[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 7255-7256]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



      BREISETH HONORED FOR LEADERSHIP IN WORK OF EARTH CONSERVANCY

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                         HON. PAUL E. KANJORSKI

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 7, 2001

  Mr. KANJORSKI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a man who 
helped me realize a dream. Dr. Christopher Breiseth is being honored 
tonight for his role as the founding chairman of a non-profit 
organization we established together in Northeastern Pennsylvania 
almost ten years ago, and I wanted to take the time to share with my 
colleagues the extraordinary effort he put forward by leading the Earth 
Conservancy from its earliest turbulent days to the outstanding success 
it has now become.

[[Page 7256]]

  Just over ten years ago, Chris, his wife Jane, and their youngest 
daughter Lydia came to Washington and stopped by my office. Dr. 
Breiseth had been serving as the president of Wilkes University for 
about seven years at that point, and we had always enjoyed a good 
working relationship. In addition to our shared interest in national 
politics and social issues, we also spent a great deal of time 
discussing the challenges and opportunities facing Northeastern 
Pennsylvania. As a relative newcomer to the region, Chris provided me 
with a fresh perspective that managed to be both realistic and 
optimistic. During that visit in Washington, we talked about the need 
to clean up the environmental degradation from the coal mining 
industry, and I shared with Chris my dream of purchasing a parcel of 
land owned by a defunct coal company which had been tied up in 
bankruptcy for more than fifteen years. With his characteristic 
enthusiasm, Chris agreed to join me in establishing a non-profit 
organization to purchase this land, reclaim the mine-scarred portions, 
and redevelop it with the principles of what we now call ``smart 
growth.''
  In early 1992, Chris and I recruited a group of community leaders to 
serve on the board of this new organization. Now that the Earth 
Conservancy is a well-respected local institution with a history of 
good work, it is hard to remember how difficult those early days were 
and how risky for all of our reputations. After an initial flurry of 
positive press reports, the fledgling Earth Conservancy soon became the 
target for intense scrutiny by the local media. As we struggled to 
obtain the federal funds necessary for the purchase the land and worked 
through the legal labyrinth to free the land from bankruptcy, local 
reporters became convinced that we must be doing something nefarious. 
One newspaper made more than one hundred freedom of information act 
requests from various federal agencies, which effectively raised 
suspicion among the government officials within those agencies. I will 
be forever grateful to all of the original members of the Earth 
Conservancy board, but most especially to Chris Breiseth as the 
Chairman, for withstanding the intense pressure and continuing to 
believe in our dream.
  That dream is now reality. The Earth Conservancy has reclaimed more 
than 800 acres of land, and has committed to preserve in open green 
space more than two-thirds of its total 16,000 acre holdings. Under the 
leadership of its CEO, Mike Dziak, the Earth Conservancy has reached 
out to every level of the community to use the asset of the land for 
the benefit of everyone. Local schoolchildren plant trees on Earth 
Conservancy land every year. Some small parcels of land have been 
donated to local municipalities and non-profit organizations for a wide 
variety of public projects, and the Earth Conservancy has welcomed 
local residents to use its land for recreational purposes. At every 
step of the way, Chris provided strong and steady guidance to keep the 
organization devoted to its original goals. My trust in him was and is 
absolute, and the entire region of Northeastern Pennsylvania owes him 
an enormous debt of gratitude for the leadership he has provided to the 
Earth Conservancy.
  After seventeen years as the president of Wilkes University, Chris 
Breiseth is moving on to new challenges. He will be president and chief 
executive officer of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute at 
Hyde Park, New York, where I have no doubt his depth of understanding 
as an historian will benefit all who find inspiration from the lives of 
these two great Americans.
   Mr. Speaker, when Chris and Jane Breiseth came to Northeastern 
Pennsylvania with their three lovely daughters, Abigail, Erika, and 
Lydia, they truly made it their home. They volunteered their time and 
energy to countless community activities, and the region has been 
enriched by their presence. Every community in America should have the 
benefit of people like the Breiseths, who took a chance on a dream and 
made it happen.

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