all the bills during the 2025 regular session that were deemed to cost money to implement.

The Chief Sponsor of the CEI Hub bills, Rep. Thuy Tran of Northeast Portland, hopes to introduce a CEI Hub bill in the short 2026 session. The threat still looms of a catastrophic subduction zone earthquake causing nightmare fuel tanks ruptures and explosions for these 600 storage tanks along the Willamette River, just northwest of downtown Portland, Oregon. This problem is not going away. I fear an incomprehensible environmental disaster from an overdue earthquake before the state passes legislation to fully address the issue.

2. My Testimony for Updating OR’s Greenhouse Gas Goals – HB 3477 on March 11, 2025

On February 4th, I traveled to Salem to participate in the Divest Oregon Lobby Day at the Oregon Capitol. Divest Oregon organized this gathering in Salem to lobby legislators to support the Pause Act (SB 681) to stop the OR Treasury from new private equity investments in fossil fuels. One of the speakers to prepare for the lobby day was Oregon Representative Mark Gamba. I have known Mark Gamba since 2017 when I met him at the Climate Reality Training in Bellevue, Washington. He is a trained Climate Reality Leader like me. Before he was elected as a state legislator, Mark served as the Mayor of Milwaukie, Oregon. His leadership as Mayor enabled Milwaukie to become the first city In Oregon to declare a climate emergency.

Rep. Mark Gamba is one of the top climate champions in the Oregon Legislature. I look to see what climate bills he is a Chief Sponsor so I know which bills to urge my legislators to support. During his talk at the Divest Oregon Lobby Day, he urged us to support other bills he championed, such as HB 3477 to declare climate change an emergency and update Oregon’s greenhouse gas goals. After I returned home to Portland that evening, I went on the Oregon Legislature Information System (OLIS) website to subscribe to the bills so I could follow them. In March, I received a notice on OLIS that HB 3477 would have a hearing on March 11th in the House Committee On Climate, Energy, and Environment.

Rep. Gamba had other bills besides HB 3477 that he wanted climate advocates to show up to testify and lobby their legislators to support. However, I wanted to give oral testimony for this bill because Senator Michael Dembrow and other climate champions tried for years to update Oregon’s greenhouse gas goals with legislation with zero success. Republicans always have fierce opposition to these bills. The Democratic legislators then seem to negotiate away these greenhouse gas benchmark bills so that their GOP counterparts will allow other bills to pass.

I decided to register to give oral testimony to this bill to hopefully show that HB 3477 had support from Oregonians to update our state’s greenhouse gas goals. Thus, I signed up online because I did not see how I would get a ride to Salem to testify in person.

Here is the testimony I gave to the House Committee.

Members of the Committee. My name is Brian Ettling. I live in Portland. For 25 years from 1992 to 2017, I was a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park, one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Sadly, I saw climate change while working at Crater Lake with a diminishing annual snowpack. Even worse, I saw more intense fire seasons and smoke in the summertime leading visitors to cancel their vacations. When they cancel their vacations, they were not staying in our hotels, eating in our restaurants, and shopping in our stores. It had a bad impact on Oregon’s economy.

Since moving to Portland in 2017, I saw bad wildfire smoke in the summers making it hard to breathe. We had a very scary heat dome in 2021 with temperatures up to 116 degrees and 96 people died in Oregon. Scientists say these freak events are made worse and are triggered by climate change. They will continue to get more deadly if we don’t act now to reduce this threat.

Please pass HB 3477 to declare climate change an emergency and modify our state goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to reflect what science tells us the actions we must take to reduce this threat. To paraphrase comedian Larry the Cable Guy now is the time to ‘Get R done!’

I applaud Rep. Mark Gamba as a champion on this bill and as a leader on climate and environmental issues in the Oregon Legislature.

Even more, please pass the other two bills from Rep. Gamba and Rep. Helm in your committee today, HB 3681 to speed up the Electricity Transmission Permitting process. And HB 3609 to require electric companies to develop a distributed power plant program for the grid services provided by distributed energy resources.

Someday your children and grandchildren will ask you: ‘What did you do as a legislator to solve climate change?’

Please pass these bills so you can tell them that you did all you could.

Thank you for your time.

Sadly, HB 3477 died in this House committee. It did not receive a work session, as known as a committee vote, to move it to a House floor vote. It went nowhere because of the fierce Republican opposition to the bill, similar to the result in previous legislative sessions.

3. My Testimony for Creating Westside Express Service Authority (WESA) – HB 3453 on March 11, 2025

My oral testimony for HB 3477 happened online for the House Committee On Climate, Energy, and Environment for their meeting on March 11th scheduled at 8 am. At 5 pm that same day, the Joint Committee on Transportation scheduled a hearing for HB 3453 to create the Westside Express Service Authority (WESA). This bill directed Trimet (the public transportation agency for the Portland metro area) to transfer authority of their operation of the (Westside Express Service) WES commuter rail line to the state of Oregon to create a new state agency WESA.

As a climate organizer, I hate to drive with the pollution it creates that makes our air unhealthy and contributes to climate change. I drive a 2002 Honda Civic that is almost 24 years old, so I like to save money on gas, plus the wear and tear maintenance expenses, by not driving. I worry about getting into a car accident when driving because of other crazy drivers on the road or making a mistake while driving.

Fortunately for me, Portland has an excellent public transportation system with Trimet that I rely upon almost daily to meet up with friends, attend town halls and climate organizing events, go on hikes with Tanya, etc. Once I am board the public buses and MAX commuter trains, I get a lot of reading done that I am not able to do at home since I am so distracted by the internet. I use public transportation out of privilege. However, every time I ride the bus or MAX, I see people around me that are very dependent on public transportation because they are unable to drive or can’t afford a car. Therefore, I like to consider myself a strong advocate for public transportation especially for the Portland area.

Oregon Senator Chris Gorsek from Gresham is a strong advocate for passenger rail service. Chris and I had conversations about this for several years in total agreement that more passenger and commuter rail service is needed in Oregon. I like to pay attention to the train bills he advocated, especially since he was the Co-Chair of the Joint Transportation Committee during the 2025 Legislative session.

On February 4th, Portland TV station KGW ran a story and a 30 minute news report about legislative actions to try to expand passenger rail in Oregon. I noticed posted by one of the Oregon environmental advocacy groups, No More Freeways, on social media. This KGW news report listed 4 passenger rail bills introduced in the Legislature during the 2025 session:

HB 3231: Improves passenger rail capacity across Oregon.
HB 3233: Directs ODOT to work with WA State Department of Transportation and British Columbia Ministry of Transportation to improve capacity on Amtrak Cascades rail service.
SB 715: Creates the Cascadia High Speed Rail Task Force.
SB 689: Creates the Oregon Rail Department.

After seeing that story, I started following those bills closely. Somehow, I learned about HB 3453 to create a WES state agency. Thus, I signed up to give oral testimony remotely from home when this Joint Transportation Committee hearing took place at 5 pm on March 11th.

Here’s what I said in my oral testimony for HB 3453:

Co-chairs Gorsek, McLain, and members of the Committee.
I am Brian Ettling. I live in northeast Portland.

I support HB 3453 which creates the Westside Express Service Authority and directs TriMet to transfer operation of the WES commuter rail line to this authority. I applaud Representatives Mannix and Neron for introducing this bill. This could be a step forward for Oregon to take responsibility to improve WES and possibility expand this passenger rail line in the future.

The WES Trains are amazing, which currently runs a couple times a day from Beaverton to Wilsonville. I took the train last July to meet up with a friend in Tigard and I loved riding on it. However, it only runs a couple times a day. The route is also way too short. It needs to be expanded all the way to Salem.

You might recognize me because I to come to Salem periodically to testify and lobby legislators for climate and environmental bills. I always try to carpool with friends. A couple of times, I took the Amtrak train and bus to come to Salem. The last time I tried to take a train to leave Salem and return to Portland on February 4th, the Amtrak train was delayed for 10 hours. Fortunately, I got a ride back to Portland with a friend.

I hate that drive from Portland to Salem on I-5 because of all the traffic delays at rush hour.
I am here today to lobby for you, Oregon legislators and your staff, as well as citizen advocates like me. Frankly, your commute stinks! There must be a better way to commute to Salem to not get stuck in traffic on I-5. Let’s aim to increase dependable passenger train service in the Willamette Valley from Portland to Salem and even down to Eugene.

I think HB 3453 could be a step in the conversation to do that.

I am here today to speak for the passenger trains and even blow my train whistle.
Thank you for your time.

During my testimony, the part that received a response from legislators and the audience in the hearing room in Salem was when I said: “I hate that drive from Portland to Salem on I-5 because of all the traffic delays at rush hour. I am here today to lobby for you, Oregon legislators and your staff, as well as citizen advocates like me. Frankly, your commute stinks!”

I could hear laughter break out in the room after I made that remark. I intended to be funny and I was thrilled I made a humorous connection with the audience in the room. At the end of my testimony, I blew a train whistle, which made the legislators and audience in Salem laugh.

After the Committee Co-Chair Susan McLain closed the oral testimony HB 3453, Senator Khanh Pham asked the chair to be recognized for brief remarks. Senator Pham stated, “Thank you Madame Chair…I want to appreciate everyone who came out (to testify)…This bill has passed out of committee twice and I do remember all of the incredible voices that came out from rural, urban, and suburban committees. I agree with Mr. Brian Ettling who was talking about our commute. I also hate this commute and everyday I think about how many more Oregonians could participate in our state government if they had an easy, affordable way to get to Salem without having to own and operate a car. I just want to thank everyone who came out to testify today.”

I was elated to hear Senator Pham mention me in her comments to the committee. HB 3453 passed out of the Joint Committee on Transportation on April 14th. It was referred to the Joint Ways and Means Committee where the bill died.

4. My Testimony for Creating the Cascadia High Speed Rail Task Force. – SB 715 on March 18, 2025

One of the passenger rail bills that is listed above is SB-715, a bill to create the Cascadia High Speed Rail Task Force to to study, research and make reports about high speed rail in Oregon. In addition, the bill would establish a Cascadia High Speed Rail Task Force to to submit progress reports and a final report. I requested to the MCAT (Mobilizing for Climate Action Together) Transportation Committee that I give oral testimony on behalf of the committee. I drafted my oral testimony in advance for their approval. They quickly gave their approval for me to testify to represent them.

Here is the oral testimony I gave for SB 715 that I gave live via the internet:

Co-chairs Gorsek, McLain, and members of the Committee.

I am Brian Ettling. I live in Portland. I am a member of the MCAT (Mobilizing for Climate Action Together) Transportation Committee. We advocate for reducing carbon pollution from the transportation sector, Oregon’s highest carbon pollution source. We want Oregon’s Transportation System to offer more convenient and accessible passenger rail service within Oregon and the Pacific Northwest Region.

We thank Senators Gorsek, Pham, and Frederick and Representative Ruiz for sponsoring SB 715 creating the Cascadia High Speed Rail Task Force to study, research, and make reports for Oregon high-speed rail. The 2024 Joint Committee on Transportation Road Show showed many Oregonians want more public transit options, including commuter/passenger rail service, plus increasing frequency and dependability of public transit modes. We believe SB 715 helps achieve this.

A large percentage of Oregonians can’t drive, or can’t afford to own a car, or don’t like to drive and prefer to use mass transit and passenger rail like me. As Oregon interstate highways and roads become more congested with cars which you notice on your commute to and from Salem, let’s provide Oregonians with high-speed passenger rail options to reduce the wear and tear on our roads and help clean the air from car tail pipe pollution.

On a personal note, I hate driving, and I love taking the train. My wife and I use the Amtrak Cascades Trains, which runs from Eugene to Vancouver British Columbia, about once a year to visit friends and family in the Seattle area. Last August, a malfunction on the Steel Bridge in Portland delayed our train for two hours. On February 4th, I booked an Amtrak train from Salem to Portland that was delayed for 10 hours due to mechanical issues.

Let’s improve dependability and reliability for Oregon’s passenger trains.
Please pass SB 715 as a step forward to do this.

Thank you for your time.

Here’s a video of my testimony:

Sadly, SB 715 was another bill that died in the Joint Transportation Committee.

5. My Oral Testimony to Oregon Environmental Quality Commission on March 14, 2025

In between testifying to the Oregon Legislature Joint Committee on Transportation to support passenger rail bills, I testified to the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission (ECQ) on March 14th. I spoke in favor of making permanent the Advanced Clean Trucking Rule to try to push large trucks in Oregon to run on clean energy.

