New Beginnings
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
With the start of the New Year comes the beginning of a new endeavor. After 15 years with American Rivers, serving most recently as Senior Vice President for Conservation, I am pleased to embark on a new venture as Executive Director for Water in the West at Stanford University. A joint venture between the Woods Institute for the Environment and the Bill Lane Center for the American West, Water in the West engages in strategically designed research, dialogues, and policy initiatives to develop and demonstrate solutions to the major water challenges facing the western U.S.
I was fortunate to have my father accompany me on the 3,000 mile drive from Washington, DC, and we had the opportunity to view first-hand, part of the great landscape of the American West. To pass the time on the long drive, we listened to all 14 discs of Wallace Stegner’s unabridged “Beyond the 100th Meridian,” a wonderfully written, comprehensive biography of John Wesley Powell and an early evaluation on the place of water in the West. The conclusion of the narrative happened to coincide with our arrival at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, a stunning and marvelous twist of fate!
Having contemplated some of the Powell’s visionary observations and heroics and thoroughly enjoyed the prose of Stegner, one of the West’s great writers and advocates, we passed Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and the San Joaquin Valley, some of the places at the very heart of the West’s battle over water. We arrived to be greeted by a La Nina event who’s affect has provided almost fairytale weather but which is also contributing to one of the driest winters in almost forty years.
Quite a start! I look forward to working with colleagues new and old, to contribute to the many challenges we face in managing water in the west. Please don’t hesitate to call or write if you’re interested.
Sincerely,
Andrew Fahlund
Executive Director - Water in the West
A joint program of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
and the Bill Lane Center for the American West
473 Via Ortega | MC 4205, Room 211
Stanford, CA 94305 | afahlund@stanford.edu
650-724-8823 (w) | 202-487-6659 (c)
"If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water." -- Loren Eiseley
Last modified Thu, 12 Jan, 2012 at 16:37