To her neighbors around Marion Lake, these are the words that define Lori Luscher -- and conjure up memories of the feisty self-made environmentalist portrayed by Julia Roberts in the 2000 box office smash.
Ms. Luscher, a part-time East Marion resident of 30 years, led the charge to clear domineering phragmites stalks from the small lake near Orient Harbor.
The project took nearly five years and hundreds of hours of grant-writing and negotiating with the Department of Environmental Conservation. By last November, Ms. Luscher had the proper permits, political and financial support from Southold Town Trustees and a $100,000 matching grant from the DEC to move the project forward.
That month, the town highway department finally began cutting the invasive weeds, which can suffocate wetland ecosystems if uncontrolled, around the Bay Avenue bridge.
For her tireless work in releasing Marion Lake from this decades-long ecological stranglehold, the Suffolk Times names Lori Luscher Civic Person of the Year.
"We were going to give her phragmites for Christmas," joked Suzanne Moyse, Ms. Luscher's longtime friend and neighbor. "She just didn't want to give up. She did this basically all on her own."
But Ms. Moyse said she helped her friend early on in the research phase.
"We didn't even know what [these plants] were called," Ms. Moyse said. "We contacted wildlife associations, we took pictures of birds on the lake, we talked to the DEC and found grants."
She said that even with no experience in grant writing, Ms. Luscher wasted no time putting pen to paper. She also formed the Marion Lake Restoration Committee and organized fund-raisers, such as yard sales and an "awareness" booth at last year's Maritime Festival in Greenport.
Walter Gaipa, another neighbor of Ms. Luscher's, said he wasn't sure at first if Marion Lake residents could raise the $100,000 to match the DEC grant. But with Ms. Luscher at the helm, he now believes anything is possible.
"People that could donate did donate," he said. "Whatever we could get."
Mr. Gaipa recalls other Marion Lake property owners trying to get the ball rolling on phragmites eradication in the past, but Ms. Luscher was the only one able to get the job done.
"I remember the meetings years ago" he said. "All the heads of the DEC, all the promises, and nothing ever happened. But Lori, when she puts her mind to something, it happens."
The need for eradication had become more urgent in recent years, according to Mr. Gaipa. If the proliferation of the plants around the bridge stopped the flow of water from one side of lake to the other, the water, with no natural connection to Orient Harbor, would become stagnant and polluted.
But with the bridge area clear again, Mr. Gaipa said, it was very emotional to see both sides of Marion Lake.
"It hasn't been that way for 25, 30 years." he said. "Lori really was the brains behind it. She has an amazing ability to follow through on things."
Ms. Luscher's own property in East Marion isn't directly on Marion Lake -- it's on the bay, another aspect of her dedication that amazes those who know her. During the week she's a purchasing manager for a picture-framing company up the island. But on weekends, Ms. Luscher, her husband, Jack, and their dog Maple -- a beagle she rescued from an animal shelter in New Jersey -- commute to the North Fork to enjoy the serene little lake, soon to be phragmites-free. And though the lake association is still short on grant funds, if anyone can make the match, it's East Marion's Erin Brockovich.
"She's got a lot of charisma." Mr. Gaipa said. "I doubted a lot of things, but she will get to her goal."
Erin Schultz