The EQC is part of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), which is the state agency overseeing environmental protection for the state. The ECQ is a five-member panel appointed by the governor to adopting rules and establishing policies for the DEQ, such as determining how to implement the Advanced Clean Trucking (ACT) Rule. DEQ’s Advanced Clean Trucks policy was under development since 2021 to shift Oregon’s medium-to-heavy duty trucks from fossil fuel internal combustion engines to electric-powered vehicles to improve air quality and help the state meet its carbon reduction goals. Transportation, with a large amount emitted from large trucks, is the biggest contributor

Two days before, on March 12th, Joseph Stenger, one of the leaders of the MCAT Transportation Committee sent an email to the members for an action opportunity to testify in support of clean trucks in front of the EQC on March 14th. In his email, Joe forwarded the request from Brett Morgan, Oregon Transportation Policy Director for the advocacy group Climate Solutions:

“We are asking for partners to comment during the EQC’s Public Forum section of their agenda, This Friday the 13th at 1:30PM, to affirm support for ongoing DEQ rulemaking to give more flexibilities to the ACT (Advanced Clean Trucking) program that will make it work better for all stakeholders, and to ask them to resist efforts to legislatively tweak the program in ways that could hurt it legally and operationally.”

My knowledge was scant about Oregon’s efforts to adopt advanced clean trucking rules. Thus, I asked Joe if he or a member of the MCAT Transportation Committee could help me draft my testimony. Joe offered to send me his written testimony on the ACT rules to guide me in crafting my own testimony. Joe’s written testimony was lengthy. I figured this EQC hearing would probably limit testimony to two minutes, like many of the Oregon Legislative hearing where I testified over the years. After I signed up to testify on March 12th on the EQC website, I spent time whittling down Joe’s testimony into my own words for a testimony script that I could comfortably speak in less than two minutes.

Unlike all the times I testified in person for legislative hearing at the state Capitol in Salem, this EQC hearing was very convenient for me to travel using public transportation. This hearing was held at the DEQ offices in the Lloyd District, a neighborhood just northeast of downtown Portland. I arrived at the DEQ conference room in plenty of time while the Environmental Quality Commission were adjourned for their lunch break. The conference room was small, with the five commission members, one EQC staff person, and around five private citizens, including myself, present to give testimony. It was a much smaller room for me to testify than my experiences in Salem. At the Oregon Capitol, I usually testify before a committee of around 12 legislators with around 50 members of the general public in attendance.

Before the commission called me before them to give my oral testimony, several individuals I knew testified over the phone to support implementation of the clean trucking rules, such as Oregon Representative Pam Marsh and Eliza Walton, Coalition Director for the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. My testimony was adequately squeezed into the 2 minute time limit from my numerous times practicing it at home with the stop watches on my iPad and iPhone.

Here’s the testimony I gave to the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission:

Chair Donegan and members of the Commission:
My name is Brian Ettling.

Regarding Item C on the March 13 agenda, “Clean Truck Rules 2025”, I strongly support these rules. I urge you to make permanent the temporary rules the Advanced Clean Trucks. Please do not delay of implementation of these crucial measures. Let’s affirm market certainty for clean tech, not delay it.

Diesel exhaust causes illness and death. DEQ webpage states: “In Oregon alone, the direct and indirect public health and environmental impact of exposure to diesel exhaust could be valued up to $3.5 billion per year.”

According to a 2017 Oregonian article, “The EPA estimates diesel pollution prematurely kills 460 Oregonians annually.”

For 25 years, I was a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park. It is in southern Oregon inside Klamath County and next to Jackson County. The American Lung Association found that Klamath, Lane, and Jackson counties were among the 13th worst counties in the country for year-round particle pollution.

Medium and heavy trucks produce disproportionately much more toxic pollutants than light vehicles.
We must shift to electric trucks. With 12 states participating, that make up over a third of the US market share of trucks, the ACT provides the boost to the market that will accelerate manufacture of zero-emissions vehicles and will speed investment in charging stations.

The ACT requirements increase slowly over years. No manufacturer must meet yearly goals until 2028. There is not and will never be a “ban on diesel trucks”. By 2050, only 40% of class 7-8 trucks need to be electric.

The ACT applies only to manufacturers, not dealers or purchasers.

The American Lung Association says the ACT will result in many billions of dollars of health cost savings. Do not delay the ACT. We must boost market certainty to continue investment in this healthy change in our transportation system.

Thank you for your work on behalf of the people of Oregon.

I could not find a video recordings of this DEQ hearing. However, a fellow attendee took a photo of me delivering my oral testimony to the commission.

After I testified to the EQC on March 14th, Oregon still seems uncertain about implementing advanced clean trucking rules. On May 15th, The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality announced it delaying enforcement of its Advanced Clean Trucks rule, which went into effect Jan. 1. Oregon Governor Kotek released a statement pointing to the lack of federal support from the Trump Administration for transitioning to electric vehicles for making it difficult to up the standard for more clean trucks in the state. However, on July 11th, Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) reported “Oregon adopts Clean Trucks Rules as state fights Trump’s challenge.”

I still feel like my head is spinning trying to understand this issue. The big picture is that Oregon must make a large concentrated effort to shift from trucks burning dirty fossil fuel pollution which is hazardous to breathe and contributes to climate change to trucks that run on clean energy. I hope Oregon will join 10 other states, including neighboring California and Washington, to find ways to shift clean energy large trucks.

6. My Oral Testimony for Divest Oregon’s Pause Act – SB 681 on March 19, 2025

For several years, I have been supportive of Divest Oregon with their efforts to push the Oregon Treasury to divest its investments from fossil fuels. As I wrote about in my blog, “For Climate Action, my oral testimony to legislative committees Part II,” I gave oral testimony twice during the 2024 Legislative session for Divest Oregon’s the COAL Act to divest the Treasury from any coal investments. Sue Palmiter, Co-Leader of the Divest Oregon Coalition, was appreciative and complementary of my two oral testimonies I gave for the 2024 COAL Act.

For the 2025 Legislative session, Divest Oregon focused its energy to try to get the Pause Act – SB 681 passed by the Oregon Legislature. This bill would have prohibited the State Treasurer from renewing investments in or making new investments in a private market fossil fuels. To urge legislators to co-sponsor and support the Pause Act, Divest Oregon had a lobby day in Salem on February 4th. I was part of the lobby meetings with my Rep. Andrea Valderrama, Rep. Zach Hudson, and the staff of Rep. Hoa Nguyen. Senator Jeff Golden introduced the Pause Act in the Oregon Senate on January 13th. Senator President Rob Wagner then assigned the bill to the Senate Committee on Finance and Revenue, Chaired by Senator Mark Meek.

The Pause Act just sat in the Senate Finance and Revenue Committee for almost two months. We knew we needed the Chair, Senator Mark Meek to schedule a hearing. The Divest Oregon advocates and I alerted each other that he had an online town hall on February 26th

I attended Oregon Senator Mark Meek’s virtual town hall on February 26th. Several Divest Oregon organizers, advocates, and I attended this Zoom town hall to specifically ask Senator Meek if he could schedule a hearing for the Pause Act in his committee. During this town hall, I raised my hand to ask Senator Meek a question and he called on me. I asked him directly if he could schedule a hearing on the Pause Act in the Finance and Revenue Committee. He was friendly recognizing me from my previous lobby meetings with him. He graciously responded that he would be happy to schedule a hearing for the Pause Act soon.

Sue was delighted that I pressed Senator Meek to schedule a hearing for the Pause Act. She thanked me in the Zoom chat. Even more, she urged me to give oral testimony for the Pause Act if Senator Meek scheduled the bill in his committee. In addition, she asked if I would provide oral testimony supporting the Pause Act on behalf of MCAT. I agreed with Sue that was a great idea. Both of us reached out to the MCAT Steering Committee for their approval. They quickly approved Sue’s suggestion for me to speak on their behalf. The only catch was that I needed to show them the script of my oral testimony in advance so they could have the final say.

As soon as we saw the news on OLIS (Oregon Legislature Information System) that SB 681 had a hearing scheduled in the Senate Finance and Revenue Committee on March 19th, I began drafting my oral testimony. I sent my draft to the MCAT Steering Committee. They had some suggested edits, as well as the leaders of Divest Oregon. When MCAT and Divest Oregon were satisfied and had no more edits for me several days before the hearing, I was knew I would be ready to give my oral testimony at the hearing on March 19th. I told Sue that I was willing to testify in Salem at the hearing at 8 am if she could help me find a ride to Salem. Sue found another Divest Oregon volunteer to carpool from Portland to Salem and back.

Since the Senate Revenue and Finance Committee met at 8 am, this hearing was not well attended. About 20 participants sat in the gallery, many hoping their name would be called quickly so they could give oral testimony and then slip out of the hearing to enjoy the rest of their day. Senator Meek scheduled the hearing to start soon after he called the meeting to order a few minutes after 8 am. Meek started with some of the remote online testimony before calling up the individuals who signed up to testify in person. I was not long into the meeting when my name was called. As usual, I practiced this testimony several times at home to make sure that it clocked under 2 minutes, in case Senator Meek restricted each oral testimony to that time.

Here is my oral testimony representing MCAT supporting The Pause Act SB 681:

Chair Meek and members of the Committee.
I am Brian Ettling. I speak today on behalf of MCAT, Mobilizing for Climate Action Together. We are a grassroots organization that works with legislators, state agencies such as the Oregon Treasury, and policymakers by promoting, testifying and advising to advance legislation to help meet Oregon’s climate goals. MCAT is one of over 100 Oregon organizations included in the Divest Oregon coalition.

Today we are here to support SB 681, The Pause Act. We thank Divest Oregon, Chief Sponsor Senator Jeff Golden, and the sponsors for their work on this bill.

We like that this bill enacts a five-year moratorium on investing state monies in new private equity fossil fuels funds. We believe fossil fuel investments are risky, because damages from climate change could cause them to lose value.

In February 2024, Oregon Treasurer Tobias Read proposed a “Major Action” listed in the net zero plan to achieve a net zero carbon future for the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund. Yet, no action was communicated to the public. Thus, we need this bill to codify that plan.

We approve that under this bill, the State Treasurer may not renew or make new investments in private market funds whose managers presently invest (or stated an intention to invest) 10% or more of their holdings in fossil fuel equities. Covered activities include exploration, mining, shipping, infrastructure maintenance and refinement of fossil fuels.

The Treasurer is required to monitor State holdings to ensure that the funds it invested in comply with this principle. The Treasurer must also provide an annual report to the Legislature on this subject, including actions it took to

1. reduce the systemic risks of remaining fossil fuel holdings and
2. incorporate just transition principles in its decarbonization efforts.
   With these bill provisions, we urge you to swiftly pass The Pause Act, SB 681.

Thank you for your time.

Here is a video of my oral testimony for The Pause Act – SB 681

After I finished speaking and the hearing was finished, Sue Palmiter and others associated with Divest Oregon thanked me for my testimony and seemed pleased with the words spoke to the legislators. Before the hearing, Divest Oregon volunteers and I were introduced to staff of Oregon Treasurer Elizabeth Steiner. They were cordial and pleasant to chat with us. They wanted to be perceived as neutral about the Pause Act. However, the day after the hearing, Treasurer Steiner publicly announced she was opposed to the Pause Act. Instead, she supported Climate Resilience Investment Act of 2025, HB 2081.

Divest Oregon supported HB 2081. They liked these aspects on the bill:

1. Legislative recognition of climate change risks
2. Just Transition principles highlighted
3. Enforceable commitment
4. Step in the right direction by preferring low-emission investments
5. Increased transparency and accountability

On the other hand, Divest Oregon felt HB 2081 fell short in these areas:

1. Exclusion of Scope 3 emissions
2. Lack of transparency and a specific plan of how to deal with private equity investments.
3. Absence of frontline community acknowledgment
4. Insufficient specificity and accountability

Divest Oregon thought the Pause Act was a much stronger bill to divest the Oregon Treasury from new fossil fuel investments. However, as soon as Treasurer Steiner came out against the Pause Act, it was dead. Senator Meek did not schedule a work session to vote the bill out of committee. Steiner did not want to negotiate with Divest Oregon with the Pause Act. Divest Oregon had to settle with her Climate Resilience Investment Act of 2025, HB 2081. It is a step forward, but more still needs to make Oregon Treasury investments more climate friendly.

One of the highlights for me for testifying for the Pause Act was that my friend Cathy Cowen Becker from Columbus, Ohio saw me on the OLIS livestream video giving my oral testimony. I have known Cathy for over 10 years as a fellow Climate Reality Leader. We knew each other for several years on Facebook as fellow climate advocates. We met in person for the first time on May 7, 2015 when we both attended the Climate Reality Training in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We ran into each other at the airport. We were thrilled to meet each other for the first time. Then, former Vice President Al Gore, the founder of the Climate Reality Project noticed us at the airport and said hello. Even more, we got our photos with him. In a sense, Cathy and I are bonded as lifelong friends with this peak experience of chatting with Al Gore.

