Peter Douglas
Peter Douglas is the first environmental activist we have profiled at the Activist Video Archive. Peter wrote the law protecting the California Coast, and was longtime Executive Director of the California Coastal Commission. We had known about Peter and his work informally, but made him a priority for our oral history interviews after Alan Sieroty told us about the breadth of his work, and his vulnerable health. Peter was hired by Alan to write the legislation which eventually became the Coastal Act and established the Coastal Commission in the 1970's. We spent a day with Peter last month. He died less than four weeks later. We are indebted to him for making our project a priority, and are proud to feature our interview with him. In an LA Times Op Ed on April 8th by David Helvarg, he is referred to as "The Savior of the Coast." We have compiled excerpts from the interview, and you can see them to the left.