This column features the "First Impression" that set someone on his or her path to environmentalism. We hope Sound Outlook readers will relate to these "First Impressions" and recall their own experiences that led them to appreciate and care about Long Island Sound. 

 
In keeping with this month's newsletter theme of "Forty Years of Coastal Management in Connecticut," we highlight the First Impression of David J. L. Blatt, a Supervising Environmental Analyst in the Land and Water Resources Division at CT DEEP:

David Blatt started his career with Connecticut's Coastal Management Program in August of 1987, when the concept of coastal management was still young. Now, as the most senior staff member in the program, David is the "go-to guy" when staff--old and new alike--need a seasoned perspective that the breadth and depth of his institutional knowledge can provide. 

While David's journey to coastal manager in Connecticut from landlubber in West Virginia came about purely by happenstance, his journey to environmentalism was certainly shaped by his experiences growing up in Athens, West Virginia, which served as his First Impression:

 
I was very upset about strip mining, as it was called then. It's not like I personally experienced strip mining--I never actually went to one because you can't, they deliberately located them in out-of-the-way places--but I remember it seemed horrible. It was wholesale destruction of the landscape. I went to some kind of debate or public forum at Concord College with one of my sisters. I was in high school at the time. I remember even trying to agitate amongst my friends about it, which is very unlike me. I wanted people to be aware and upset about it, as it was a very big political issue at the time.

Although David's family lived in the small town of Athens, they also owned a 72-acre farm about five miles down the road in Speedway, home to the horses ridden by David's sisters. David claims that one of his least favorite farm chores was shoveling horse manure, which his co-workers might find hard to believe because he seems to be so good at it, but he admits that he learned many things at the farm that still serve him to this day:

David's father was a biochemist who taught at Concord College in Athens (now Concord University). His mother, after earning her Ph.D., also taught physiology at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine. Although they were scientists, David's parents didn't provide any particular environmental exposure to their family. But the farm provided opportunities for David to explore the environment:

David is now an avid bicyclist who a few years ago spent two weeks in Portland, Oregon earning a Certificate in Professional Repair and Shop Operation from the United Bicycle Institute. But he wasn't a big bike rider until his late teens when, as an angst-filled teenager, he took up the sport to get away from home. But his rides would give him insights into land use planning; he just didn't realize it at the time:

When it came time for David to decide on where he would attend college, his choice was somewhat random:

Most of the kids in my high school who went to college attended local schools like Concord, though a few went farther afield to West Virginia University or Virginia Tech. My high school guidance counselor had films that colleges used as recruiting tools. I wanted to go to a small school and saw a recruiting film from Grinnell College in Iowa. It pitched itself as a low-key, laid-back school in a bucolic small town that encouraged free inquiry into ideas and had few, if any, required classes.

David studied political science at Grinnell. It was a time when the oil embargoes under President Jimmy Carter, along with energy saving practices like a 55-mile-an-hour speed limit, and donning sweaters and turning down thermostats were fresh in everyone's mind. An energy policy course and a senior-year, upper-level seminar in the international politics of sea and land resources--taught in Iowa!--served as David's First Environmental Step:

David's Behavior Change can also be attributed to his formative experiences at Grinnell. He attended talks by Amory Lovins, who espoused soft energy paths shifting away from consumption toward renewable energy sources, and Herman Daly, who developed the concept of "steady-state economics" which is an economy based not on growth, but on a balance of inputs and outputs within natural constraints and the capacity of the earth to support it.

As a Grinnell sophomore, David earned a Truman Scholarship which covered the cost of his junior and senior years at Grinnell, covered most of the cost of the first two years of law school, and provided an internship at a federal agency. David's first experience with public service would be a stultifying two-year stint at the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C.:

Wanting to escape the federal bureaucracy (and how ironic is that?), David followed-through on a previous plan to attend Yale Law School, where he claims to have only gotten in as a diversity applicant from West Virginia. Given the Presidents and Supreme Court Justices who attended that august institution, David had an original notion that he would become some kind of crusading lawyer/politician. In fact, one of David's classmates was Elizabeth Esty, who went on to represent Connecticut's Fifth District in Congress. David was also one year ahead of former DEEP Commissioner Dan Esty (as well as 19 years ahead of former DEEP Commissioner Rob Klee, and 20 years ahead of current DEEP Commissioner and fellow West Virginian Katie Dykes). Despite being surrounded by such thought leaders, David's notion came to an early death as law school provided him with a cynical/realistic picture of what the practice of law was all about. He decided he wanted no part of it. Again, environmental classes seemed to be more to his liking:

I felt that the way the legal profession teaches you to look at issues was more confining rather than inclusive. I took all of the few environmental courses the law school offered, and I took a course at the Forestry School that made me wish I had pursued a joint degree. The Forestry School TGIF Happy Hours were much more fun and happier than the Law School's too.

Upon graduation from Yale Law School, David and his wife Renae moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, as it was Renae's turn to pursue a graduate degree at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Public Health. While there, David assumed he would seek some kind of legal job and spent many tedious hours preparing for the North Carolina Bar Exam:

While studying for the Bar Exam and trying to find employment, David networked with David J. Brower, a renowned planning professor at UNC whose contact information had also been provided through Yale Law School connections. Brower enticed David to enroll in his UNC planning program by dangling an assistantship, and David didn't need much convincing:

So David's Big Environmental Step started with pursuit of a Master's Degree in Regional Planning at UNC (also the alma mater of DEEP Deputy Commissioner Betsey Wingfield). His assistantship with David Brower provided opportunities to work on a variety of interesting coastal management issues:

Having been initiated into coastal management, a timely job offer called David back to coastal Connecticut. As David was finishing his planning degree, David Brower suggested he contact a colleague, Arthur J. Rocque, Jr., who was then the Director of Connecticut's Coastal Management Program. David was hired sight-unseen through a telephone interview, probably the best way for him to be successfully interviewed, and he has been with the program ever since. At first his job entailed reviewing DEP regulations and shepherding them through the adoption process, which put his legal background to practical use. And even David admits that attending law school wasn't a total waste of his time:

Ultimately, David's knowledge of legal concepts coupled with his broader planning perspective have catapulted him into the ranks of Connecticut's coastal planning elite. His legal and planning insights have proven invaluable, whether he is assisting with legislative proposals; representing staff at hearings; dealing with federal, state and local coastal management processes; or developing and shepherding the Long Island Sound Blue Plan through the state legislature for approval. 

David's commitment to public service and his dedication of over 30 years working to protect Long Island Sound are commendable. The citizens and coastal resources of Connecticut owe a debt of gratitude to North Carolina's legal community.