In “The Case Study of the History and Development of the Ecology Action Educational Institute,” Ecology Action aimed to tell the story of its organization. Written for the newly-created Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it is a relatively in-depth (67-page) report that relates the history, challenges, and accomplishments of Ecology Action.
The report offers a summary of the group’s history; an exploration of its relationships with groups ranging from the public and local governments to libraries, schools, and other environmental groups; a frank analysis of its internal and external areas of difficulty; and an evaluation of the group’s effect.
The report suggests how Ecology Action was born out of Cliff Humphrey, Mary Humphrey and Chuck Herrick’s engagement with the Peace and Freedom Party, a party on the left established as a more strongly antiwar alternative to the Democratic Party. Yet while Ecology Action’s environmental vision emerged out of a larger antiwar project, it is also true that the group became an independent entity because of their collective sense that the Peace and Freedom Party would not prioritize ecology as an issue, as the excerpt below suggests.
Of special note, in the larger document, is Ecology Action’s description of its relationship with city officials in Berkeley (see pp. 15-19), and its optimism about the possibilities for collaboration between environmental groups and local government.
At the back of the report are fourteen pages of newspaper clippings from the Modesto Bee, which suggest how the organization brought recycling and environmental education to that Central Valley city.