Cathy reached out to me on Facebook after she saw my post that I had given oral testimony for the Pause Act. She wrote that she submitted written testimony for SB 681 on behalf of Green America, where she now works. She stated that supporting good state legislation was her campaign plan this year. She felt that Oregon was one of the few places where Green America can make some climate progress. It was a thrill to reconnect with Cathy because of the Pause Act.

7. My Oral Testimony to OR Legislature Joint Ways and Means Committee- March 22, 2025

The same week that I gave oral testimony for the Pause Act on March 19th and Cascadia High Speed Rail Task Force to the Joint Committee on Transportation on March 18th, I received an alert from OLCV, that the Legislative Joint Ways and Means Committee would have a road show hearing in Gresham, Oregon on Saturday, March 22nd. These road show hearings allow the Joint Ways and Means Committee to hold around 5 hearings in various locations across Oregon. The “road shows” happen in the spring of the odd numbered years when the Oregon Legislature determines the two year state budget during the long legislative sessions. The “road shows” gives local Oregonians an opportunity to testify on bills and policies impacting the Oregon budget without having to travel to the capitol in Salem Oregon.

OLCV, as well as other climate and environmental groups, wanted to take advantage of this legislative road show to make sure lawmakers understood from local Oregonians how important funding our climate resilience programs was to Oregonians. They note that climate programs reduce costs, improve health outcomes, and make our communities more resilient.

OLCV coordinated with the Building Resilience Coalition, and Oregon Environmental Coalition to push climate advocates to give oral testimony for 9 bills they supported for Heat Pumps, One Stop Shop 2.0 to navigate weatherization incentives and rebates on one website to be fully funded, Community Resilience Hubs, Natural & Working Lands Fund, Community Renewable Energy Program, Farmworker Disaster Relief Bill, Medium and Heavy Duty Electric Vehicle Rebates & Infrastructure Grants, and Oregon Clean Vehicle Rebate Program / Charge Ahead.

If you have not noticed yet, I like to give oral testimony. However, this felt overwhelming to try to squeeze some of these priorities into less than 2 minutes. I testified in the Joint Ways and Means road show hearing in Portland on April 8, 2023. I remember that a huge audience shows up for these hearings, especially to testify. Thus, our time would definitely be limited to 2 minutes, possibly even a minute and a half, to squeeze in as many people as possible to testify during these 2 hour hearings.

It was stressful trying to figure out which bills to emphasize as I composed my testimony. I sent emails to staff of OLCV, Annabelle Rousseau – Advocacy Coordinator of the Portland environmental justice group Verde, and two members of the MCAT Steering Committee trying to figure out which bills to highlight in my testimony. The response I received from Brittney VanCitters, Political & Organizing Director at OLCV, was to go with “the info Annabelle shared with you early aligns well with OLCV’s goals.”

As I drafted my testimony, I thought about urging legislators to support the One Stop Shop 2.0 (HB 3081), but not other bills. Annabelle Rousseau from Verde advised, “Since you already plan to talk about One Stop Shop 2.0 (HB 3081), it would make sense to also focus on funding for the Rental Heat Pump Program and Community Heat Pump Program. All three of these priorities are so interconnected with widening access to home energy efficiency, by removing barriers.”

From the MCAT Steering Committee, Rich Peppers suggested that I “could just select ideas from the MCAT outlook.”

I replied to Rich by asking: ‘As far as MCAT… are there any top priority bills that you or others on the steering committee feel like it would be a big win if we got a certain bill passed with funding or that would be a big loss if we did not get a certain bill passed with funding?’

Rich responded: ‘Sorry, Brian, I can’t be much help. In this period with federal cutbacks, getting bills passed even without much funding can probably be counted as a win… For EV rebates, the goal would be to have the Charge Ahead program functioning year-round, instead of operating for a few months and then shutting down again. But if that funding came out of what Fix It First maintenance or Safe Roads would have gotten, I’m not sure that’s the right allocation. And “growing the pie for everything”, which means new taxes, will also be difficult… I think just advocate for what you think is important is the right thing (until our coalitions refine a unified message we can all get behind…)’

After receiving responses from Britney, Annabelle, and Rich, I decided I had to follow my heart as what I thought which climate bills should be funded. In addition, I chose to advocate for bills supported by my legislator, Rep. Andrea Valderrama, who sits on the Joint Ways and Means Committee. She was a Chief Sponsor of the Farmworker Disaster Relief bill, HB 3193. Thus, I thought it would be helpful for her to voice support for that bill during my testimony.

With all these factors in mind, here was my Oral Testimony for funding for climate priorities for March 22, 2025, Joint Ways and Means Road Show:

Members of the Committee.

My name is Brian Ettling. I live close by in Portland. I am worried about climate change. Last year was the hottest year ever recorded on Earth, and Oregon is on the frontlines of this climate crisis. With your leadership, we have passed legislation that helps Oregon families to access more affordable, cleaner energy sources, better prepare for and respond to extreme weather, and breathe cleaner, safer air.

We know you face many tough budgeting decisions with the chaos and uncertainty of federal spending in Oregon. I urge you to prioritize protecting and investing in Oregon’s climate progress. If we fail to act, it’s our frontline communities — people with disabilities, rural families, people of color, and working folks — who will be hurt first and worst. But every Oregonian will feel the impact.
Please pass and provide funds for these bills:

Due to their working conditions, farmworkers are more vulnerable than other workers to smoke and deadly heat. Let’s make the Farmworker Disaster Relief fund permanent with HB 3193 so we can protect the workers who face the most risks from climate change.

Please fully fund our state energy and natural resource agencies to advance Oregon’s climate goals, ensuring healthy, resilient communities, and supporting clean energy job growth across Oregon.
Thank you for your time.

Oregonians need more support navigating all the programs to upgrade their homes and buildings through incentives and rebates for efficient heat pumps, improved insulation, sturdier doors and windows, and clean electric cooking. One Stop Shop 2.0 (HB 3081) will help families get direct assistance from someone in their area to make their home projects more affordable.

Around $10 million is needed for Community Resilience Hubs (HB 3170) across the state to coordinate and provide access to resources and services for vulnerable populations during disasters.

Here is the video of my oral testimony at the Ways and Means Testimony. Like all of my other testimony, it is less than 2 minutes long. However, if you watch the end of the video, you will hear some cheering at the end. This was a packed auditorium at Mt. Hood Community College. Several climate organizers were in the audience, such as my friends mentioned above, Brittney VanCitters, Annabelle Rousseau, and Rich Peppers. I was proud of my testimony. My testimony seemed to make them proud that someone was speaking out for the climate and environment.

Most of the people attending this hearing were testifying on vital issues such as fully funding education, healthcare, reducing homelessness, drug treatment programs, labor rights, etc. Crucial issues I might have worked on if I had not seen climate change working in the national parks. Just a few of us spoke on fully funding climate programs at this Ways and Means roadshow hearing. To be fair, I signed up in advance. Speakers were chosen to testify on various subjects such as education, healthcare, environment, etc. so that all the speakers would not just be advocating for one topic. Thus, if I receiving cheering at the end of my remarks, as well as the other speakers who spoke on the environment and climate, those of us in the audience who advocate on those topics did not want those priorities to be forgotten and unfunded.

Sadly, because of the federal restrains on funding, all the bills that I highlighted in my oral testimony died in the Joint Ways and Means Committee and did not receive funding, such as Farmworker Disaster Relief fund permanent (HB 3193), Stop Shop 2.0 (HB 3081), or Community Resilience Hubs (HB 3170). I held out hope until the end of the legislative session at the end of June. However, the Oregon Legislature did not believe there was money in the budget to fund these bills. Yes, I understand the state of Oregon does not have money right now to fund new budget items. Still, it was disheartening to see the legislature not fund any climate programs when the issue of climate change is only getting worse.

8. My Oral Testimony about the Right for a Healthy Environment Ballot Referral – SJR 28

In April 18, 2024, I helped Portland Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) organize a Congressional District 03 Candidate Climate Forum with then Democratic candidates Maxine Dexter and Susheela Jayapal. One of my duties was to reach out to other climate and environmental organizations in the Portland area to invite them to table at this event. One gentleman I reached out to was Jeff Hammarlund. He organized with COIN (Consolidated Oregon Indivisible Network). Jim was an affable gregarious and engaging guy that I quickly struck up a friendship on the phone. He waffled back and forth about organizing a COIN table at the CCL Candidate Climate Forum due to other commitments he had at the time, plus Portland CCL asked other groups for a $50 fee help pay for the costs to rent the venue for the event. I was able to get the fee waved for Jim and he then decided that it fit his schedule to table at the Candidate Climate Forum.

During our phone calls, Jim invited me to participate in the Right for a Healthy Environment Oregon Constitution Amendment rally happening in Salem, Oregon on Saturday, May 4th. It was organized by a group called OCERA (Oregon Coalition for an Environmental Rights Amendment). In early to mid April, I had no plans for May 4th, so I told Jeff I would attend and join a carpool to Salem. In late April, I landed a job with East County Rising (ECR) as a Field Organizer knocking on doors to urge east Multnomah County residents to vote in the May 21, 2024 Oregon election primary. The first day of work was Saturday, May 4th.

I called Jeff to let him know that I did not want to miss out on the first day of work, so I would have to cancel participating in the May 4th OCERA event. He became irritated at me for backing out of the event. I was surprised by his reaction. I had a volunteer role, but it was a minor role. I did not want to miss out on a paid day of work and the first day onboarding as an ECR Field Organizer. I felt bad, but I promised Jeff I would gladly participate in a future OCERA event, which seemed so soothe things over for Jeff and me.

After the May 21st primary, my short term job was completed with ECR. After the election primary, Tanya and I took a four day trip to see Crater Lake National Park. I traveled to Washington, D.C. in the second week of June to participate in their Washington D.C. Conference and Congressional Lobby Day. A friend from Climate Reality Project Itzel Morales visited Tanya and I in Portland the third week of June, and my mom came to visit Tanya and I in the last week of June. In July, Tanya and I took a four day trip to North Cascades National Park, Washington.

At the beginning of August, I accepted another short term ECR Field Organizer Job that lasted until the November 5th election. In November, I found out about an OCERA lobbying day happening on December 11th at the Oregon Capitol. I signed up for this lobby day and I did not want to miss it, especially after I let Jeff down for backing out of the May 4th event. I found rides to carpool to Salem. I had a great experience lobbying that day with face-to-face meetings with Representatives Travis Nelson and Emerson Levy, plus meetings with the staff of Representative Hoa Nguyen and my Senator Kayse Jama. Senator Jama and Representative Nelson agreed to become sponsors of the bill. Representative Levy and the staff of Representative Hoa Nguyen seemed open to support the bill if it came to a floor vote.

On March 26, 2025, as Chair of the Rules Committee, Senator Jama scheduled a hearing in the Senate Rules Committee for the bill, known as SJR 28, a legislative ballot referral for an amendment to the Oregon Constitution relating to a clean, safe and healthy environment.

So many people showed up to give oral testimony and show support for the bill that Senator Jama limited testimony for the bill at one minute. Normally, legislators give the public two minutes for public testimony. That’s what I prepared when I crafted and practiced my testimony the previous day. After Senator Jama made that announcement, I quickly had to cross out much of my testimony to keep it under a minute.

Here is what I composed for my SJR 28 oral testimony:

Chair Jama and members of the Committee.

For the record, I am Brian Ettling. Let me tell you about the worst day of my life. In 2014, I was plaintiff in a lawsuit led by the Sierra Club in my hometown St. Louis, Missouri. We sued the local utility for the pollution of their coal plant that violated the Clean Air Act near my family’s home.

On January 8, 2016, I sat down with the Sierra Club lawyer representing me, a lawyer representing the utility, and a court reporter for my sworn deposition. This was the closest I was to testifying in a court case. All I can say was Wow! It was one of the most grueling experiences of my life to be cross examined for 2 and a half hours. I was a citizen plaintiff, but the defense lawyer grilled me hard on my knowledge of particulate pollution.

By the end of my cross examination, I was physically worn out and exhausted. It felt like I had been in a bar fight and got my butt kicked. This deposition was on a Friday, and I spent the whole weekend in bed to recoup my energy. The case was settled out of court in a way that was a partial victory for the plaintiffs. I am proud to be part of that lawsuit. However, citizens should not have to sue our government or others for a healthy environment and planet.

American photographer Ansel Adams said, “It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.”

This is why I am here today to support SJR 28-1: Right to a Healthy Environment. Oregonians’ lives and futures depend on a safe and healthy environment. This amendment puts this key value, that all Oregonians hold, into our state constitution. If passed by the voters, the State government will be required to do a better job to prevent environmental threats to the health and safety of Oregonians.
Thank you for your time.

