The work goes on

Gathered at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Del., about 300 environmental enthusiasts heard from experts across the Delaware River watershed and beyond about new ideas and research that will help them in their work.

The storm clouds rippling from Washington, D.C., are the topic of many side conversations here, but the panels and the keynotes are focused on research and practical topics, like the benefits of sediments, creating living shorelines and dissolved oxygen (or lack of it) in the Delaware estuary.

These are just a few examples from the 35 sessions.

But a shadow looms.

In her welcoming remarks, Kathy Klein, the executive director of the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, which hosts this biennial Science Summit (celebrating its 20th year), offered the solace of this community to help dispel the clouds, and her own four steps to keep moving forward: Break down challenges into smaller steps to make them more manageable; learn from setbacks and see them as opportunities to grow; stay flexible by being ready; and be willing to adapt and seek support from others because we are not alone.

The keynote speaker on the first day, Tony MacDonald, the director of Monmouth University’s Urban Coast Institute, also acknowledged the storm clouds, but encouraged the audience not to fixate on those but rather to remember:

“The importance of what you do hasn’t changed in the last two months,” he said, suggesting that the audience think of the actors in Washington as if they are bad-guy bullies in Westerns who like to shoot their guns at the ground beneath your feet, while laughing and asking you to dance as the bullets fly.

But it was at the last event of the day that the storm clouds were recognized as an existential threat to U.S. democracy by none other than former U.S. Senator Tom Carper of Delaware.

He was at the summit to receive an award for his support for the Delaware River and its watershed. In the Senate, he was chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee and led the passage of the Delaware River Basin Conservation Act.

That act created the fund, which has funneled $72.1 million to 239 grassroots projects in the watershed since 2018.

Even while acknowledging the threat, he said: “I would never bet against our Founding Fathers. I would never bet against our Constitution.”

Then he told the audience that he wanted to try something he’s never done before — maybe because he’s never needed to.

He asked us to stand, and hold hands — and not sing Kumbaya — but to recite after him the Preamble of the Constitution:

He said: “We the People…”

We said: “We the People…”

And on it went, with call and response: 

“… of the United States,

“in Order to form

“a more Perfect union

“establish Justice

“insure domestic Tranquility

“provide for the common defence

“promote the general Welfare

“And secure

“the Blessings of Liberty

“to ourselves

“and our Posterity

“do ordain and establish

“this Constitution

“for the United States of America.”

It’s impossible to describe the awed silence that followed.