Joyce Wolf
Energy & Environment
Energy & Environment contains the interviews of individuals who were involved with the development and implementation of state energy and environmental policy from the 1970s through the early decades of the 2000s. The interviews elicit insights about the policy-making process, the assignment of priorities, and the give-and-take involved in reaching final policy decisions. Of special interest are instances in which Kansas developed singular solutions and means for implementing them. To explore this collection and others, visit the Kansas Oral History Project home page: https://ksoralhistory.org/
Joyce Wolf was active in environmental organizations in Minnesota before moving to Kansas in 1982. In 1985, she helped form the Kansas Clean Air Coalition, and in 1988, began representing the Kansas Audubon Council in the Statehouse. Among the issues before the Kansas Legislature during Wolf's as a lobbyist was funding of the State Water Plan and obtaining sufficient water for the Cheyenne Bottoms wetland area. Wolf and the Audubon Society were members of a coalition of organizations with similar environmental goals. Wolf stopped lobbying in the year 2000 but has continued to provide education to the public regarding the State Water Plan and the importance of adequate funding for the Plan.
During her 2019 oral history interview, Joyce Wolf talks about her background working with environmental organizations on a variety of environmental issues. With a degree in bacteriology, she became interested in water quality issues before the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Wolf worked with Jan Garton, a key figure in environmental advocacy in Kansas, and a coalition of environmental groups supporting water rights for the Cheyenne Bottoms wetland area under the banner of “Save Our Bottoms.” Wolf was also involved in debates over the low-level radioactive waste disposal facilities. She elaborates in this interview on the success of the coalition achieving an arrangement for adequate water supply for Cheyenne Bottoms and funding of the State Water Plan during the administration of Gov. Mike Hayden. Wolf recalls that environmental organizations were also concerned about the silting-in of the federal reservoirs, the decline of the Ogallala aquifer, the conflict over the Arkansas River that led to the Kansas v. Colorado lawsuit, and the loss of surface water in western Kansas. Wolf also discusses the cultural differences between Kansas and Minnesota that appears to reflect a lack of appreciation of the natural environment in Kansas.
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