‘Of the Environment, Not in It’: City Salutes Environmental Icon In Mill Valley

MILL VALLEY, CA — City leaders honored an environmental advocate as a Volunteer All-Star during their early June council meeting, citing more than half a century of work on local and regional conservation issues.

Councilmember Urban Carmel said Nona Dennis had shaped both city policy and the lives of young residents who came of age in Marin’s environmental culture.

“I think it's hard to overestimate the impact that you've had on many generations of kids that have grown up in Marin County and in Mill Valley,” Carmel said.

Carmels said his daughter, who grew up in Mill Valley, is now working in the same field, creating the next generation of buildings that are sustainable.

“That's just a very small example of the kind of wide impact that she’s had on many, many lives,” he said.

The city traced Dennis’s record from her arrival in Mill Valley in the 1950s through her work on early environmental impact reports, service on the Mill Valley Planning Commission and Architectural Advisory Committee, leadership at the Marin Conservation League, and contributions to the city’s Vision 2040 General Plan.

Dennis told the council she viewed her long list of projects as opportunities to learn rather than accomplishments and said she felt just like one of the countless volunteers helping to protect Mill Valley’s environment.

“It's not just altruism that drives volunteers, it's also there's deep satisfaction in learning new things and finding that those things can also be good for people and for the environment,” Dennis said.

Mayor Max Perrey said Dennis was among a group of other prominent Marin environmentalists and said her influence extended far beyond city limits.

“These are the people who shaped Marin County and well beyond,” Perrey said.

He added that Dennis’s work on community environmental planning reverberates well beyond Mill Valley, calling her role legendary on local commissions and task forces.