Life story: Biologist Sally Van Niel worked to protect environment
Published 10:25 pm Saturday, December 1, 2007
MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — If Snohomish County looks a little greener this spring, it may be because of the work of Sally Van Niel.
A lifelong environmentalist, Audubon Society member and college biology instructor, Van Niel dedicated her life to the natural world around her with fervor, passion and a indefatigable spirit.
Born in April 25, 1936, into a U.S. Navy family in Long Beach Calif., her father left the service and took a job with Seattle City Light, eventually moving to the Rockport area on the upper Skagit River. It was there as a young girl she developed an affinity for nature amidst the sprawling forests of the North Cascades.
Her husband, Jan Van Niel, explained that it was during her formative years that she began her exploration of the natural world.
“She grew up through most of her youth at the foot of the Diablo Dam, and there was no road up there at the time,” Van Niel said. “It was a very small community of people who mostly worked for Seattle City Light, a wonderful town where you could wander around free of fear, and experience nature.”
Jan Van Niel and Sally met while attending the University of Washington in the zoology graduate program, working on their masters’ degrees.
“We both had a passion for biology, and zoology was a lot more active than botany, and she was especially interested in marine animals,” Van Niel said.
After graduation they both taught biology at Everett Community College from 1971 to 1999.
“She started out as a part-time instructor, but like all part-time instructors you put in well over 80 hours worth of work,” Jan Van Niel said. “But it had it’s compensations, when she was hired full-time we could be home in time for the girls when they would return from school as well as take family vacations during the summer break.”
Her other real passion in addition to teaching was leaving a world better than how she found it for her children and grandchildren.
“As a biologist, we are trained to recognize the consequences of our actions as humans on the environment,” Jan Van Niel said. “The impact we were making on the world around us worried us.”
So what began as membership as one of the 10 original members of the Pilchuck Audubon Society turned into a life’s calling as she became committed to the conservation of the environment. Van Niel served on many councils and committees, such as the Snohomish Wetlands Alliance, the citizens advisory group for nongame wildlife for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, and was founder of the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance.
She was also instrumental while working with the Snohomish County growth management committee in the 1980s, during which she convinced the county to stop spraying the herbicide 2,4-D along roadways.
“It was straight 2,4-D, and they were spraying it often,” Jan Van Niel said. “It would unfortunately cause secondary deaths and its breakdown products are toxic to many animals.”
Preservation of the environment and the establishment of wildlife refuges became a crusade for Sally Van Niel, and in turn local Audubon societies helped establish Spencer Island, a 412-acre island in the Snohomish River delta, as a natural habitat protected by the state.
She was also an avid bird watcher. Her favorite bird, the chickadee, was even given homage on the license plate of their car.
“We shared so much in common, we worked and played together for 48 years,” Jan Van Niel said. “Not many people can say that they worked together with their spouse for so long.”
Sally Van Niel was diagnosed with diabetes and had several impairments because of the disease. She died on Nov. 20. She was 71.
Van Niel is survived by her husband Jan and her two daughters, Kristina Dalton and her husband Shawn and Lisa and Jim McConnell.
Reporter Justin Arnold: 425-339-3432 or jarnold@heraldnet.com.
