Friends:
During a typical legislative session, my colleagues and I cast all kinds of votes for all kinds of bills and budgets and, more often than not, hear little about the actual results. I mean, we know we’re voting for a worthwhile program — we’re just not privy to the real-world results that follow months or years down the road. Not usually, anyway. And that’s what made this week’s email from Morgan Hickel, the associate director in the Office of State Relations at the University of Washington, special.
Dr. Hickel informed me that funds we approved for UW’s Center for Environmental Forensic Science enabled Professor Sam Wasser to conduct research that led to the arrest of two ivory traffickers in Edmonds earlier this month. You can read the full story here.
That’s a feel-good story, right? No one wants to see healthy animals slaughtered by poachers for their tusks. But that’s not even the whole story. By the time authorities were done, they’d seized an estimated $3.5 million worth of ivory, rhino horn and pangolin scales. That’s quite a haul. And it’s just one of the worthy causes made possible by our friends at UW.
It’s little reminders like this that reinforce the knowledge that being a public official is about more than roll calls and votes. It’s about helping people make our world a better place. And Sam Wasser is doing just that. So, here’s to Sam and the rest of the good folks at the forensic center!
Sincerely,
