Ted Siff Interview, Part 3 of 3

DT: You've been affiliated with a small nonprofit based here in Austin called the Conservation History Association of Texas since 1999 as its board member, one of its board members. And you've also served as an officer, as the treasurer. Through that role, I was wondering if you might be able to give some insight about the origins of CHAT since you were on from the very beginning, and what some of the progress it's made, and then some of the shortcomings or missteps it's had?

00:01:22 - 2384

TS: Well, I think the-archives of Texas environmental activity is-is something very im-important to exist. And but for CHAT, it wouldn't, at least in one place accessible through the Internet.

And so my initial attraction to it when pitched by this wonderful pitchman, David Todd, was that I-I might ha-be able to be of some help just because as I think is readily apparent through the rest of this interview, I-I have an entrepreneurial personality. That is, I'm more of a-a builder in it-initial stages of organizations than maybe staying at one place thirty years, which I haven't.

And w-what's been my joy

00:02:31 - 2384 is-is in-being involved in CHAT is that as the technology has progressed, frankly because of you, David, the ability to disseminate and collect, but also have this information about folks who've been involved in some aspect of conservation in Texas available to just interested parties, to teachers, to students, to-to future historians, now-now exists. To continue to add to it by these interviews, I think will only-only enhance it, and who knows where it might go from here. But I-I think it's got a-in-information is-is the key to everything. And to collect the information about environmental protection, or environmental issues in Texas, and have it in one place will provide others assets, resources, tools they wouldn't have otherwise. And I'm excited about being involved.

DT: Well let me ask you, some people might feel like oral histories, since they're not vetted, they're not very objective, have limited value. You know, things get colored by the haze of memory, or by emotions that got tied up with a partisan issue, and in that way the history is colored in some way, or it's got omissions. How do you address those kind of problems?

00:04:39 - 2384

TS: I think you readily admit that oral histories are what they are, just what you just described. And then also add that history is written, recorded by human beings, and so all of history has the imperfections that any human observer or recorder has. It's not an objective process. If you take a Civil his-Civil War history book that was written in one period versus another versus another, they will have different descriptions and justifications of-of the Civil War because of the context of the time in which those books are being written about the same subject matter. So I-I don't-I don't see any

00:05:43 - 2384 problem with doing oral histories and having them as one asset in a-in a-in a toolbox of assets for historians or students, or just interested parties to-to consume.

DT: You talked a little bit about some of the aspects of being an oral history and whether that's a strength or weakness. How about this issue of it being history? I remember myself being in history class and thinking, "how is this relevant?" I mean this stuff happened many years ago, and it affected other people that I don't know. How do you make this be of interest, not just for academics or interest in retrospective things, but for young people who are going along with their life who maybe don't have an immediate evident stake in what happened years ago at some other place?

00:06:47 - 2384

TS: Yeah. Well, one of the things that makes CHAT distinct, at least significantly different than our experiences in classrooms is that future learners will use the Internet infinitely more than you or I did. Future learners will be more able to understand more about the past than-than those who simply learned it through reading a textbook by something that's got audio and video associated with it. And even in the inflection of a presentation, or a phrase, or describing it own-your own personal history as I have for these last minutes, I-I think will-it is a way for a person to understand a concept, or a

00:07:48 - 2384 process, or a particular set of facts that is a-not completely achievable just through the written word. And so the medium that we're offering, as well as the message, I think has a significant combined power,

and that it's a portable medium, too, is also incredibly more powerful than if we were simply wr-writing up reports and recording them at some physical library somewhere. Hope-hopefully that will be the case, if it isn't already to some degree.

DT: Well, thank you. Let's return to things that maybe affect a lot of people, and that would be questions that we try to ask all the interviewees. One is, "is there a message for the future that you think would be good to pass on to Leah and Ava, or children of their age, or older actually, about environmental issues?"

00:09:13 - 2384

TS: Well, what's-what comes to mind when you ask that of me is-is just that-the phrase "eternal vigilance." That is, my-well, I've found it most effective for me to be involved in a number of different businesses or entities or organizations. The-the through-line again is for me that these-these issues are-these issues of protection-water quality protection just-are-I-e-eternally in the public policy marketplace. And if there aren't advocates for protecting them, they're going to be lost. So there's only a finite amount of land. There's maybe a little bit less than f-finite, that is, water

00:10:25 - 2384 may be a little bit more reple-replenish-able than land, but land's pretty-pretty-pretty finite. Only through eternal vigilance for advocating for its protection, or for some of it being made publicly accessible, and so forth, will-will we achieve en-environmental good result. (misc.)

DT: Stay alert! The world needs more lerts! One of the questions we also ask is if there is a special place that you like to go that gets you away from the hurly-burly of business or working for conservation?

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TS: Well, I actually have two answers. One is that just about any ac-any available public land is-is a good place for me. But-but if-if I have a-fifteen or thirty minutes, I'll go to the Barton Creek Wilderness Park, because i-in-within less than ten minutes of the capitol of Austin, you can be in a place that is as far away from development as-as-as you can imagine. And that there's an underground river below the land that you're walking on is-is-is a-makes it a pretty exciting place to be, too.

DT: Well, I've run out of nosy questions I can ask. So I was thinking maybe I could ask if you might have anything to add that maybe we haven't touched on today?

00:12:27 - 2384 TS: You know, I don't. I don't have any. Let's see. I could try to take another swing at that, but do you have some people who say just, I don't?

DT: I don't is a perfectly adequate response.

00:12:52 - 2384 TS: Let's see, you could just take nothing, or try this. Well, I-I just really want to thank you. I thank you for at least the six years, going on seven, that you've been involved in this. And this last couple of hours have been a pleasure for me. It's given me some insight into where I've been, and maybe a little thought or two about where I might go. So thanks.

DT: Well, good. I'm glad we're useful to you. I'm sure it is for us. Thanks a bunch.