Title
Streaming Media
Interviewee Affiliation
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department
Interviewer
Dylan Roberts
Date of Interview
11-2013
Document Type
Interview
Abstract
This interviewee places environmental justice almost entirely within a framework of wildlife management and protection. He states the importance of providing a voice to non-human life, and believes regulation and government oversight is the best way of achieving this. Accordingly, he stresses the necessity of park rangers and other government personnel, believing that we should have more participants in these fields of work. Since there is no discussion concerning human health, or equity concerns, this interviewee’s approach to environmental justice is strongly eco-centric.
Recommended Citation
Moore, Zach, "Zach Moore Interview" (2013). Puget Sound Environmental Justice Interviews. 14.
https://digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu/ej_interviews/14
Transcript
Dylan Roberts: Please state your name and organization affiliation.
Zach Moore: My name is Zach Moore. I am a fisheries technician for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife services.
DR: What is environmental justice?
ZM: Environmental justice to me would be seeking justice for things that can’t seek justice for themselves – wildlife, plants, animals, water, rocks maybe. Environmental justice . . . to me it’s regulating things that should be regulated and need to be regulated, but can’t regulate themselves.
DR: How does or doesn’t environmental justice work in your community?
ZM: Environmental justice works in my community in a few different ways. I can go to work and see actual fish and wildlife rangers, you know, going out and checking on things that might hurt the environment, or wildlife, and prevent that from happening. So that’s the way it works . . . I go to work and hear about awesome actual law and justice . . . like actual happenings! In another sense it works . . . when I’m out fishing, or hunting, or hiking, and there’s these people out there that are kind of watching your back and watching over everything that’s out there’s back instead of letting people just run rampant, and fish and do whatever they want. There are actual laws in place that are very important for this. That’s how it works.
DR: What would you say needs to change?
ZM: I don’t know, I think personally there could be more of an emphasis, you know, I’m sure a lot of people would say they would like to see a lot more rangers out there because I know personally when I am out fishing it’s just sometimes . . . there’s not enough people out there protecting us. You know when you’re out there fishing, and somebody snags a salmon and just hauls them to the bank anyway they can, and fish and wildlife are too busy to come out and you call the poaching lines and I just wish I could do more, but I would love to see honestly more emphasis towards more rangers, it’s making it seem like it’s really far out there to get a career in wildlife justice, or wildland, or wildlife law enforcement. It is not necessarily a bad thing, it’s just kind of out of the realm for most, like “well, shoot, I am not going to be able to unless I get an ecology degree, and have to get straight A’s the whole time.” But anyways, I would like to see rangers everywhere I went outside, even though I know realistically that’s not going to happen. Everybody goes outside and sees things that are people breaking the law. There’s a lot of good people who are doing really good work and stop a lot of that, but there’s still going to be people ruining it, especially with more and more people going outside . . . especially where we are, there should be more of an emphasis on more implementation on enforcement.
DR: Yeah I agree, what parts of environmental justice are important to you?
ZM: I would basically say that all of environmental justice is important to me, there are really not a lot of things I can say that I would disagree with included in environmental justice. It’s all kind of rooted in the same thing. If you care about a place or you care about a resource, you’re going to have to care for it, implement ways to actually make it sustainable that works, and I think it’s all kind of tied into each other . . . it’s all equally important. That’s the only way it’s going to have an actual affect if you bring a lot of things together, and, yeah, it’s all part of a group.
DR: How does the concern for the environment fit with other environmental justice concerns?
ZM: Yeah, again I think it’s all basically rooted from the same thing – you can’t have sustainability without management, and you can’t have management without sustainability. Say I had kids in the future . . . I don’t want to give them the world without polar bears and have to apologize for giving up this world . . . I feel I was maybe running out of species, or I don’t know, just everything is really linked, you can’t have one without the other. It is kind of how it works with like federal agencies, we have all these different agencies working together and it’s really for the greater good, but it’s a lot of give and take from a lot of different resources. It gets back to its all linked… you know?
DR: Yeah I completely agree, in your opinion how is environmental justice useful to you in addressing issues in your community? How might others be able to help?
ZM: Its useful for addressing issues in my community just kind of the same way it’s useful to anyone in the state. If I see anyone out breaking the law, or if anybody sees anyone out breaking the law – whether its poaching salmon, or hunting out of season –you can call a special fish and wildlife person, or you could call someone who is set aside to just deal with those sorts of instances. I know personally there’s… on the way here we saw probably twelve people breaking the law, breaking an environmental law by cranking in salmon by the tail, or fin, and it just kind of makes it that much more real. I think there should just be more emphasis on funding the things that should be funded because our resources are very important . . . it almost might be overlooked . . . and it is going to take a bigger community to get the outcome that would make it sustainable and worthwhile, for like a long term thing. I guess there are a lot of good things out there that deal with the issues at hand, but it’s just going to take more and more work, and more money, more work and people, but that’s a lot to ask for I guess.
DR: Is there anything else you want to say on the topic?
ZM: I would love to become a fish and wildlife officer one day.
DR: Wouldn’t we all.
ZM: That’s honestly what I am trying to do with what I am doing now, just kind of working my way up and feel how the government agencies work and get my foot in the door at least, and go enforce some law.
DR: Alright well thanks for your time.
ZM: Absolutely.