Harmon was born in Kansas and raised in Southern California. She graduated from Long Beach Poly High School and attended Long Beach City College. In 1944 she married Paul Harmon who was then a pilot with the U.S. Army Air Corps. On completion of his military service, Paul and Jean entered the sporting goods business in Southern California, eventually owning several stores.
Four children were born to the Harmons; three girls and a boy. In 1978 they retired and in 1984 settled in Ukiah while continuing to own various properties in Southern California. In February, 1994, just prior to their fiftieth wedding anniversary, Paul Harmon died in Ukiah. Jean speaks endearingly of their life together describing the loss of a confidant and friend whose values and beliefs were deeply respected. Jean anticipated sharing many additional years with her husband and her grief at his loss is still close to the surface.
Harmon's interest in environmental issues began while she was living in Southern California. She was involved in the Ocean Fish Protective Association and active in insuring public access to the White's Point area on the Palos Verdes peninsula. She worked to make certain the Los Angeles Harbor breakwater was not closed to public access.
Since arriving in Mendocino County, Harmon's environmental interests have expanded. She is a director of Salmon Unlimited, a member of the Ukiah Valley Streams Coalition, serves on the Coastal Conservancy's Russian River Technical Advisory Committee, has supported the Mendocino Environmental Center on various issues and , since 1985, has served as a director of the Millview Water District. She was also a member of the Open Space Committee of the Ukiah General Plan.
Harmon's sphere of activity extends to social and humanitarian concerns. Friday morning finds her in the kitchen at Plowshares Community Dining Room severing celery stalks and dicing carrots for the noon meal.
Harmon also serves as a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and recently completed training for the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program of the Mendocino County Superior Court. CASA entails the use of private citizens as advocates for abused and neglected children in Juvenile Court proceedings.
Harmon's election to the Millview Water District Board came about by chance. Shortly after arriving in Mendocino County she happened to see a "little article" in the Ukiah Daily Journal urging people to run for the board. She had been interested in fisheries and water related issues and her home in the Redemeyer Road area of Ukiah fronted on the Russian River.
She ran for the board, was elected, and is now completing her tenth year. Harmon describes her service on the board as highly satisfying and educational. She cites as accomplishments her efforts to attain a more equitable rate structure for the district's customers and professional management for the district.
Harmon's career offers convincing evidence of the hardships and disappointments endemic to the environmental movement. Population pressures, corporate economic aggrandizement and an adverse political climate create formidable barriers. One must be prepared for rejection and defeat - but persevere.
The most signal disappointment for Harmon was the loss of Vichy Triangle as public access to the Russian River. Vichy Triangle is a three acre parcel adjacent to the river at the Perkins Street bridge. Harmon devoted considerable time and her personal resources in attempting to secure the Triangle as a County Park. However, the Board of Supervisors refused to support the project in spite of the passage of a County-wide initiative with a 69% majority in favor.
Harmon is committed to direct action. She believes private citizens should assume personal responsibility for addressing matters affecting the public interest. This was apparent in the Vichy Triangle issue.
On another occasion she received information that Masonite was releasing pollutants from its slurry line into the Russian River - a situation, she was informed, that had been going on for years. Harmon took pictures, collected water samples, contacted the Department of Health, the Department of Fish & Game, and the Regional Water Quality Control Board. Masonite's response, according to Harmon, was that the problem was blown out of proportion. Nevertheless, the company was fined and forced to modify the system.
Harmon was also active, along with many others, in addressing water pollution at the Louisiana Pacific plant in Ukiah, which, Harmon states, involved contamination of wells adjacent to the property. This also resulted in corrective action being required at the plant site.
A theme to which Harmon frequently refers is that people potentially interested in improving the environment must be given opportunities to accomplish specific tasks - not merely attend meetings. Studies, she finds, frequently serve as an excuse for inaction and are often, ". . . full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
Harmon's commitment to personal responsibility extends to her own domicile. She permits access to the Russian River through her property, which includes 500 feet of river frontage, off Redemeyer Road in Ukiah. Harmon requests that visitors call in advance to let her know of their intent to perform their rite of passage. To protect herself financially from possible misadventure by the public, she has obtained a liability insurance policy at her own expense.
Activism occasionally has its sunnier side. Harmon characterizes the planting of Steelhead near the headwaters of several local streams with Bill Townsend and Jim Ford of County Fish & Game as a labor of love.
Harmon considers her support of Townsend's restoration work as one of the most rewarding aspects of her tenure as a director of Salmon Unlimited. Recently, 3,000 spawning Steelhead were counted at Lake Mendocino dam, a dramatic increase over prior years.
Greed is a creed for which Harmon reserves her most clearly expressed disdain. The misuse, over-exploitation and degrading of the community's natural resources by entrenched commercial interests, she finds repellent. The domination of our political and economic institutions by such interests should serve as a catalyst for citizen action. However, Harmon concedes the influence and power of business and impact of economic forces must temper ones optimism for ultimate success.
Although one's convictions may place one at odds with commercial interests, including the timber industry. Harmon does not view the goals and objectives of the business community as inherently in conflict with those of the conservation movement. She states emphatically that, "environmentalists are loggers best friends." Actions to curtail over-harvesting and depletion of forests result in improved timber yields in the long term, and a more stable, prosperous industry.
The environmental movement should be inclusive. Harmon is discouraged by the internecine conflict between environmentalists. People should not be excluded or marginalized because they do not wear the "badge" of an acceptable cause or organization.
Social connections are important. Environmentalists should cultivate inter-personal relationships. They would then be more fully aware of the values and commitments of others and that, "someone besides myself and my cause is also important." From such connections mutually supportive communication networks develop. In Harmon's words, "don't have a meeting, have a party."
Harmon gives great credit to the achievements of individual activists and interest groups, but feels their work is often too confined involving only a fraction of those members of the community at large potentially interested in the project or activity in question.
Avenues should be explored for bringing environmental groups into closer contact so there can be greater mutual awareness of their activities and priorities. Members of the general public favoring environmental measures should be communicated more effectively.
Knowledge of the environment and conservation principles and techniques should be widely disseminated. Harmon suggests an "Algonquin Round Table" format, convened periodically, involving key resource persons sharing information and expertise on environmental questions. The legacy of George S. Kaufmann and Dorothy Parker would then inspire a new generation in a setting unanticipated by its progenitors.
Positions on key boards and commissions that make critical decisions on environmental issues frequently are unfilled or occupied by persons opposed to environmental protection. At the present time, Harmon is attempting to find ways for broadening awareness of these positions by the general public as well as encouraging environmentalists to serve.
Harmon describes the process of growing older as, in some ways, liberating. One is freed from the constraints imposed by earning a living and rearing children. Financial independence enables people of a certain age to challenge establishment interests Harmon describes as, "the good old boy network," without fear of economic reprisal and loss of livelihood.
Seen from her perspective, seniors have a vital role to play in the environmental debate. Her example serves as a model for the creative use of one's later years.
However, it should be emphasized, seniority does not immunize one from generational conflict in the environmental arena. Harmon has been characterized as uninformed on issues by her detractors and being "old" and, presumably, out of touch. Dealing with these attitudes while persevering in pursuit of her beliefs is a testament to the strength of Harmon's convictions.
With that said, Harmon is nevertheless an outspoken advocate for youth and the next generation of environmentalists. Exposed from childhood to the vibrant, fascinating and exhilarating processes of the natural world, children learn to respond instinctively to the environment. Building on the capacities and propensities of youth is, for Harmon, the chief priority.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1995