Dilemmas and Choices

A corporate offer creates a moral dilemma for a US Fish and Wildlife retiree.

Dilemmas and Choices

WC: 1959

The headline read, "Gephart Enterprises Rezoning Approved." Kelly Symonds had been noisily flipping through the Corvallis Gazette-Times to the comics when she jerked the four-inch newspaper article closer to her reading glasses. The article declared that Gephart Enterprises had finally received approval from the zoning commission to build a new corporate and manufacturing campus inside the Oregon Chub's habitat.

Those scum-buckets!

Kelly's lifelong career with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service involved this endangered species. For decades, she led a statewide movement focused on saving the Oregon Chub, a three-inch minnow. It's hard to get respect as a minnow. Yet, because of her leadership throughout Oregon, the chub thrived and became the first fish to come off the U.S. endangered species list.

From her years of experience, she knew Gephart Enterprises as a polluter of streams and rivers, and they knew her as a thorn in their side. Once the Oregon chub came off the endangered list, Gephart Enterprises immediately submitted a request to rezone a portion of its habitat. Kelly immediately organized protesters. Despite the chub no longer being endangered, she successfully blocked the rezoning attempt. After their first land-grab failure, Gephart didn't try again -- until now. Why now?

She imagined the executives popping champaign corks and toasting their success. She pictured them snickering as they roamed around the hors d'oeuvres tables, pausing by easels with blueprints and drawings of their future complex. Would they have a dartboard with the Oregon chub as the bullseye? Stop it! She needed to stop torturing herself. Thinking sanely, she wondered if it was too late to organize a protest march.

Car doors slammed.

School was out for the summer, so when her daughter, Julie, went to work, she dropped 8-year-old Emily and 10-year-old Kyle off for the day. Kelly loved having her grandchildren around.

Her own career caused Kelly to be absent for weeks at a time. It was her late husband who'd raised Julie. Kelly was so focused on her work then, she didn't notice how hurt her daughter had become. She thought Julie's anger was just a teenage thing. Until the day Julie raged with hate filled sobs, "You care about that stupid fish more than you do about me!" Kelly was stunned into an awareness of the pain she had caused. Since that hour, she worked to regain her daughter's affection, but their relationship at best was still a feigned tolerance from Julie. She'd continue to try of course. But learning from her mistake, Kelly resolved her grandchildren would know she loved them. They would always come first.

At the current moment, her beloved grandkids were shouting at each other on the front lawn. Emily yelled. "Kyle, give it back!"

Two pairs of feet pounded up the porch steps of her Queen Ann style home. The screen door flew open, and a stampede raced into her kitchen.

Emily grabbed the back of Kyle's Spiderman T-shirt. "Stop!"

"Look, it's parachute Barbie!" Kyle tossed the doll high over his head. Without slowing, he dashed into the back three-season porch, pushed wide the screen door, and leapt beyond the three steps descending to the grass and dandelion yard.

Emily caught her Barbie and glared at Kelly. "You never stop him!"

"I've explained this to you many times."

Emily scowled. "Mom does," and stomped toward the toaster to heat her usual pop tart breakfast.

Kelly felt her daughter, Julie, disciplined Kyle too harshly. In her mind, his form of entertainment was natural. Bears, foxes, kittens, and puppies pounced, bit, and wrestled. Dozens of species' babies all exhibited similar annoying behavior. How did the adults of those species deal with it? They either ignored it or left. It was the way of nature. Of course, there were exceptions, but in her mind, nature was the best model. She feared Julie's unending criticism would damage Kyle's spirit.

The newspaper lay on the table still open and its comics unread. Picking it up to turn to them caused her to again think of the rezoning article. With increasing frustration, she roughly folded it and slapped the resulting mess back onto the table.

The kids' agitation and her own restlessness were apparent. Opening the paper to the weather forecast, it showed a perfect day for their local mountain, Marys Peak. Excellent! It was time for a hike and a picnic.

Kelly's smartphone vibrated on the kitchen table just as she and her grandkids finished loading the backpack with lunch, water, and snacks.

"Ms. Symonds," a female voice asked, "I'm calling on behalf of Paul Gephart, of Gephart Enterprises. Mr. Gephart would like to speak with you about a project dealing with several endangered species. If now would be convenient, I'd like to set up a Zoom call."

"It's not. He should call the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. I'm retired."

"He is aware of your retirement, but he specifically wants to talk to you."

If she took the call, she could tell him off and hang up. That would feel so satisfying. Of course, she wouldn't. She wasn't that kind of person. But just thinking about talking to him made it hard for her to breathe. What atrocity was the old demon instigating?

"All right. Set it up."

Once in the Zoom session, Kelly saw a middle-aged man who looked like the actor Al Pacino. Who was this? Gephart was an old man. Way beyond her own 68 years. The Zoom software said, "Recording has started."

