Thank you, Tracy

It’s wonderful to read that Tracy Schuh is being honored for her decades of dedicated environmental activism.

Tracy Schuh’s hard work, unlike that of many self-purported “environmentalists,” has come with tall hours of often stressful time spent over a quarter of a century. I first met Tracy 20+ years ago, at a planning board meeting, something that I find onerously difficult to sit through. I was there to comment on a project, and I was heartened to see her speaking up, while the assembled board more-or-less ignored her, impatiently nodding once or twice — and that was on one of their more polite nights. Often Tracy’s well-researched, fearlessly delivered suggestions to the planning board were met with exasperated, eye-rolling mansplaining, if not outright ridicule. Few, if any, on these boards had any interest in hearing about pesky things such as environmental laws and wild land protection. Witnessing these boards’ responses to such a brilliantly well-researched, tireless, taxpaying citizen’s concerns was infuriating to me, and yet she didn’t let it bother her: Tracy continued to offer public comment, research deeds, laws and reports, for decades, all while raising a family in addition to keeping up with the day-to-day struggles with which most of us deal. Tracy alone stood up to the good ole boys’ club, meeting after meeting, year after year, because it was the right thing to do, period.

I ran into Tracy at many environmental organization meetings, including SPARC, OCOSA, Moodna Council, etc., and I was always impressed with how absolutely straightforward, humbly and unpretentiously she carried herself — always ready to learn, despite that fact that she could teach any of us in the room so much. But that’s Tracy: Authentic, without affectation and devoid of ego... but seriously tough in a quiet way that’s hard to explain, but easy to spot.

When we formed the Glenmere Conservation Coalition in 2007, and held our first “Glenmere Day” public event, Tracy and her TPC group stepped up and set up a table where kids received copies of Dr. Seuss’s “The Lorax”; I still remember seeing little kids leaving our event clutching their copies of that wonderful story, many already engrossed in reading it. That’s when I realized how mindful her process really was, and that her sense of parenting extended past her own line of sight, as if all children were in some way her responsibility, as well.

When I look back over the years to how many environmentally destructive plans she brought to my attention, and to the attention of others, I’m deeply grateful and still seriously impressed.

Had it not been for Tracy Schuh, Chester would have way more subdivisions and industrial parks than we currently see. People need to understand the magnitude of Tracy’s accomplishment.

So much of what remaining wild land and open space Chester, and other towns still have is directly due to Tracy’s Schuh’s own tireless efforts.

While so many ‘talk the talk’ of environmental action, Tracy Schuh runs the marathon that few others have even tried.

Jay Westerveld

Sugar Loaf