Lorna Smith

This year’s award winner has proven that environmental activism is for the birds.

The Port Townsend Marine Science Center selected Lorna Smith as the recipient of the 2022 Eleanor Stopps Environmental Leadership Award. The award was announced at the annual PTMSC Stewardship Breakfast Fundraiser, held at Fort Worden State Park on Oct. 5.

“I grew up in a beach community, so I guess I would probably say the beach and forest were my neighborhood in South Seattle,” Smith said in an interview with The Leader.

Smith started her environmental career in 1978 as a volunteer for Seattle Audubon, when she became involved in the dam proposed for the Skagit River system at Copper Creek. Her analysis revealed the environmental impacts the dam would inflict on the river, the salmon, and the bald eagles that rely on them. She recommended that Seattle Audubon register its opposition to the project. The ensuing groundswell of opposition eventually halted the dam’s construction.

As a long time avian activist, Smith has a hard time choosing a favorite amongst her feathered friends.

“Maybe the turquoise-browed motmot or a scarlet macaw; I think it would be a toss up between those two,” she said.

“But here in the Pacific Northwest, that is so tough with so many wonderful birds, but I kind of latched on to tufted puffins early on as a crazy bird to admire,” Smith said. “They’re in real trouble at this point in time. We don’t have very many nesting colonies or even individual tufted puffins in Washington at this point.”

Smith went on to become the conservation chair and a vice president for the Seattle branch of the Audubon Society. In her role, one effort in particular affected the Olympic Peninsula and its citizens; the creation of a wildlife refuge for Protection Island, home to 70 percent of the seabirds that nest in Washington state’s inland waters.

She closely coordinated with Eleanor Stopps, the namesake of the award, and together the formidable duo established an extensive grassroots campaign. Working with U.S. Reps. Mike Lowry and Don Bonker, a bill was drafted to establish the Protection Island National Wildlife Refuge.

In time, the entire Washington delegation supported the legislation and ultimately the effort proved successful, resulting in one of the few federally protected marine refuges established by an act of Congress at that time.

She watched with horror as the island she worked so hard to save went up in flames last year.

“It was agonizing because we could see it right from our house and it smoldered for a long time. Even after it was supposedly put out, it was still creeping up the hillside where I knew the rhinoceros auklets were,” Smith said.

Smith was also involved in the campaign to halt construction of the Northern Tier Pipeline involving a proposed oil export terminal in Port Angeles. The plan called for an underwater pipeline spanning the Salish Sea — including up and over Whidbey Island — to a terminus on the mainland. The pipeline’s safety technology was called into question, as well as the environmental review process.

She worked to mobilize an army of like-minded organizations and letter writers from the Olympic Peninsula and the greater Seattle area, and persistent grassroots opposition grew. A lawsuit to halt the pipeline on environmental grounds was undertaken and eventually the project was abandoned.

Ever continuing her efforts, Smith served as the executive director of the nonprofit Western Wildlife Outreach, as a board member of the Washington Environmental Council and the Olympic Forest Coalition, and as a volunteer for Jefferson Land Trust and Jefferson County Conservation Futures Committee. She was appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee to the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission in 2020 and is currently a member of the Jefferson County Planning Commission.

Receiving the award that bears her friend and colleagues name is a touching moment for Smith.

“It is the highest honor I can think of, to be the recipient of the Eleanor Stopps Environmental Leadership Award,” Smith said. “Knowing Eleanor and working so closely with her makes the award particularly meaningful to me. We were a great team and achieved what many thought would never happen when Congress decreed Protection Island a National Wildlife Refuge.

“Eleanor was, and remains, my hero for her tirelessness, cheerfulness and unshakeable faith in achieving permanent protection for the tens of thousands of seabirds who nest on Protection Island,” Smith said.

Smith first met Stopps while still at the very beginning of her activism.

“I heard her give a talk on Protection Island. She had a slideshow at the time at one of the annual Audubon chapter conferences, and I was just sold that she needed help with this campaign,” Smith said. “I realized what she was trying to take on was way bigger than one person or two persons could handle, so I just went up and volunteered my help and we became co-conspirators and were able to put together a campaign that ultimately involved hundreds if not thousands of people supporting the effort.”