Here’s a video of my SJR 28 testimony:

On Saturday, April 29th, I participated in the 350PDX Lobby Day in Salem. Jeff Hammarlund was there as part of the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon (EMO) Lobby Day. EMO was advocating for OCERA’s SJR 28 as part of the bills they urged legislators to support on this lobby day. The day before, Jeff asked me if I could participate in the lobby meeting with Senator Kayse Jama since I was a constituent as they were trying to urge him to hold a vote in the Rules Committee to try to pass SJR 28 out of the committee.

I felt valuable that Jeff wanted me to be part of this meeting. On the other hand, the meeting was frustrating because Senator Jama acknowledged that he would not hold a work session vote in the rules committee for SJR 28. The head scratcher was he was a sponsor of the bill and strongly supported it. At this meeting, he shared these unexpected concerns that big business would do everything they could to try to stop the bill if it it went to the ballot. Plus, he felt uncertain if voters would pass it. The OCERA leaders felt betrayed and letdown by Senator Jama.

After the lobby meeting, I waited in the inner office to speak directly with Senator Jama. He was happy to see me, but he shared he was scared of big business if the OCERA SJR 28 passed the legislature and went on the ballot. I felt crushed by his candid admission to me. Jeff was in the outer office loudly announcing, “Where’s Brian? Where’s Brian? Our carpool is leaving now!”

I was too stunned to say anything much to Senator Jama. However, I wanted to say, ‘Why are you working in the Oregon Legislature when you are scared to pass tough bills? Climate change is not going away! If you are not going to lead, we need someone else in your position who will.’

I was too polite and Jeff was in too much of a rush for us to leave for me to say anything to try to motivate him. Even more, he is my senator. In the future, I needed him to vote on future climate bills. Thus, I did not want to strain my relationship with him. His response to SJR 28 left me feeling very dissatisfied and unmotivated about lobbying in Salem for climate bills. Senator Jama never held a work session in the Rules Committee. Everything I heard was that Senate President Rob Wagner did not trust that the OCERA amendment would pass a ballot initiative. Thus, he made it known that he was not allowing a Senate floor vote on SJR 28.

I will never give up organizing and lobbying for cilmate action. However, hearing Senator Jama say he’s scared of big business to then let SJR 28 die left me feeling demoralized lobbying for climate bills.

9. My Oral Testimony to OR Legislature Joint Transportation Committee on August 31st

On Sunday, August 31st, I woke up that morning to an email from Helena Birecki, the Chapter Chair of the local Climate Reality Portland OR Chapter. The email simply stated, “Transportation-interested folks. Please read and consider.” I considered myself a passionate advocate on public transportation, so this email caught my eye. Helena included an email from Cassie Wilson, Legislative Manager for 1000 Friends of Oregon. In her message, Cassie wrote,

“There is a public hearing tomorrow (Sunday, August 31 at 12pm) on the bill, HB 3991. We understand that it is Labor Day weekend and many folks are offline or otherwise occupied – but if you are able to join us and submit written testimony or sign up to testify virtually or in-person, your efforts would be greatly appreciated.”

I traveled to the State Capitol several times in the spring of 2025 to lobby legislators to support a legislative package that fully funded public transportation. The legislators and their staff I lobbied were receptive to fund public transit in the 2025 transportation package. However, the bill package failed to pass at the end of the session because it did not have enough Democratic support. I found it infuriating because the Democrats had a super majority (60%) of seats in both the House and Senate chambers. Yet, the bill died because they did not have enough votes to pass it before the legislative session ended on June 30, 2025.

All the other times I traveled to Salem during the legislative session the winter and spring in 2025, I carpooled with other climate advocates. The Interstate 5 route from Portland to Salem is a grind to drive with heavy traffic during weekday rush hour. The good news: it was Sunday of Labor Day weekend, so the traffic would be light. The bad news: it was too short of a notice to arrange for a ride to Salem, so I needed to drive myself and figure out where to park.

I arrived inside the Capitol Building after 11 am, with an hour to spare before the hearing was scheduled to start. A large crowded assembled outside the hearing room of primarily conservative citizens eager to testify against any tax increases. I made a beeline for the bathroom since I had last used it two hours before the drive to Salem, finding a free parking space, and walking 10 blocks to the Capitol Building.

While I washed my hands inside the men’s restroom, a friendly thirty something young man asked me if I was there to testify for the transportation package. I affirmed that that was why I was there. He was eager to tell me that his grandfather was once the Governor of Oregon. He then shared that he felt like this special hearing and session on Transportation was illegal and not the way that legislative business should be done in Oregon. He could not wait to voice this opinion to legislators during the hearing, especially if he had a chance to give oral testimony. In addition, he was against raising taxes to fund transportation in Oregon.

He thought I would agree with him, but he was curious what I would say in my oral testimony.

I responded, “I am very worried about climate change, so I am going to testify that I think public transportation should be fully funded.”

As soon as the words “climate change,” he replied, “Can I share with you my words that I like I assure folks that they don’t have to worry about climate change?”

I was in a sour mood driving down to Salem to give oral testimony in the middle of Labor Weekend when I would have rather been hiking with my wife. Thus, I retorted, “I am anxious to draft my testimony in the few minutes before this hearing. I am not interested in getting into a debate about climate change.”

He replied, “I am not interested in debating either. Can I just share my information with you?”

In exasperation, I sighed and said, “Sure.”

He proclaimed, “People worry about climate change, but I want to put you at ease that forest fire smoke and volcanoes emit a lot more carbon dioxide (CO2) than humans.”

I countered, “That is not true. That was debunked many years ago by scientists. In fact, humans are currently emitting 100 times more CO2 than volcanoes.”

He was flabbergasted, “Really? Do you mind if I look this up using AI (artificial intelligence) to determine which one of us is correct.”

I answered, “Yes. Go for it!”

He looked up the answer on his iPhone. AI showed I was basically correct that humans emit a lot more CO2 than volcanoes. He joyfully responded, “Thank you so much! I did not know that!”

He had a big smile and reached out to shake my hand. I gladly shook hands with him. I asked him what his name was. I might have even given him one of my business cards. I wished him the best of success at the hearing and then ended the conversation. I was singularly focused drafting my oral testimony before the hearing began.

While I composed my words for my oral testimony, the Capitol security opened the doors to allow the public into the hearing room. That same fellow walked up to various legislators at the dais before the hearing officially started to shake their hands and introduce himself. He loved interacting with people even if he gave off vibes of some social awkwardness.

I sat next to Indi Namkoong, Transportation Justice Coordinator for Verde and and a spokesperson for the Move Oregon Forward coalition. With her involvement with these organizations, Indi was one of the leading organizers pushing for the 2025 Oregon transportation package to be climate friendly. She gave me some suggestions what to share in oral testimony. I showed her my testimony script that I just typed up on the spot and she seemed pleased with it.

To my surprise, about 40 minutes into the hearing, House Speaker Julie Fahey called me to the front table to testify, along with Cassie Wilson from 1000 Friends of Oregon. Cassie spoke first. She gave compelling testimony how she relies upon public transportation as a disabled person to get to personal and work related events in Portland. I have known Cassie for years as a strong climate and transportation advocate. It was hard act to follow her impactful testimony. I admired her advocacy for years. Her testimony reminded me that we needed to meet for coffee, like we have wanted to do for years. We finally met for coffee two months later in October.

After Cassie, it was my turn to give oral testimony. As always, I was nervous speaking to legislators in this public setting. The hearing allowed the public to give two minutes of testimony. But, due to the fast manner I spoke since I was anxious and my written remarks were shorter than I realized, I spoke for a minute and ten seconds. The hearing went two hours longer, so the legislators and fellow attendees were probably grateful that my remarks were brief.

Here are my remarks for my Oral Testimony to the OR Joint Transportation Committee on August 31st:

Members of the Committee.
My name is Brian Ettling.

As I testified before to legislative committees, I was a seasonal park ranger for 25 years at Crater Lake National Park.

Sadly, I saw climate change while working there with the average annual snowpack diminishing and the summer fire season smoke getting worse. It was so bad at times, I saw visitors cancel their vacations because it was so harmful to breathe the smoke.

Thus, 8 years ago, I started organizing for climate action in Portland. I depend upon Trimet on nearly a daily basis to reduce my emissions. Plus, I hate driving and would much rather use public transportation.

I am very worried about the ODOT employees and Trimet that might lose their jobs if we don’t fully fund our transportation budget in the short or long term.

So I did the one thing I hate doing: I drove here today from Portland to testify.

Nearly every other time I came to Salem to testify and lobby, I rode with friends or I took the train or bus.

I made this effort to drive here today to tell you to please do not reduce transit funding or further weaken any climate protections with HB 3991-18.

Thank you for your time and public service.

Here’s the video of my HB 3991 testimony:

I gathered up my belongings and then left to head back to Portland after giving my oral testimony. Two days later, on September 2nd, the Oregon House passed this transportation package by nearly a party line vote of 36 to 12, with 12 Republican Representatives not in attendance. One Democrat, Rep. Annessa Hartman, voted against the bill. At the same time, one Republican, Rep. Cyrus Javadi, voted with the Democratic majority to pass the bill. Javadi’s vote was sorely needed because his vote provided minimum number of yes votes required for a three-fifths majority approval to increase state taxes.

The transportation package then stalled in the Oregon Senate until the end of September. The Senate Democrats lacked lack one vote to pass it. Senator Chris Gorsek experienced health complications after a back surgery he had during the summer. His health finally improved that he was able to join his colleagues on the Senate floor on September 29th to approve it by a an 18-11 party-line vote — the minimum threshold support to pass a tax increase.

The bill then went to Oregon Governor Tina Kotek for her signature to approve it. She waited until November 7th to sign it into law, but she did not announce she signed it until November 10th. Her delay in signing the bill looked like it was a strategic decision to provide opponents less time to gather the signatures needed to refer the tax increases to voters. As of December 2nd, the ballot petitioners, led by No Tax Oregon, announced they have now obtained more than 150,000 signatures, nearly double the 78,116 signatures needed by the December 30th deadline, to get the measure on the ballot.

The Oregon Secretary of State will have to verify the signatures. If they’re valid, then the portions of Oregon’s new transportation funding law raising state taxes wouldn’t take effect until after the November 2026 election, when voters would vote to approve or reject it. If the ballot signature initiative is approved by the Secretary of State, the new revenue from the 2025 transportation package would be paused. This could then cause the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) to “face a significant funding gap, which could lead to cuts to operations and service levels across the transportation system,” said ODOT spokesperson Katherine Benenati.

As a climate organizer, this alarms me that Oregon could have suspension in public transportation programs as a result of the delay of implementing the 2025 transportation package with the anti-tax ballot referral. I use TriMet public transportation services in Portland several times a week. On November 30th, TriMet stated that it expects to cut service by 10% over the next two years. They plan on reducing frequency on five bus lines after 7 p.m. They intend to lessen frequency four additional bus lines in March 2026 and more cuts later in 2026.

Since I worry deeply about climate change emissions and reducing our dependence on vehicles run on fossil fuels, Oregon is heading in the wrong direction with cuts to public transportation.

Final Thoughts

For climate action, I gave oral testimony for 9 bills in 2025. It looks like all the bills I supported failed. I feel crushed and depressed about this. Looks like I won’t need to give oral testimony for legislative bills until the next session starts in February 2026. I definitely need a break before getting my spirits up to testify again.

I feel down about all the climate legislation I supported in the last year that failed but I am never giving up. I can’t give up. I can’t let the fossil fuel interests win. As I said for many years now:

I will lobby legislators, contact them, and give oral testimony when I am needed to do this to show support to pass these bills. As I wrote in my previous blog, I often think about the quote attributed to Henry David Thoreau, “What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?”

Attorney and Law Professor Joyce Vance recently wrote a book, Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a Democracy. I have been inspired by listening to her recent interview on the Democracy Docket podcast on December 1st, her conversation with Heather Cox Richardson on October 29th, and her discussion on the NPR Fresh Air program on November 25th. Joyce Vance is not giving up in her fight to save our democracy from tyranny.

I attended over 10 protests in 2025 to stand up for our democracy. I will never give up the struggle to maintain and improve our democracy. In fact, I live by the Al Gore quote that he has stated for decades and on April 21, 2025, “We have to deal with the democracy crisis in order to solve the climate crisis.”

I intend to fight or our democracy and to reduce the threat of climate change for the rest of my life. It is so damn hard when all the climate bills I testified to support in 2025 failed. I will continue, as rock musician Robbie Robertson sang with U2 in 1987, to “Speak the truth, I will testify.”

I hope you will join me.

