A letter from Bruce Babbitt

I was so sorry to hear about Maeveen's passing. Perhaps you can pass the following words on to her husband, friends and admirers:


I will always remember the first time I met Maeveen. At the Interior Department we had listed the pygmy owl as an endangered species. Preliminary reports indicated that owl habitat included a whole lot of Pima County, including most of the lands ripe for urban development. It was looking like yet another big train wreck was on the way.

After I met with Chuck and the Supervisors, it was clear that none of us had much idea of what to do. I was promoting the idea of Habitat Conservation Plans, but we really didn't have many examples or precedents. Chuck suggested that I should talk directly with Maeveen, and I finally located her office in a corner of the County Complex.

To my astonishment, she had a plan in mind. The idea, she explained in her quiet, self assured way, was to go beyond the habitat needs of the pygmy owl, and beyond the requirements of the Endangered Species Act, to build a comprehensive open space plan for all of eastern Pima County.

I questioned her at length about whether it would be politically possible to actually implement such an expansive vision. I explained that elsewhere in the country we had run into intense opposition with little to show for our efforts. Her response was calm and unequivocal-- this is Pima County and we can do it.

After that initial encounter I set up a back channel directly from my office to Maeveen. Whenever issues came up to my attention, I just picked up the phone and called her directly. And her responses to my questions were always complete and reassuring--- she had all the facts, understood the science and the law , and was conversant with the developers,environmentalists and elected officials. And she was the one person who could provide the vision- an emerging concept of what a County Landscape System could be.

The Pima County model, Maeveen's model, played a large role in showing other parts of the country how the Endangered Species Act can be managed and used to further good conservation planning. It was and is a model that did much to save the Endangered Species Act from it critics. It was Maaven's model, and I am pleased that Pima County has chosen to name the system in her honor. It is truly a fitting memorial to her incredible life and leadership.

Bruce Edward Babbitt served as United States Secretary of the Interior and as Governor of Arizona. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of the World Wildlife Fund in the U.S.

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