After 35 Years Dedicated to Long Island Sound, Mark Tedesco Retires as Director of EPA LIS Office

On November 1, 2024, I announced that after 38 years with EPA, 35 of which were dedicated to Long Island Sound, I would be retiring in spring 2025. What still seemed distant and abstract then, now seems imminent and real. In my farewell communication in an official capacity, I feel duty bound to provide my subjective perspective on the past four decades in the form of four observations that I hope have some utility for those starting or continuing their commitment to a healthier, more abundant Long Island Sound.

1. Shifting baselines syndrome cuts both ways.  

In the absence of past information or experience with historical conditions, members of each new generation accept the situation in which they were raised as being normal. In the environmental field this is usually associated with people’s accepted thresholds for environmental conditions continually being lowered. But in the case of Long Island Sound public perceptions now are much better than they were four decades ago. Cartoons like the one published by the New Haven Register in 1987 depicting Long Island Sound as…well see for yourself in the figure, are unthinkable. This is a good thing, evidence that the concerted public-private partnership to restore Long Island Sound has been successful. But it can also lead us to forget how bad things got and to take for granted the work, the policy, and the investments that effectuated the positive change in Long Island Sound.

2. People perceive the pain of losing something to be greater than the pleasure of gaining something of equal value.

Called loss aversion, this tendency was first described by Nobel Prize winning behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman. Applied to Long Island Sound, this means that if the improvements in Long Island Sound reverse, the public will feel that loss even more than the satisfaction gained in its restoration. Any backsliding will be painful and punished. Instead, the Long Island Sound effort must continue commonsense steps to further Long Island Sound’s return to abundance.

3. There is no new thing under the sun.

While innovation and experimentation is to be applauded and practised, there is much to be learned from past efforts. Every few years a new term arises to describe a formula of systematic approaches to identifying problems and collaborating on solutions. This is a good thing if built upon a foundation of past public policy and management efforts. Published nearly fifty years ago, The Urban Sea: Long Island Sound (Koppelman et al. 1976) and Long Island Sound: An Atlas of National Resources (CTDEP 1977) provided cross disciplinary perspectives that laid a foundation for Long Island Sound management programs. Contemporaneous to these efforts was the development of comprehensive, interdisciplinary regional management plans, either centered around Sound (New England River Basin Commission 1975), or directed at portions of the watershed (e.g. Nassau-Suffolk Regional Planning Board 1978).  Those planning efforts were ambitious in scope and remarkable for the breadth of federal, state, local, and public involvement in their development.  Even today they are instructive reading, particularly for those in early or mid-career

4. Stick to the facts.

There is room for both optimists and pessimists in this world, but each needs to relax and only base strong opinions on facts. This perspective was championed by Hans Rosling, a public health physician and author of Factfulness (2018). There is much evidence, accumulated facts, that the quality of human life on the planet is better today than 40 years ago. Yes, there are problems, big ones, that need to be addressed. But who better than you, with your intelligence and drive, your passion and compassion, to make Long Island Sound and, yes, the world, even better tomorrow than today is better than forty years ago.  It’s hard but deeply satisfying, important work.