I once heard an old joke that man and a woman had eight children. Seven of them had blonde hair and blue eyes, just like the man. The eighth child, however, had dark hair and brown eyes.

One day, the man asked his wife, “Does one of the children have a different father?”

The woman replied, “Yes, you.”

I had something that happened to me in October that reminded me of this joke.

In the second week of October, Eliza Walton who is the Coalition Director for the Oregon League of Conservation Voters (OLCV), emailed me an invitation to the 2025 OLCV Scorecard Release Party happening on Wednesday, October 15th.

I attended this event two years previously in October 2023. It was a pleasant event for me to chat with fellow climate organizers, OLCV staff and board members, and the handful of legislators who were at that event. In 2023, OLCV Executive Director Lindsey Scholten gave awards to six legislators to honor their work fighting to pass OLCV climate and environmental priority bills in that Oregon legislative session. This year, 2025, OLCV felt that Oregon lawmakers “failed to meet the moment” to pass meaningful climate action.

When I participated in OLCV Annual Retreat I in Salem OR on October 11th, Britney VanCitters, the Political & Organizing Director for OLCV, announced that they would not be giving any awards to legislators when they planned to release their 2025 Scorecard in October. Instead, they would highlight notable volunteer leaders “who showed up this session.”

I knew that I was probably one of the volunteers who would be acknowledged. On September 9th, Kayah Ryerson, Engagement Coordinator for OLCV, and Eliza Walton emailed me to ask me if I would share my story of why climate friendly transportation policies manner to me. I wanted to write something in less than 130 words and include a head shot so I could be included in their 2025 Environmental Scorecard for the Oregon State Legislature.

I was honored that they wanted to include me in their scorecard. I am proud to be an OLCV volunteer for several years now. I immediately try to respond to all OLCV volunteer requests to give oral testimony to the legislator, be part of their lobby days, and get involved with all their local events. Thus, I did not want to miss the 2025 OLCV Scorecard Release Party to see which legislators would be there, see friends and OLCV staff, meet new people, and enjoy the complimentary hors d’oeuvre (yes, I am a total foodie!)

When I arrived at this event on October 15th, I saw about 20 people comfortably mingling with other attendees. It was held in a spacious office room of a building located in the Central Eastside neighborhood just across the Willamette River from downtown Portland. As I entered, OLCV staff welcomed me at the sign in table, I wrote my name on a name tag they provided, and I made a beeline for the appetizer table and free drinks.

I chatted with OLCV staff I know such as Britney, Kayah, April, Morgan, April and the OLCV Executive Director Lindsey Scholten. Lindsey and a couple of the OLCV Board members that I met for the first time thanked me for all my volunteering with OLCV. When I arrived at the event, OLCV had copies of their 2025 Environmental Scorecard booklet on the registration table for attendees to take. I noticed that my headshot and short story I wrote about my OLCV volunteer efforts were clear to see in the middle of page 5.

Before Lindsey and the legislators present gave brief remarks, I swapped stories with Britney and Kayah about vacations and traveling. I indulged them with my story of a very friendly sweet Russian blue breed cat that showed up on our back porch weeks earlier. My wife Tanya and I almost adopted before I was finally able to track down the true owner a few days later.

OLCV Executive Director Lindsey Scholten then gave a brief talk about the 2025 OLCV Scorecard and how the legislature passed just a few bills on climate and the environment. At the same time, she was grateful to have legislators at the party such as Representatives Ben Bowman, Mark Gamba, and Rob Nosse who scored 100% on the Scorecard for the OLCV priority bills. The legislators then took turns for a few minutes to give their thoughts.

The most striking thing said was by Rep. Mark Gamba. He openly expressed his frustration that so many good climate bills died during the 2025 Legislative session that he championed. He referred to climate policy as “The redheaded stepchild” at the Oregon Capitol the way that legislators just ignore or give very little thought to the issue. I loved his analogy because I gave oral testimony to 8 bills during the legislative session. I shared Mark’s bitterness because those climate bills that I testified died in committee and did not pass in the legislature.

After Mark finished speaking, Oregon House Majority Leader Ben Bowman complimented Rep. Gamba on his candor and fighting hard for climate policies. Bowman remarked that Gamba says the same thing in the House Democratic Caucus meetings that he boldly says in public.

As the party started to wind down, I approached Mark to thank him for what he said, especially the Redheaded Stepchild quip that I loved. Mark looked at me with my reddish blonde hair and beard. He turned red in the face and gasped, “I am so sorry, Brian! I did not mean you! I was using an old expression about the child that looks and is treated different than everyone else.”

I laughed and assured him that no apology was needed. He was spot on with his redheaded stepchild remark. In fact, I planned on using his description in the future.

Mark knows of my frequent use of public transportation. He asked if I took the bus the event. I responded that I took two buses and a MAX commuter train to attend. Mark replied, “Come on! I am giving you a ride home!”

I appreciated Mark giving me a ride home to save time from the lengthy public transit ride, saving on bus fare, and riding in his white Tesla electric car.

One month later, on November 18th, I met with my Oregon Senator Kayse Jama. I began the lobby meeting sharing the story of Mark’s metaphor. I then embarrassed him afterwards with my compliment coming from a red head and he felt so ashamed that he gave me a ride home. I then referred to myself as “The Red Headed Stepchild of the Climate Movement.”

The got a big laugh from Senator Jama, his legislative aide, and my friends who lobbied with me at this meeting. Yes, climate does still feel like the redheaded stepchild compared to all the other policies clamoring for the legislators’ attention such as affordable housing, immigration, access to healthcare, transportation, and so many other vital issues. Because of the lack of federal funds and sluggish growth of the Oregon economy, it will be hard to pass climate bills in the 2026 legislative session. Other climate organizers and I know we will have a difficult time urging legislators to pass climate bills in 2026 with so many pressing needs.

I will never give up. We need a livable planet or nothing else will matter. I often think about the quote attributed to Henry David Thoreau, “What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?”

Therefore, as a blonde with reddish highlights in my hair, a reddish beard with a touch of gray that comes with age, and as a tenacious climate organizer, I proudly will continue to call myself “The Red Headed Stepchild of the Climate Movement.”

“Freedom must involve unpredictability”
– Author, American historian and professor Dr. Timothy Snyder
from his 2024 book, On Freedom

A popular concept attributed to several motivational influences is “Step outside of your comfort zone. It’s where the magic happens.” The magic is what happened to me on September 25, 2025. Several weeks before, a friend and fellow organizer in Portland, Oregon, Timur Endur, sent this email to his contacts:

“I wanted to extend the invite to the Karaoke Night & Birthday Bash for my good friend (Oregon) state senator Khanh Pham. Senator Pham has been a leading voice for climate action, transportation & housing in the state legislature. I’m a co-host for the event and hope you’ll join me at Mekong Bistro for the event later this month!”

I had lunch with Timur last winter. I met him when he ran for Portland City Council in 2024. I trusted his judgement that this would be a fun party to attend. Even more, I saw Senator Pham post a video from a her previous bash karaoke fundraiser of a mutual friend, KB Mercer, joyfully dancing to the music at this annual party. Sadly, this KB passed away a few days in September 2024. After I watched that video of my friend dancing, I wanted to attend this lively karaoke birthday bash when it would occur in 2025.

The ironic part was Senator Pham and I got off to a rocky start when I met her on January 7, 2021 as part of my climate organizing. I requested a lobby meeting in September 2020 when she ran to be elected as a Representative to the Oregon Legislature in that November election. At that time, I volunteered with Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL). As part of my activism with CCL, I met with Oregon legislators to ask them to endorse CCL’s federal carbon pricing bill, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act H.R. 763. I succeeded in persuading over 30 Oregon legislators to endorse that Congressional bill, including then House Speaker Tina Kotek.

In a lobby meeting with Oregon Representative Tiffiny Mitchell in September 2020, she offered to introduce into the Oregon Legislature a state resolution supporting the federal carbon pricing bill. Rep. Mitchell did not run for re-election in November 2020. She requested Senator Michael Dembrow to introduce this resolution on the Senate floor on February 4, 2021. The resolution became known as Senate Joint Memorial 5 or SJM 5. It had 10 legislative sponsors when it was introduced. I hoped Representative Pham could be the 11th.

I was impressed with Khanh Pham’s background as a community organizer in Portland. She was a founding leader and spokesperson for the groundbreaking Portland Clean Energy Fund Initiative, which was successfully passed in November 2018 by a 2 to 1 margin. It won in large part due to a to a broad coalition spanning environmental organizations, environmental justice groups, communities of color, labor, small businesses and neighborhood associations.

Then she helped start the Oregon Just Transition Alliance, which undertook a statewide listening tour to ask frontline communities what kind of Green New Deal made sense for them. When she won her state representative seat in November 2020, she was the first Vietnamese American elected to the Oregon Legislature. With her strong progressive and climate advocacy background, I hoped she would be an ally in my effort to get SJM 5 passed in the Oregon Legislature.

Our January 7, 2021 meeting felt like a disaster. She immediately refused to support the climate resolution I was advocating. She shared her biggest frustration that advocates of carbon pricing seem to emphasize it to a point that it sucks the oxygen out of the room for other climate solutions. When I humbly pleaded with her that most economists support carbon pricing to tackle climate change, she looked at me like I was mansplaining to her. Of the hundreds of legislative and Congressional lobby meetings I had over the last 11 years, it felt like my worst meeting of all. She acted openly hostile to me. I felt crushed.

I had to work around her opposition to try to organize to get SJM 5 passed in the Oregon Legislature. I almost succeeded. It passed out of the Oregon Senate on April 7th by a vote of 23 to 5, with 6 Republican Senators voting in support. SJM 5 ended up with 30 House sponsors, including 7 Republicans. However, the resolution died in June 2021 when House Majority Leader Barbara Smith Warner refused to allow it to have a hearing in the Rules Committee.

It was a heartbreaking loss for me. Even worse, at a town hall at the end of the session, Representative Pham referred to SJM 5 as a ‘waste of time.’ That criticism stung badly.

In the years afterwards, a thaw started to happen as we on the same side working on many climate bills. She had a fundraiser and forum on democracy that I helped organize in August 2024. She texted me to thank me for assisting in co-hosting the event. I attended two more of her community fundraising events in December 2024 and January 2025 because I believed she was one of the strongest climate champions in the Oregon Legislature.

Thus, I was in the habit of attending her fundraising events when Timur sent me the email in early September to coax me to attend her birthday fundraiser on September 25, 2025. The birthday fundraiser would center around karaoke. I was always intrigued by karaoke, but I had never tried it. I RSVPed for this event soon after the email from Timur.

On September 25th, my wife decided at the last minute she would join me for this fundraiser. I was thrilled to have her with me. We were some of the first guests to arrive to the party. Senator Pham personally greeted all the guests after they signed in at the check in table. She was surprised to see me there. She inquired what brought me to the party.

I responded I saw how much fun our friend KB Mercer had dancing at Khanh’s birthday party from video Khanh posted after KB passed away. We both sighed with sadness that our mutual friend was no longer around. Her eyes then lit up with joy as she remembered KB dancing and bringing so much zeal to her previous birthday fundraiser. Senator Pham then asked if she could give me a hug, which I gladly allowed. She was pleased I was there.

Tanya and I enjoyed the tasty assortments of Vietnamese food available in this restaurant that was solely booked for Khanh’s party that evening. I mingled with friends while Tanya and I ate dinner. The party organizers announced they were looking for people to sign up for the karaoke. I decided on the spot to sign up on the list to perform a karaoke song. As I put my name on the list, I wrote down the song I wanted to sing, “September” by Earth Wind and Fire.

A couple of years ago, I learned in a National Public Radio (NPR) story that song was one of the most popular played songs in wedding receptions in the U.S. I made sure that song played at my wedding reception in November 2015. According to that NPR article, the song “September” ‘made its way into TV shows, commercials, sporting events and video games. In 2008, it played at both the Republican and Democratic national conventions. Taylor Swift recorded a lightly countrified cover in 2018.’

I knew I could not go wrong with that song. I then ran into Timur at the party. We were happy to see each other. It was the first time we talked since having coffee months before. I told him I signed up to sing karaoke. Even more, I wanted him on stage with me since he encouraged me to come to the party. Timur was cautious about my request at first. He asked me what song.

I replied, “’September’ by Earth, Wind, and Fire.”

He hesitated, “I don’t think I know that song. However, if you can get others to join us on stage, I will join you on stage.”

“Deal!” I remarked. “You know that song. You probably have heard it. It’s one of the most popular dance songs of all time. I will get you the lyrics to sing along.”

“Ok,” he responded, “I will see you on stage when the time comes.”

