President and Chief Executive Officer, World Wildlife Fund
The 40th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act carries a special resonance for me as the President and CEO of World Wildlife Fund. Our organization’s founder and Chairman Emeritus, the late Russell Train, was a key architect of the Act in his roles as both Chairman of Environmental Quality and EPA Administrator in the Nixon White House. Russ was the embodiment of an American conservatism that held conservation at its core, and his impressive legacy reflects a time when conservation and environmental protection were seen as deeply held American values with broad, bipartisan support. His legacy is also one of success, and of bold, pragmatic achievements on behalf of the American people. All of this can also be said of the Endangered Species Act.
