Monday April 18, 2022
Lookout Santa Cruz —
Laurie Egan, the Coastal Watershed Council’s (CWC) new executive director, was not allowed to touch the Housatonic River that ran down the street from her childhood home in Western Massachusetts. Everyone told her the river was dangerous.
“It was always the story of, you know, the water is dirty and you’ll get sick if you touch it,” she said. “There was this real fear that our community had around that space.”
But when she was in fourth grade, she went canoeing with her school and discovered the river’s beauty.
Seeing the plants, animals, and native wildlife changed her outlook and set her on her course as an environmentalist determined to showcase underappreciated natural resources.
The San Lorenzo River, she says, is a perfect candidate.