As the karaoke party progressed, I became nervous in the back of the room since I never performed karaoke before. I internally wondered what I signed myself up to do. At the same time, everyone on stage were full of joy singing karaoke. Plus, the dance floor had many of the many of the attendees cheerfully dancing to the songs. 

I then heard this announcement, “Next up to perform Karaoke is Brian Ettling performing ‘September’ by Earth, Wind, and Fire.” 

Gulp! It was showtime. I had a few butterflies in my stomach like it was the first day of school. 

I walked on the stage with Timur joining me. We convinced a middle aged Asian American woman to sing with us. Plus, a 12-year-old girl joined us on stage. 

The music started up. Most of the folks sitting in their chairs were drawn to the dance floor by the upbeat rhythms and melody. Senator Pham was on the dance floor blissfully moving to the song. I started singing the song with Timur and the others joining me. The people on the dance floor had so much fun dancing that they did not know how good or bad my singing was. The song was mostly easy to sing along. I even improvised some song lyrics. 

I was back on stage and loving it. I used to be the center of attention when I gave ranger talks working in the national parks from 1998 to 2017. I acted in plays in college. I have given over 200 climate change talks as a public speaker in 12 U.S. states from 2011 to 2019. However, I fell out of habit giving public presentations in 2020 when the COVID pandemic lockdowns happened. I have done very little public speeches since then. 

I forgotten how much I love being on stage. My wife Tanya smiled with pride as she took photos of me performing the song. I was back in my element! As each song concluded, the karaoke singers were encouraged to express birthday wishes to Khanh Pham. 

When the song was over, I gladly wished Senator Pham a happy birthday on the microphone and thanked her for being one of the strongest climate champions in the Oregon Legislature. 

She was delighted to hear my words. Later, she thanked Tanya and me for coming to her party when we decided it was time to head home. I had the time of my life performing karaoke at that party. I want to do that again sometime. I want to find another way to be on stage again!  

We are living in a time when American democracy is in danger. Experts on authoritarianism, like Dr. Timothy Snyder, advise us to be unpredictable as individuals to help save our democracy. Well, I believe I had a fantastic time being unpredictable singing karaoke at a public fundraiser for a past political adversary now friend in September 2025.  

This is the third and final part of my blog about my trip to Washington D.C. July 19-23, 2023. The first part focused on my arrival in Washington D.C, the friends I stayed with in Takoma Park, touring the National Archives and Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and the Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) Conference to prepare for the Congressional Lobby Day.

Part 2 is an account of my experience lobbying on Congressional Offices on July 22nd.
Part 3 (below) is my recollection of the evening guided tour of the U.S. Capitol Building led by Congresswoman Val Hoyle.

Invitation for a Guided Tour of the U.S. Capitol led by Congresswoman Val Hoyle

For this July 22, 2025 CCL Congressional Lobby Day, had something different planned for Oregon CCL volunteers. Teresa Welch from Corvallis, OR asked her member of Congress, Representative Val Hoyle, to give a tour of the U.S. Capitol to the Oregon CCL delegation. Daniela Brod, Oregon CCL state co-coordinator, sent this email the day before on July 21st:

“Hello Oregonians in DC-
We have just been presented the opportunity to take a tour of the Capitol building guided by Rep. Val Hoyle, Oregon’s Representative for the 4th District. We do not know the EXACT timing at this point, but we hear it will be tomorrow, Tuesday July 22nd, ‘Evening’.
I assume this will be around 5 or 6pm. Don’t know though.
Please respond here if you are interested with a ‘YES’”

I immediately responded with “Yes! Please RSVP me!”

Teresa then sent out an email on the morning of the July 22nd lobby day:

“Good morning,
For those of you going on tonight’s tour of the Capitol with Rep. Hoyle, here is what you need to know.
The tour will begin at 7pm from Rep. Hoyle’s office (1620 Longworth).
Be sure you are in the building BEFORE 7pm, as the office buildings close to the public at 7pm. If you are late, you’ll need to contact one of your group who is already in Rep. Hoyle’s office, and they will have to ask Rep. Hoyle to come down and escort you inside.
The tour will last about two hours. Wear comfortable walking shoes. Restrooms are available along the route.
Have fun!”

Even with the normal excitement of the CCL photo on the Capitol steps and the Congressional lobby meetings, I felt the tug of anticipation for this Capitol tour with Rep. Hoyle at 7 pm.

After I finished my lobby meetings around 4:30 pm, I met up with two Oregon CCL friends. We walked to a nearby pizzeria called We, the Pizza to order slices of pizza before the evening tour. We ate our pizza on tables outside in front of the restaurant. It was a typical Washington, D.C. humid July day. But, not too hot that we could relax eating outside while the traffic and local D.C. pedestrians walked by us, with some stopping inside to order and pick up their pizzas.

We then walked back over the House Congressional Offices Buildings to go to Rep. Hoyle’s office in the Longworth House Office Building on the 6th floor. We arrived in front of her office around 6:30 pm. Others from the Oregon CCL team joined us inside her office around 6:45 pm. As we waited patiently, a gentleman from New York City joined us who was a survivor of the 9/11 attacks. Like the CCL advocates, he lobbied Congressional offices that day, but he advocated for federal funding for 9/11 survivors. He was friendly and graciously answered my questions about his memories of experiencing 9/11 in New York City. He told us that Rep. Val Hoyle struck up a conversation with him that day. She then invited him on this U.S. Capitol tour that evening.

As we waited inside the office, a large group from Ocean Spray Cranberries stood outside. Rep. Hoyle also invited them on the tour. Around 7 pm, Rep. Hoyle came out of her office delighted to start this U.S. Capitol Tour with everyone assembled. Included in this group, I met a middle-aged woman who was a lifelong best friend of Val Hoyle. Both of them grew up in Nashua, New Hampshire. Her childhood friend stayed in New England while Val moved to Oregon decades ago. They stayed close. Her friend was so excited when Val was elected to Congress since she could see her more often on the east coast.

Guided Tour of the U.S. Capitol Building led by Congresswoman Val Hoyle

At the beginning of the tour, Rep. Hoyle disclosed she likes giving these tours of the U.S. Capitol herself. She informed us the Republican House members tend to give the tours more than their Democratic colleagues. However, more Democratic members see the value of giving these U.S. Capitol tours themselves, instead of delegating them to staff or the Capitol Tour Guides, as a great way to connect with constituents and the public. In fact, Rep. Hoyle ran into one of her GOP colleagues leading a tour of the Capitol while we were in the middle of our tour. They were friendly and easy going briefly chatting with each other. They did not display the animosity that you see GOP and Democratic members of Congress acting towards each other on TV.

This tour lasted over 2 hours with Rep. Hoyle narrating the entire tour. She had some notes with her, but she mostly spoke without her notes with all the details she knew about the U.S. Capitol Building. She started the tour by showing us the artwork in the Cannon Tunnel, a curved tunnel connecting the House Cannon Office Building to the U.S. Capitol. Along one of the walls is displayed paintings from high school students across the U.S. Each state and territory is allotted two pieces of art. Rep. Hoyle marveled at the artwork remarked that nearly all of it looked like it was created by adults not high school students.

We then stepped into the lower-level visitor lobby of the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. Just before we entered, we looked up at a glass ceiling with the U.S. Capitol Dome peaking right above us. On either side of the staircases leading into the Capitol Building stood a white 19.5-foot plaster replica of the bronze Statue of Freedom that sits on top of the Capitol Dome. Rep. Hoyle informed us that the statute on top of the U.S. Capitol weighs almost 8 tons.

The plaster statue was inspiring to see up close. It was a Romanesque looking woman with feathers on top of her head wearing robes. Her right-hand holds handle upon of a sheathed sword wrapped in a scarf. Her left hand she hangs onto a laurel wreath of victory and the shield of the United States with 13 stripes.

Congresswoman Hoyle then wanted us to notice the 18 statues placed around the Visitor Center. These 18 statues are part of the National Statuary Hall Collection. The legislatures of each U.S. state and the District of Columbia selected two statues of noted individuals from their state to be displayed throughout the Capitol. In the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, I took photos and admired the bronze statues of Helen Keller from Alabama, Sakakawea from North Dakota, Kamehameha I from Hawaii, Frederick Douglas from Washington D.C, John I “Jack” Swigert, Jr. from Colorado, and Johnny Cash from Arkansas. Rep. Hoyle particularly liked the Johnny Cash statue. She proclaimed, ‘If Johnny Cash was from Oregon, we would have the Johnny Cash statue.”

We next entered the area known as the Capitol Crypt. It is the spaced of vaulted columns located one level below the Capitol Rotunda. It is long been referred to as the Crypt because it looks like areas in churches, which were often used for chapels and tombs. Directly beneath the Crypt is a spot where Congress intended to place the remains of George and Martha Washington. However, his last will stipulated his desire to be buried at home at Mount Vernon. Thus, No one was buried in the Capitol.

Even though the name, the crypt, makes it sound dreary and dark, this area was well lit with plenty of lighting, plus light grey marble floors and walls. It contained more state designated statues such as Billy Graham for North Carolina, John C. Calhoun for South Carolina, and Samuel Adams for Massachusetts. It held a large white stone bust of Abraham Lincoln and respected international leaders who defended freedom, such as Winston Churchill and Václav Havel former President, author, poet, playwright and dissident of Czechoslovakia. I admired all the stone statues and artwork on display in the U.S. Capitol Building. I spent a lot of time on the tour gazing at the artwork. The U.S. Capitol is a shrine to American democracy, but also a temple of sacred art showcasing the best of the American democracy ideal.

The Shadow of the January 6, 2021 Insurrection that was felt during the Capitol Tour

We turned a corner from the Crypt and saw a sign for the exterior area for the office of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. This is where the tour of the U.S. Capitol became a bit frightening and eerie for me. I remember the news reports of the violent January 6th insurrectionists smashing that same sign for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. When the rioters smashed that sign, they smashed a piece of my heart for my reverence for American democracy.

We then went upstairs to be in the Capitol Rotunda area. I have vivid memories of the news stories with the January 6th insurrectionists walking through the Rotunda area unsure what to do. I was memorized by the life size paintings on the curved walls depicting the American Revolution and early colonial history. It was glorious to see the ceiling painting “The Apotheosis of Washington” in the ceiling or eye of the Rotunda painted by Constantino Brumidi in 1865. It shows George Washington ascending to the heavens in glory, surrounded by female figures representing Liberty and Victory/Fame. Back on the floor level, I was in awe seeing the statues of 8 Presidents Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Andrew Jackson, James Garfield, and Harry Truman spaced around the Rotunda. In addition, the Rotunda had a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sculpture and the Portrait Monument to the women’s rights suffragettes Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

As I was enthralled seeing all this artwork standing in the rotunda, I was sad to think about the January 6th insurrectionists possibly damaging this sacred art representing American history. It made me angry to think Donald Trump instigated the insurrection. Mobs of people responded to his call by violently invading the Capitol Building and crowding into the Rotunda. It was later revealed that the rioters caused curators to seek $25,000 to repair artworks damaged in U.S. Capitol Attack. Days after the January 6th insurrection, curators found fine residue that could wreak long-lasting damage on some of the fragile historical busts I saw, such as Speaker Champ Clark, Speaker Joe Cannon, and a statue of Thomas Jefferson. January 6th taught us that democracy is as delicate and fragile as the majestic Capitol artwork. In February 2021, the Architect of the Capitol outlined $30 million in damages from the Pro-Trump riot.

It felt creepy that Trump was inaugurated as President inside the Rotunda just months before on January 20th. That same month, former President Jimmy Carter lay in state in the Rotunda less than two weeks before Trump was sworn in President there. So much history in that room. In addition, I spotted a large bronze plaque dedicated:

“IN MEMORY OF
THE PASSENGERS AND CREW OF UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT 93,
WHOSE BRAVE SACRAFICE ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001,

NOT ONLY SAVED COUNTLESS LIVES
BUT MAY HAVE SAVED THE U.S. CAPITOL FROM DESTRUCTION”

This plaque then lists the passengers and crew of flight 93. Overall, it was a joyful experience to tour the Capitol Building led by Rep. Val Hoyle. However, this plaque was a reminder of those who fought and sacrificed their lives to defend our nation and the central symbol of our democracy, the U.S. Capitol Building.

A highlight of the tour was standing on the floor of the House Chamber, also known as the “Hall of the House of Representatives.” The room looked and felt smaller than all the times I saw it on TV for the President’s State of the Union Address and other Congressional proceedings. It is such a sacred space that the security guard insisted that we all had to leave our cell phones and cameras outside the chamber in the Speaker’s Lobby. It was by the glass doors that I felt more sadness. I was standing by the spot where a U.S. Capitol Police Officer fatally shot Ashli Babbitt on January 6th. The United States Attorney’s Office of the District of Columbia investigation later concluded that the Police Officer did not commit any violations when he reasonably believed “it was necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber.”