"Ms. Symonds, thank you for meeting with me." When Kelly said nothing, the tan suited man continued, "No time for a little chitchat, eh? Fine, I'll get straight to the point. If you appear in a press conference with me and endorse our new corporate campus, I will donate one million dollars to each of any ten endangered species you select."

Kelly pursed her lips. "Who are you?"

His eyebrows lifted. "My apologies. You were expecting to see my father. My father died last winter. I'm Paul Gephart, Jr. I can assure you; I have a different attitude about corporate responsibility than he did."

She didn't believe him. Otherwise, why build his factory in a fragile habitat? His preposterous donations made his offer less believable, too. The only way she'd appear with him was if he were wearing an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs. Definitely not at some press conference.

Kelly said, "How can you think that any amount of money will cause me to betray the years I spent fighting companies like yours?"

"You misunderstand me. Yes, we are intentionally building our new corporate headquarters in the Oregon chub's habitat. But it's to make a point. We will prove there are modern construction designs and techniques that can maintain a healthy habitat for wildlife. I want you to monitor our project. Make sure we do what we say. Tell the public if we don't. More importantly, tell the public when we do."

Distracted by movement from the corner of her eye, Kelly noticed Emily with fists on her hips glowering at her. Kyle had stuffed a whole snack bar in his mouth and was rummaging in the refrigerator. Putting Zoom on mute she said, "You guys go wait on the porch."

Unmuting, Kelly asked, "Tell me more about the million-dollar donations."

After two minutes, she cut Gephart off. "I have to think about this. Can you send me an email with your proposal details?"

"Of course. I need your response this Friday."

"Or what?"

"Or I make this offer to someone else. We are going to build in the habitat with or without you."

***

"Let's stop here," Kelly called out to Emily and Kyle. Leaning their mountain bikes against some tree trunks beside the bike trail, they waded barefoot through the slow-moving creek to a large flat boulder near the center. It formed a bench from which they watched fish swimming in the water.

Their location was in the newly rezoned area for Gephart Enterprises' campus. She'd intentionally brought them to this part of the park to ponder potential benefits and losses. What was the right course to take? Sitting on the stream's rock surrounded by the natural woodland, she worried rather than analyzed.

Eventually, a past meeting with a community consultant popped into her head. Could it have been over a decade ago? Yes, it must have been. Well, it was still relevant to her decision today. They'd met at the public library.

***

Hundreds of books stood at attention side by side on the library shelves. Inside each cover, pages of text waited in darkness for someone to open them to the light. Concepts from Plato, Pythagoras's geometry, Magellan's logbooks, and diaries of Willamette Valley pioneers waited to fill any mind with wonder and knowledge. Kelly always honored the awe she felt with solemn appreciation while among the stacks.

Naomi Wilson closed the folder and slid it back across the library table to Kelly. As a member of the Tualatin Kalapuya tribe, the tribe had appointed her their liaison to Kelly's project. Working together for the chub, they'd become friends.

Kelly crossed her arms on the table. "What do you think?"

Naomi shrugged.

Kelly lowered her eyes to the folder and dropped her head in her hands. "I'm so tired."

Naomi asked, "Have you called Toby?"

Toby Nelson, as a park ranger, was helping Kelly with her campaign to save the Oregon chub. He was leading his own project in Wisconsin to save an endangered migrating crane.

"Yeah," Kelly said. "He told me to be pragmatic. When the chub is no longer endangered, it needs to fend for itself." She looked up into Naomi's eyes. "We've spent thirty years. Thirty whole years. How do we protect it when it drops off the endangered species list?"

Naomi lay her hand on the folder. "My people know how this works out. The white man makes a treaty with you. They say we want just this little piece of land. No more. But they come back and take more. Then even more. Until finally, you have nothing."

"What are you telling me to do?" asked Kelly.

"I'm not telling you to do anything. I'm telling you how it will be, whatever you decide to do."

***

"Is that a chub, Grandma?" Kyle asked.

Jerked from her memory, Kelly said, "Yes, good eyes!!"

Emily asked, "Grandma, Mom says we should enjoy our time with you now because you won't have any for us soon. What does she mean?"

That felt like a knife strike to her heart. Kelly looked at her grandchildren, the forest, the stream, and the chubs beneath. She must fight for them all even if she was old and tired. Looking between her feet into the water, she looked at three chubs darting around them. Who would fight for you my precious little ones once I'm dead? Naomi? Naomi was older than she was. What about someone younger, like Toby Nelson? But he was engaged in his own fight for a species. Toby could probably use a million dollars for his endangered crane. His could be one of her ten species choices.

What other species should she select? Wait a minute. Her ego was taking her down the wrong path again. What made her think she should be the one choosing? What hubris. Toby might make better choices and be a better monitor for Gephart Enterprises.

"Grandma?" Emly asked again.

She thought, sweet little girl, what should I do for your future?

Kelly decided.

She'd call Paul Gephart in the afternoon and recommend Toby Nelson as his new monitor. Kelly would stay retired and build her relationship with her family.

"Darling, I don't know what your mom means. My time is all yours."