Nathaniel P. Reed -Environmentalist

    

     Mr. Reed died recently in Quebec and since I didn’t see much about his passing in the Canadian English-language press I thought I would mention it here for two reasons.

Life Well Lived

     He was active in the environmental movement and worked hard to ensure that the Endangered Species and Clean Water Acts were passed. Those Canadians who enjoy a trip to Florida should pause and think of him when they visit the Everglades and the Big Cypress Preserve. More details about his good works are provided below.

The Way To Go

      

     The second reason is that he died the way he wanted to and for that, as well, he should be envied. His son reports: “He had many times told my brother, sister and me, ‘If I could choose to leave this earth, I would catch one last beautiful salmon and it would be lights off,’ ” Adrian Reed said in a telephone interview. On July 3, Mr. Reed caught his final salmon — a 16-pounder — and soon after that, he slipped and his head hit a rock, causing traumatic injury.”

Sources:

Salmon Fishing on the Cascapédia River, by Albert Bierstadt


Mr. Reed was fishing on the Grand Cascapédia River in Quebec.

There is a blog dedicated to him: http://nathanielpreed.blogspot.com/
   
     There are many obituaries. The quotation by Mr. Reed’s son is from this one:
“Nathaniel Reed, 84, Champion of Florida’s Environment, Is Dead,”By Richard Sandomir
New York Times, July 13, 2018.
See also:
“Nathaniel P. Reed, Leader in Efforts to Protect Endangered Wildlife and Wetlands, Dies at 84," Matt Schudel, The Washington Post,  July 13, 2018.
"Nathaniel P. Reed, an environmentalist and onetime Interior Department official who was a key architect of the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act and who spearheaded efforts to preserve wildlife and open spaces from Alaska to his longtime home state of Florida, died July 11 at a hospital in Quebec City. He was 84....
     Mr. Reed was a courtly developer and investment banker born into wealth. His deep-seated appreciation for the environment had its roots in his mother’s efforts to block the development of an early Florida theme park.He went on to fight the state’s environmentally damaging sugar industry and led efforts to block the building of a barge canal across Florida and an airport that would have paved over much of the Everglades.“He was a transformational figure in Florida,” former senator Bob Graham (D-Fla.) said in an interview. “Florida’s a different place today than it would have been without him.”
     As one of the few Republicans prominent in the environmental movement, Mr. Reed served as an assistant Interior secretary from 1971 to 1977 under presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford. In that role, he helped preserve millions of acres of wilderness in Alaska, banned dangerous pesticides and endured death threats from Western ranchers after he sent federal agents to stop the widespread killing of federally protected eagles.”