Joel Kuperberg

Joel Kuperberg Joel Kuperberg, 77, an ecologist of Vashon, Wash., died Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2004, in Seattle, after a long struggle with leukemia. No services are planned. Island Funeral Service (206-463-9300) is handling arrangements. Memorial contributions may be made to Forest Stewards, 21204 Monument Road S.W., Vashon, WA 98070, or visit www.forestewards.org. The Forest Stewards Group is about to send its first large batch of lumber to Tacoma for kiln drying because there is no place on Vashon that can provide this service. They need money to buy a kiln and to pay mill labor for continuing production. Volunteers also are very welcome. This is a great chance to carry on Joel's good work and ripen his latest vision. He was a passionate environmental leader and eloquent spokesman for ecological integrity. As director of Florida's Internal Improvement Trust Fund during Gov. Reubin Askew's administration, he worked with developers and environmentalists to protect native Florida habitat. His presence and ideas contributed often to public meetings shaping community direction. On Vashon Island, where he and his wife, Yvonne, lived for the past 25 years, he served on a number of boards and consulted with decision makers. After a lifetime of leading successful efforts to conserve key ecological sites around the United States, he began to focus during the last decade on seeking ways for communities to live in balance with their ecosystems, most notably around issues of water and forests. Born in Miami in 1927, his Master's degree in botany led to work protecting Florida ecosystems, including co-founding the Collier County Conservancy, helping to establish two national estuarine sanctuaries and serving as executive director of the Florida State Lands Agency. He worked 11 years for the Trust For Public Land (TPL) in multiple positions, including president, and became a land acquisition, exchange, management and use consultant for another decade. He assisted Florida agencies and NGOs, Washington State Department of Natural Resources, the Swinomish Tribe, and the Shoalwater Bay Tribe, among others. In his lifetime, he negotiated public ownership of more than 250,000 acres in eight states. He learned from the Everglades ecosystem the interconnectedness of land and moving water when a source of the Everglades' degradation was traced 200 miles north of the sanctuary borders, where its source water was being diverted and polluted. His belief was simple: " . . . If we conclude that how land is cared for (stewardship) is more important than whose name is on the title (ownership), then we have the beginnings of a solution!" Joel's work with TPL led him from Tallahassee to San Francisco and finally, back to Yvonne's home state and Vashon Island. When the Vashon Island Community Council Forestry Committee began working with the Washington Department of Natural Resources in the early '90s to minimize negative impacts of logging on island forests, Joel threw his energy into advocating for better forest management. He was one of several advisers who helped the Vashon Island Land Trust identify high-quality island forests. And when the land trust adopted forestry stewardship as a conservation and teaching tool, Joel joined forces with four other graduates of the eight-week forest stewardship class to form a new nonprofit group, Forest Stewards, to enable small forest owners on Vashon to profitably thin their forests and mill the lumber locally. Forest Stewards sought a way to keep the resulting jobs on Vashon and to enjoy the benefits of local sustainable forestry. In spite of being hampered by hospital visits to treat his leukemia, Joel seized every opportunity to work with the mill he and Yvonne funded for Forest Stewards this past year. During his eight months of remission, he honed his skills with the mill and became the Forest Stewards' first sawyer. Sometimes working alone, sometimes with volunteers, Joel came day after day to the Forest Stewards' new log yard on Vashon, where he patiently maneuvered big logs into position on the mill and sawed them into lumber. His recipe for clean water, wildlife, beautiful forests and clean air in Vashon's future embraces economic health as well. Survivors include his wife, Yvonne; three sons, Mike (and wife Jeanne), Jeff (and wife Teresa) of Tallahassee and Dan (and wife Sally); four grandchildren, Lee, Jessica, David and Jordan; and a loving circle of friends who have been inspired, encouraged, amazed, amused, pricked and prodded into righteous anger, moved and improved by Joel's words and actions.