UPFRONT March 30, 2009 Issue

CONFLICTS AS OPPORTUNITIES FOR GOOD

MAIKE BYRD, STAFF EDITOR

One recent Sunday afternoon, I had the pleasure of meeting Marion Stoddart. She's the woman who's been instrumental in cleaning up the Nashua River in northeastern Massachusetts.

At the time Marion launched her efforts in the 1960s, the Nashua was one of the ten most polluted rivers in the United States, and was considered ecologically dead. But Marion had a vision—to reclaim the river and create a greenway along its shores for wildlife to thrive and people to enjoy. Conflicts abounded in her work with legislators, as well as with papermill companies and others who had used the river as a dumping ground for waste and were not inclined to support expensive water treatment facilities and other changes.

What impressed me most about Marion was that, in spite of enormous challenges, some of which continue today, she didn't get discouraged. When asked at the public forum in our town how she'd been able to keep moving forward, her cheerful response was that she never accepted any negative thinking, but saw every conflict as an "opportunity" to learn, as well as teach, enlighten, and grow in her own understanding—and in this way effect positive change.

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