SOAP LAKE — The Soap Lake Conservancy will hold its annual meeting at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the Soap Lake Senior Center, 121 Southeast Second Ave.

The meeting is free and open to the public. In fact, it’s the start of the group’s annual membership drive.

Darryl Piercy of Plan It Consulting, Ellensburg, will be the speaker. Piercy’s business provides planning and building services to small cities, according to information from the conservancy. He worked on the development of the Growth Management Act and Shorelines Management Act. He will be talking about “environmental leadership,” according to the conservancy.

Piercy said environmentalism is about individual responsibility. Each person has a responsibility to think about how their actions affect the world around them, both now and in the long term.

Farming is an example of forward thinking, he said. Farmers are required to think about how their actions now will affect the land down the road, whether that’s next year or 10 years from now. “They always look forward to the future,” he said. “I truly believe that some of the best environmentalists are farmers.”

Environmentalism isn’t a political issue so much as a generational issue, he said. He cited water and air quality as examples. He grew up in Puget Sound, he said, and when he was young the water was so polluted that it was unsafe. After decades of effort water quality has improved dramatically and ecosystems are repairing themselves. “Over time Puget Sound has become a much nicer place to be around,” he said. In his opinion that might not have happened without regulation, at least not as quickly.

Air quality has also shown the same improvement over time, and Piercy said he didn’t think it would’ve happened as quickly without the incentive provided by regulation. Some regulations seem excessive when they are implemented, he said, but have benefits in the long run. Moreover, environmental regulations are not unique; regulations are part of modern life, he said.

But balance is also part of environmentalism and regulation, Piercy said – in fact it’s a key part. Too much regulation or management can be counterproductive, he said. “We need to find that balance, and we need to be reasonable.” It is possible, and desirable, for people of different opinions and beliefs to work together to improve the environment, he said.