Governor Youngkin Appointed Me to a Conservation Board

I'm honored to serve.

Sep 14, 2024

Good afternoon,

For you newbies out there, welcome to Outsider on the Inside. I hope this dispatch from in and around the nation’s capital on underreported topics finds you well.

If you’re just discovering my musings, here’s a backgrounder and make sure we’re connected on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

Now that I’m back from Europe, the usual format will resume.

Quick Thoughts

Support and follow the work of IWF’s Center for Energy and Conservation today if you haven’t already.

RIP James Earl Jones.

The pet-eating memes heard around the Internet.

Individualism is NOT to blame for environmental woes, L.A. Times.

The American Wildlife Conservation Partners (AWCP) released its Wildlife for the 21st Century, Volume VII (W-21) last week.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for the next dispatch next week!

I’m Ready to Serve

If you personally know me, I’ve consistently balked at public service - especially elected office. I’ve publicly stated I’ll never run for office—a commitment I’m firmly sticking with.

But in recent years, I’ve become open-minded to other opportunities that aren’t as open-facing or intense as elected office. These are positions that warrant less scrutiny than a federal, state, or local political campaign.

Enter yesterday’s Friday the 13th announcement revealing my appointment, by Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-VA), to the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation (VLCF).

For readers of this dispatch, you know conservation - the wise use of natural resources - is a passion of mine. I’ve dedicated much of my young professional career to this topic. I’ve consulted, met, and interviewed many stakeholders and garnered their trust across issues like lands, access, water quality, and sporting opportunities. I’ve even worked well with some center-left conservationists - gasp! - in the process, too. Imagine that? People coming together for true conservation in spite of our tribal politics? Yes, it’s still possible.

Some have dismissed my appointment as partisan and reduced my accomplishments, naturally— claiming I’m a despoiler of land by simply cherrypicking a few non-controversial blog posts I’ve written. (The horror, the horror!)That’s all they have on me, so all they can do is cope and seethe.

Conservationists come in all shapes and sizes. Plenty of us hunt, fish, shoot guns, and work in energy policy. Preservationists who’ve co-opted conservation can’t wrap their head around this. And that’s okay.

Appointments aren’t without scrutiny, and I knew this going into the process. I’m a big girl with a tough skin. Governor Youngkin has been ruthlessly scrutinized for his agenda, despite enjoying consistently high approval ratings in a purple state.

It’s a huge honor to be appointed by him. I’m excited to help him carry out his conservative conservationist agenda across a four-year term.

NOTE: Nothing professionally changes for me. This is on top of my IWF job and freelance projects and done on a volunteer basis.

Thanks for the well wishes!

ICYMI: Five for Fighting Interview

I broke my five-year concert dry spell in mid-August by attending a Five for Fighting concert at the famed Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C.

For younger readers born after 2001, Five for Fighting is the stage name of musician John Ondrasik. Ondrasik, an L.A. Kings hockey fan, naturally derived the name from a hockey play. Some of the who’s who of the D.C. area conservative movement - including Townhall’s own Katie Pavlich and WMAL News host Larry O’Connor - were also in attendance. And everyone present - myself included - was singing along to John’s recognizable hits like “Superman” and “100 Years.”

John also played his recent songs that reflect current events involving the disastrous August 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and the October 7th, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.

What Townhall readers might not know is that the Grammy-nominated artist was a longtime friend of the late Breitbart founder Andrew Breitbart. While he enjoys politics, his goal isn’t to be political. But as his late friend famously pointed out: politics is downstream from culture.

“It's always been kind of a tightrope for me. I kind of have a certain disdain for celebrities who get on their soapbox and lecture us about their politics as our moral betters,” Ondrasik told me in a post-concert interview in mid-August. “But there's also a history in music of people writing about the times and people writing about world events.”

Read at Town Hall

ICYMI

Articles/commentary/media appearances from the past week.

MEDIA MENTIONS

I was interviewed by Fox Business about VP Harris’ non-awakening on fracking.
And hear me chat my fly fishing journey on the Fish Untamed podcast.

ARTICLES/BLOGS