Ashli Babbitt was part of the riot mob attempting to storm into the House Chamber as Congress counted the Electoral College votes to certify that Joe Biden won the Presidency over Donald Trump. Members of Congress were still in the U.S. House Chamber as rioters attempted to enter the Speaker’s Chamber and then the Chamber to possibly harm them.

It was a heartbreaking tragedy that Ashli Babbitt lost her life refusing to accept Joe Biden won the 2020 election. Instead, she believed the Big Lie that Donald Trump won the 2020 election, but it was stolen from him. She then participated in the January 6th insurrection to try to overturn the results of a free and fair election. She could still be alive today if she had made different life choices in January 2021. Trump asked the mob, including Ashli Babbitt, to come to Washington, D.C. on January 6th. Ashli was a responsible adult accountable for her own actions. Yet, Trump urging her and thousands of others to come to Washington, D.C. to protest the election results that ultimately caused the loss of her life. I quietly pointed out the spot where Ashli Babbitt died to a couple of CCL Oregon friends who were also on the tour. They did not know what to say when I noted that bit of history.

I saw more reminders of January 6th during the tour. I saw a window that looks out into an outside porch that was probably broken and breach by the January 6th insurrectionists. I recognized from TV some of the hallways where the rioters walked through in mass and where the video footage showed on January 6th where members of Congress ran to escape. Rep. Hoyle did a wonderful job leading the tour and sharing many historical tidbits along the way. However, I finally had to ask her near the end of the tour if she knew much about the damage from the January 6th attacks. She stated she did not have any information. To her credit, she was first elected to Congress in November 2022 and did not assume office until January 2023. Thus, she did not have any comments or have any interest to say anything about January 6th.

The dark shadow of January 6th was present for those with searing memories of seeing it on TV, like me. We cannot forget the 5 members of the U.S. Capitol Police lost their lives, plus 140 Officers were injured, defending the Capitol that day from the insurrection. Besides January 6th, I felt the U.S. Capitol had not fully reckoned with its past by continuing to have statues of proslavery individuals such as John C. Calhoun and Sam Houston, and a statue to Jefferson Davis, who served as President of the Confederancy during the Civil War. In 2020, after the killing of George Floyd, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for the removal of statues associated with the Confederancy. She believed the statues, donated by states, pay “homage to hate, not heritage.”

Highlights of the Artwork and History of the Guided Tour of the U.S. Capitol

Even with the U.S. Capitol showing the shortcomings of recent and distant U.S. history, I was amazed by so much I saw during the tour. It felt sublime for me to stand in National Statuary Hall, the meeting place of the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly 50 years (1807–1857). This was the room where Abraham Lincoln served as a member of Congress from Illinois for a single term from 1847 to 1849. With its shiny white and black checkered marbled floor, grey glistening marbled columns with red satin curtains with gold edges draped behind the columns. Standing above was a curved bright white ceiling with gold coffered squares evenly placed to give it a more regal look. Even placed were statues from the states giving Statuary Hall its name. In this room, I liked seeing the statues of Civil Rights Leader Daisy Lee Gatson Bates, Robert Fulton, Amelia Earhart, Chief Standing Bear, Rosa Parks, and Barry Goldwater.

After we walked through Statuary Hall, Rep. Hoyle next showed us the old the Speaker’s Room of the U.S. Capitol. It is the room where former President and then Representative John Quincy Adams died on February 23, 1848. Today, it is known as the Lindy Claiborne Boggs Congressional Women’s Reading Room. Since 1962, the suite is exclusively used by the Congresswomen of the House. Women of both political parties use this room. Head shot photos of all the female members of Congress greeted us as we entered this room.

Rep. Hoyle then led us to a hallway that had busts of former Vice Presidents, such as Richard “Dick” Cheney and Albert Gore, Jr. It was a joyful moment for me to see the bust of Al Gore. I finally saw a bust or statue of a historical figure in the U.S. Capitol of someone I had met. It was one of the highlights of my life meeting and getting my photo with former Vice President Al Gore at the Climate Reality Cedar Rapids Training in May 2015.

When I saw the Academy Award winning documentary about Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, at the movie theatre in Ashland, Oregon in 2006, it inspired me to become a climate activist and organizer. I created this website, Climatechangecomedian.com in 2010. I started this blog in February 2011. I gave my first climate change evening program as a park ranger at Crater Lake National Park in August 2011. I joined CCL in May 2012. A few months later, I attended a Climate Reality Project Training led by Al Gore in San Francisco, CA in August 2012. In a sense, I was at the Capitol attending this tour because Al Gore inspired me to get involved in the climate movement and participate in CCL Congressional Lobby Days. His bust was in the Capitol because of his work as Vice President of the United States from 1993-2001. I will always be grateful to him for inspiring me and countless others to become active in the climate movement.

Another hallway had paintings commemorating the first people of color to service in Congress, such as Joseph Rainey – the first African American sworn into Congress in 1870, Patsy Takemoto Mink – the first woman of color and first Asian American woman elected to Congress in 1964, and Shirley Chisholm – the first African American woman elected to Congress in 1968.

After seeing all these hallways, rooms, and artwork in the U.S. Capitol, it was time to head back to Rep. Hoyle’s office to pick up my backpack and suit jacket. As I left Rep. Hoyle’s office, I thanked her for the tour, and she posed for selfie photo with me. I then asked her if she would be seeing my Rep. Maxine Dexter soon. She responded yes because they serve together on the House Committee on Natural Resources. I then inquired if she could thank Maxine for her time meeting with our group of volunteers earlier that day.

Rep. Hoyle then smiled and shot back sarcastically, “Her time!”

I then felt embarrassed and sheepishly replied, “Of course, I really appreciate for your time to give this tour this evening.”

Even though I flubbed badly this interaction with Congresswoman Hoyle, I will always be grateful for her time and enthusiasm to be part of her guided tour of the U.S. Capitol building.

I visited all 50 U.S. states and took many public tours of historical buildings, monuments, and national parks. This guided tour of the U.S. Capitol, which is an iconic symbol of American democracy, led by Rep. Val Hoyle, was one of the best public tours I experienced. If you get an opportunity to take a tour of the Capitol Building, especially with a member of Congress, do it!

I then left Rep. Hoyle’s office with some of the other Oregon CCL volunteers. We walked in front of the east side of the U.S. Capitol to head back to the Union Station Metro stop. The U.S. Capitol Dome light up the night with the bright lights shining on it like a beacon light for American ideals on this quiet July evening.

Final thoughts from my Trip to Washington D.C. July 19-23, 2025

My trip to Washington D.C. was completed. It was time to take the D.C. Metro back to Tom and Reena’s house in Tacoma Park, Maryland to visit with them for one last evening. This was my 11th time lobbying in Washington D.C. Each time I lobby there is an unforgettable adventure. I hope to lobby there again, but there’s no guarantees. This trip was probably one of my best lobby experiences with my first face-to-face Washington D.C. lobby meeting with my member of Congress, Rep. Maxine Dexter and the tour of the U.S. Capitol led by Congresswoman Val Hoyle.

The next day, Wednesday July 23rd, I was off to my next escapade. I was flying from Washington D.C. to Cincinnati, Ohio to meet up with my friend Mark Deeter. We then drove to Cedar Point Amusement Park northern Ohio to ride roller coasters on Thursday, July 24th. We then planned to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio on Friday, July 25th, before I headed back to Portland to reunite with my wife Tanya on July 26th.

Is it still worth it to travel to Washington D.C. to lobby for climate action in the era of Donald Trump? My response is ABSOLUTELY!

This is the second part of my blog about my trip to Washington D.C. July 19-23, 2023. Part 1 focused on my arrival in Washington D.C, the friends I stayed with in Takoma Park, touring the National Archives and Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and the Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) Conference to prepare for the Congressional Lobby Day.

Part 2 (below) is about my experience lobbying on Congressional Offices on Capitol Hill.
Part 3 is my recollection of the evening guided tour inside the U.S. Capitol Building led by Congresswoman Val Hoyle.

The CCL group photo on the Capitol Steps at 8 am in the morning

These are long days on lobbying on Capitol Hill. I set my alarm to wake me up around 5:30 am so I could shower, put on my dress business suit, and eat a good breakfast. I needed to leave the house where I stayed by 7 am to walk or see if I could catch the bus to Takoma Park DC Metro station to head towards the U.S. Capitol Building. I reached the Union Station Metro stop by 7:40 am. The U.S. Capitol Building Rotunda Dome looks like a lighthouse beacon greeting us coming up from the escalators at Union Station. As soon as I left Union Station, I found myself in the middle of a throng of CCL volunteers, old friends and new, in our best business suits happy to see each other and eager to lobby for the day.

All of us CCL volunteers and staff needed to be there before 8 am sharp to be in the CCL group photo of around 800 volunteers on the northeast U.S. Capitol Building Steps that would be lobbying Congressional Offices that day. We created a sea of people covering and occupying the lower half northeast Capitol Building Steps. I participated in over 10 of these lobby photos from previous CCL Congressional Lobby days. It was a motivating way to start the day. In past years, the CCL volunteers break out into singing “This Land Is Your Land” with our excitement of being together for the traditional big group photo on the Capitol steps.

After CCL staff took the group photo, I mingled with old and new CCL friends. For this lobby day, I volunteered to be in CCL publicity photos of volunteers talking to each other with the Capitol Dome in the photo background. They mostly needed young women and people of color front and center in the photos. At the same time, as 57-year-old white male, it was still helpful for CCL for me to be in the background of some of the potential publicity shots.

My first lobby meeting was at 10 am at the Hart Senate Office Building with staff of Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon. The Hart Office Building is basically two city blocks from the Capitol building, only about a 2-minute walk. After the publicity photos wrapped up, I had plenty of time to text and call my mom, my niece, and my wife Tanya to let them know I was by the U.S. Capitol Building getting ready to lobby Congressional Offices for the day. I took my traditional selfie photos on lobby day in my dress suit with the U.S. Capitol Dome behind my left shoulder. It was a beautiful clear summer day in Washington, D.C, and it was muggy and humid. Too hot to wear a suit jacket outside, except to be seen with it in photos. I chose to carry my jacket on my arm so I would not sweat as much before my Congressional lobby meetings.

The CCL Lobby Meeting with Staff of U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley

After chatting with various CCL friends in front of the Capitol Building, I started walking to make it in plenty of time to my 10 am Senate lobby meeting. I entered the Russell Senate Building, located across the street from the north side of the Capitol. The bad news is that it takes a couple of minutes to go through an airport like metal detector screening to enter inside any Congressional Building. All metal must be out of one’s pockets, such as keys, business card cases, wallet with coins, etc. The good news is that all the Senate Office Buildings on the Senate side connect with each other and the House Office Building on the House side all connect with below ground tunnels. The tunnels are open for anyone to use, not just members of Congress. They are very helpful shortcuts to get around the Senate and House Office Building, without going through the airport like security check points each time.

I made it to the front of Senator Jeff Merkley’s office around 9:30 am. I hate being late or last minute to any of these lobby meetings. Arriving early gave me plenty of time to relax until the rest of the CCL lobby team arrived between 9:45 to 9:50 am. We went into the Senator’s office reception area a few minutes before 10 am to announce we arrived for our 10 am scheduled lobby meeting. We were then led into a conference room to talk with Senator Merkley’s staff: Ben Schreiber, Director of Climate and Energy, and Kat Abrams, Legislative Correspondent.

CCL trains it volunteers to keep anything said by members of Congress and their staff confidential to build trust and a positive working relationship. I will say all the CCL participants were happy with the outcome of the meeting. We felt like we had a great exchange of ideas and insights from Ben and Kat. We learned a lot hearing Senator Merkley’s staff perspectives on the CCL priorities of permitting reform and the Fix Our Forests Act.

I started the meeting with an appreciation for Senator Merkley for all he has fought for to try to improve our democracy, especially the 2024 that he wrote Filibustered: How to Fix the Broken Senate and Save America. Ben and Kat were pleased that I brought a copy of the book with me.

I mentioned my dream for the past year since I read the book. I wanted to organize a public event with Senator Merkley, similar to what Portland CCL did on April 18, 2024, for Congressional candidates Maxine Dexter and Susheela Jayapal. At the April 2024 Climate Candidate Forum, Dexter and Jayapal shared their climate change thoughts and priorities if elected to Congress. With Sen. Merkley, I think I would be beneficial to discuss his filibuster book and his thoughts how we can improve American democracy, especially to pass effective climate policies.

