Event

Event

The  2019  Summit was held on Thursday, October 10, from 4:30-8:00 p.m. at the SEL Event Center in Pullman Washington. 


Our keynote speaker was  Brian Richter.  Brian’s  latest book, Chasing Water: A Guide for Moving from Scarcity to Sustainability was the topic for this year's Summit.  Brian has been a global leader in water science and conservation for more than 30 years.  He is the president of Sustainable Waters, a global water education organization, where he promotes sustainable water use and management with governments, corporations, universities, and local communities.  He previously served as Chief Scientist for the Global Water Program of The Nature Conservancy, an international conservation organization.  Brian has consulted on more than 150 water projects worldwide.  He serves as a water advisor to some of the world’s largest corporations, investment banks, and the United Nations, and has testified before the U.S. Congress on multiple occasions.  He also teaches a course on Water Sustainability at the University of Virginia.

This Year's Program
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A poem by Wendell Berry from “Farming: A Hand Book”

"Water"

I was born in a drought year.  My mother waited in the house, enclosed in the sun and the dry ceaseless wind, for the men to come back in the evenings, bringing water from a distant spring.  Veins of leaves ran dry, roots shrank.  And all my life I have dreaded the return of that year, sure that it is still somewhere, like a dead enemy's soul.  Fear of dust in my mouth is always with me, and I am the faithful husband of the rain.  I love the water of weals and springs and the taste of roofs in the water of cisterns.  I am a dry man whose thirst is praise of clouds, and whose mind is something of a cup.  My sweetness is to wake in the night after days of dry heat, hearing the rain.