Ben offered that I should email him after the meeting, and he would be glad to connect me with the staff in Merkley’s office who are focused on democracy issues. After the lobby meeting, Kat gave me the business cards of Merkley’s staff working on democracy policy. I followed up with reaching out to his staff about organizing such an event with the Senator. I have not heard little from his staff about such an event, but I am going to keep politely asking.

After the meeting, I asked if we could get a group photo with Ben, Kat, and the CCL volunteers. Ben and Kat readily agreed to be in the photo with us. They walked with the CCL volunteers to the hallway outside Senator Merkley’s office to be part of a group photo. Ben and Kat then chatted with us outside of Senator Merkley’s office for another 5 to 10 minutes. Ben was gracious to converse more about his energy and climate knowledge with his vast expertise serving as the Director of Climate and Energy for several years for Senator Merkley.

In my 10 years of lobbying for CCL and attending 11 CCL conferences & Capitol Hill Lobby Days, I never saw legislative staff hang out with CCL volunteers for that length of time after the official meeting to continue the conversation. If they were not called back into the office for another meeting, I had the impression that Ben and Kat would have talked with us longer, possibly even gone out for coffee with us. From his generous use of time and willingness to extend the interaction well beyond the allotted meeting time, we had the impression that Ben and Kat enjoyed meeting with our group of CCL volunteers for the July 22nd CCL Lobby Day on Capitol Hill.

A Chance Encounter with Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici from Oregon

After the meeting lobby meeting with Senator Merkley’s staff, I left the Senate Office Buildings to walk in front of the Supreme Court Building and the east side of the U.S. Capitol Building around 11:15 am to head to the U.S. House Congressional Offices for my three afternoon meetings. The next meeting I had was with my Representative Maxine Dexter and her staff at her office at the Longworth House Office Building at 1 pm. I made it through the security checkpoint around 11:25 am, with plenty of time to eat lunch and get ready for the 1 pm meeting.

A fascinating part of lobbying on Congressional Offices on Capitol Hill is you might just inadvertently interact with a member of Congress as they are passing in the hallway. In June 2024, I got to say hello and take a selfie with Congressman Jamie Raskin. In June 2023, I said hello to Senators Ted Cruz and John Kennedy in the hallway on the Senate side. They were both lost in their thoughts and had no interest to say hello to me.

After I entered Longworth, I opted to familiarize myself with the exact location of Rep. Dexter’s office so I would know exactly where to go for the 1 pm meeting. As I took the stairs up to find her office, I saw someone familiar walking down the steps with a group of staff. It was Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici, who also represents Portland Oregon in Congress. She walked right past and then immediately turned around to point at me to say, “You look familiar.”

I responded, “I am Brian Ettling from northeast Portland, Oregon. Like you, I was at Congressman Earl Blumenauer’s retirement party last December. We have both attended various events in Portland over the years. I am here today as a volunteer with Citizens’ Climate Lobby.”

She replied, “We look forward to our meeting with you later on today.”

She then continued briskly walking with her staff to reach some destination. I didn’t have time to respond that I was not assigned to this CCL lobby meeting. However, I was thrilled that Representative Bonamici seemed to somehow recognize me.

Lunch at a Congressional Office Building and waiting for the 1 pm lobby meeting

Representative Dexter’s office was just a few feet away from my friendly interaction with Rep. Bonamici. After I was satisfied I knew the location of the office, I went down to the basement cafeteria to have lunch. The Congressional Cafeterias have the best food of any school, corporate, or organizational cafeteria I have seen. You can find most kinds of food that you are craving on any day, such as pizza, Mexican food, Asian food, a sprawling salad bar, various soups, made to order sandwiches, many different types of desserts, etc.

It was around noon, so the cafeteria was packed with people. There were business and industry lobbyists, Congressional staff, citizen volunteer lobbyists from other advocacy organizations, and CCL volunteers eating at several tables throughout the cafeteria. The CCLers were easy to spot since they all wore their white circular Citizens’ Climate lobby buttons. They tended to sit together to do last minute planning for their next lobby meeting. Televisions monitors mounted on the walls close to the ceiling had CNN and Fox News Channels on with the sound off. It was a sobering reminder that decisions made here daily directly impacts the up-to-the-minute news.

Around 12:40 pm, I headed up the two flights up steps to be outside of Rep. Maxine Dexter’s office to greet my team to assemble outside the office around 12:50 pm. All of us wanted to be in front of the office at least 10 minutes before the scheduled meeting at 1 pm to converse about any last-minute details. The outer door to Rep. Dexter’s Congressional Office was open and we could see the receptionist right by the door.

I shepherded my lobby team to a side corridor away from where the office staff might hear us. Once the group gathered, I mistakenly advised them that this was scheduled to be a face-to-face meeting with Rep. Dexter. However, my experience lobbying for the last 10 years for CCL in Washington D.C. is that members of Congress always run into last minute meetings and schedule changes that prevents a direct meeting with CCL. Thus, I gave it a very low probability that she would meet with us. I tried to stress again like in the prep meeting the day before to listen carefully to the staff’s responses to our questions, especially their sticking points and objections, to make sure they feel fully heard before we respond to our cherished talking points. Everyone had a nervous excitement, especially me for this meeting to start and be successful.

CCL Lobby Meeting with my Congresswoman Maxine Dexter and her staff

Right before 1 pm, we walked inside Rep. Dexter’s Congressional Office to the reception area. We introduced ourselves from CCL and stated we had a 1 pm meeting with staff. The receptionist led us to a large circular 8-person table that we all barely fit around. We asked the Energy and Environmental Aide Gillian (Gil) Mead how much time she had scheduled with us. Gil responded, “That depends upon Congresswoman Dexter who will be joining us any moment.”

We barely started our introductions with Gil when Rep. Dexter came into the room from her closed inner office door. She explained that she just finished her quick lunch. Her scheduled happened to change that day and she was eager to join us. I later learned that House Speaker Mike Johnson shut down House for the summer before the official August recess to sideline calls for Epstein transparency.

She gave me and others that she recognized in the room hugs as she went around the table to greet everyone. I was extremely surprised and ecstatic to see Rep. Dexter. I never had a face-to-face meeting with a member of Congress in my 10 years of lobbying with CCL, let alone my member of Congress. Even more, it felt even more of an elevated high wire situation for me since I led this meeting. I want to stress that our conversations in our lobby meetings are confidential to build and maintain trust with members of Congress and their staff.

I will share this: as we talked our CCL priorities such as permitting reform and the Fix Our Forests Act, Congresswoman Dexter came across as acutely knowledgeable, detailed oriented, and with informed well stated opinions on all these subjects. I was there to learn her positions, and she gave us copious verbal information. I had a hard time taking notes because I was still stunned she joined us in this meeting. Our official notetaker could not keep up with all of Rep. Dexter’s comments.

Despite all my preparation with my lobby team to do the CCL methodology of being polite, motivational interviewing, and showing appreciation, gratitude, and respect, the meeting tone shifted. To my horror, someone on our lobby team wanted to argue with Rep. Dexter about the finer points of the Fix Our Forests Act. It felt like I was starting to watch a garden hose lose control and get everyone wet. Congresswoman Dexter responded like a pro. All her years of being a doctor practicing as a lung and critical care physician showed up here. She had an excellent bedside manner and a calming way to relate to people. She asked the spirted person to tell her more why she felt that way. Maxine truly listened to the CCL volunteer in a heartfelt way while I felt mortified that the volunteer let their emotions in the moment get a bit over the top.

I attempted to regain control of the meeting by saying, “I hope we can continue to have an ongoing conversation into the future about permitting reform and the Fix Our Forests Act.”

Rep. Dexter agreed that she would like to do that.

At the beginning of our lobby meeting, I asked Rep. Dexter how much time she had available to meet with us. She replied, “15 minutes.”

At 15 minutes, we had members of our team still asking her questions. I felt it was time to wrap up to respect her time and schedule. Congresswoman Dexter still seemed like she liked answered our questions and engaging with us. However, her staff shifted awkwardly in their chairs and made big pointing gestures at their watches to her that the meeting must end.

I interjected that we did not want to take up more of her time. I squeezed in a quick question of which Republicans she likes to work with across the aisle. She enthusiastically shared names of several GOP House members she worked with on bills. I then asked if we could get a photo with her and she was happy to oblige. We took a group photo in the hallway outside of her office.

Debriefing from the CCL Lobby Meeting with my Representative Maxine Dexter

We then said our goodbyes. I then walked the CCL team down the hallway away from the office where they could not hear our debriefing. I asked the team what they thought about the meeting. They all seemed positive about the meeting. I felt disappointed and peeved that one of our team had a testy exchange with Rep. Dexter over the Fix Our Forests Act, plus I felt we were not respectful enough of their time when they clearly wanted finish up the meeting. As delicately as I could, I suggested that we really should in the future to be cognitive when the member of Congress or staff tell us they have 15 or 30 minutes to work as a team to wrap up the meeting at their 15- or 30-minute deadline. In their excitement, they pushed back to say that Rep. Dexter and her team were still answering our questions at the 15-minute mark. I responded, “Yes, but the staff were all pointing at their watches, plus Rep. Dexter and her staff were shifting in their chairs like they needed to end our meeting.”

The group did not really see my point of view. I was able to get all of them to sign the thank you card. I filled out the rest of the card thanking Congresswoman Dexter and her staff for the meeting and sharing a quick recap of the CCL priorities in the thank you card. I then dropped off the thank you card with Rep. Dexter’s receptionist and headed to my next lobby meeting.

After I dropped of the thank you card, I saw Rep. Dexter pass by me in a hallway walking at a fast pace with her aides trying to get to the next item on her schedule. Part of me wanted to thank her again for the meeting and apologize for over eager volunteer looking to challenge her on the Fix Our Forests Act. Another part of me wanted to just hide and make sure she did not see me since our group took up more than our allotted time, plus she might not have wanted to think about our group anymore that day due to our overly passionate volunteer.

My remaining two CCL lobby meetings of the day

I had two more lobby meetings that afternoon. The next one was with Congresswoman Val Hoyle’s Congressional staff, at 3pm EDT on July 22, Longworth House Office Building. My last meeting of the day was 4 pm Cannon House Office Building, a House Congressional Office Building located next to Longworth connected by basement tunnels.

The meeting at 4 pm was scheduled to be a face-to-face meeting with Congresswoman Andrea Salinas of Oregon. I met Rep. Salinas years ago when she was a representative in the Oregon Legislature. I knocked on doors for her in May 2022 when she ran for Congress. I attended one of her fund raisers in July 2024. At the June 2023 CCL Lobby day, I spotted her in a hallway as she darted from one meeting to another. She recognized me and we briefly chatted about CCL priorities as she briskly walked. She knows me so I looked forward to this face-to-face meeting.

Neither my 3 pm nor 4 pm meetings were face-to-face with the members of Congress. Like all my previous years lobbying on Capitol Hill, the member of Congress could not make it due to scheduling conflicts with other meetings or last minute changes with committee hearings. I was not disappointed Rep. Salinas could not attend because I was still decompressing from the excitement of meeting with my Rep. Dexter earlier that afternoon.

In the last two lobby meetings, the team leader asked me to be the notetaker. This is my least favorite lobbying role. I always try not to be the notetaker if I can help it. I never felt like I could write down quickly all the information that the Congressional staff shares with us. At the same time, I am a team player. I wanted these lobby meetings to succeed. For these last two lobby meetings, we had new volunteers who did not feel comfortable taking notes. I wanted them to have an enjoyable first-time lobbying experience. I know what it involves to take good notes. We strictly needed to capture the opinions, perspectives, and advice of the members of Congress and their staff for the CCL Government Affairs Team. Again, it annoys me that I can never jot down fast enough what the Congressional staff tell us in the lobby meetings.

Both lobby meetings went smoothly and uneventful. The Congressional staff in those meetings were friendly, kind, and enthusiastic to meet with us. Like most Congressional staff I met over the years, they had great people skills. They had a reverence and joy working on Capitol Hill, especially meeting with constituents and citizen lobbyists, like the volunteers with CCL.

Normally, after the lobby meetings, I would walk two blocks from the Congressional Office Buildings to the Capitol South Metro Station. I would then take the DC Metro to the Omni Shoreham for the CCL evening reception. In all my past CCL lobby days, I looked forward to these receptions to see CCL friends one last time and eat tasty hors d’oeuvres. While eating the appetizers, munching on the cupcake desserts, and chatting with friends, we would hear speeches from a member of Congress and new CCL volunteers recounting their adventures lobbying Congressional Offices in Washington D.C. for the very first time.

This lobby day would be different. I found out the day before the Oregon CCL delegation, including me, were invited to be part of a group tour of the U.S. Capitol Building led by Congresswoman Val Hoyle of Oregon on that evening of July 22nd. Stay tuned for my next blog, part 3, to read about my recollection of the this tour.