(FROM MARCH 1993 BLUERIBBON MAGAZINE)

That phrase struck terror to the hearts of top earth-saving planners looking for ways to discredit their opposition as they sought to further their 'environmental agendas'. The W. Alton Jones Foundation planted "spies" among various wise use and property rights organizations across the nation, this in an effort to ascertain the depth and breath of the "environmental backlash movement."

What they found and reported is that, "the movement is actually growing quickly at the grass roots as it finds its base . . . around the country . . . in every single state." And "All over the country it's like a gas . . . it's filling the available space."

The group discussed various aspects of the problem to find ways of counteracting it. This session of the conference was entitled, "The Wise Use Movement -Threats and Opportunities," and was led by Debra Callahan, an environmental activist and lobbyist. Numerous other environmental issues were also reviewed at the conference, but this was by far the most revealing and controversial issue.

She rightly identified both the problem and it's source: "this is happening in every single state," and it's about "private property rights . . . driven more by local concerns than by national issues." Environmentalists have primarily thought of it as "being a western phenomenon, . . . but hat's not true," she added. "Generally speaking you see as many women as men . . . as far as age range -- the same thing."

Callahan said she has previously thought of the resistance to environmentalism as coming from "command and control, top heavy, corporate-funded, front groups." But the more they have dug into it with comprehensive surveys on what's going on in all fifty states, they've had to conclude that, "their opposition is in fact a grass roots uprising against environmentalist abuses of the personal values, rights, and economic visibility of millions of ordinary Americans."

Referring to Ron Arnold and unemployed lumber workers picketing the conference as the typical 'wise-use' figurehead for the opposition, Callahan admitted, "some of these organizations are formally associated with the wise use movement and Ron Arnold, but really the vast majority of them are not." In conversing with some of the picketers, she was confronted with, "You know . . . your grants are taking away our jobs and that sort of thing." She asked later in the session: "How do you say to somebody, no, I don't want you to have your job?"

It caused at least some at the conference to reflect on the reasons for their own support of environmental extremists and the problems they were inflicting upon working Americans. Some even admitted: "This is a class issue . . . It is true that the environmental movement is, has been, traditionally . . . an upper class, conservation, white movement. We have to face that fact. it's true. They're not wrong that we are rich and, you know, they are up against us."

Asked about how much money the wise-use movement had at their disposal, Callahan replied "It's more than we have." She then went on to clarify her remarks with some specific examples of how some groups like The American Farm Bureau, the Cattlemen's Association, the NRA and other political power groups have banded together in support of specific wise-use concepts and issues. "But some of them are dirt poor," she admitted, "Who knows . . . but 'it's more than we've got' is the right answer."

"It's pretty much a grass roots movement, which is a problem, because it means there is no silver bullet," Callahan concluded. She then went on to identify a need to "capture the high ground" if environmental groups were to maintain their credibility before the American public.

Defining that, Callahan clarified it as being: "What people fundamentally believe about environmental protection." Questions asked include if "this movement is going to expand beyond its natural base into mainstream America," and, "are suburbanites going to begin to associate with wise use?" She said her polls revealed that "it's not just jobs, and it's not just environment, why can't we have both?" as being the attitudes of many people.

"The minute the wise use people capture that high ground, we almost have not got a winning message left in our quiver," she concluded. As a plan of action it was suggested environmental activists continue to "reveal the extreme positions of the wise use movement and to expose the links between wise use and other extremists like the Unification Church, the John Birch Society, Lyndon LaRouche, etc." and to maintain high visibility and credibility in the media before the public.

CONCLUSION

Let's keep working. Lets keep getting the 'real-people' message out. Keep using our logic and common sense with friends, associates, businesses and small groups. Call Radio and TV talk shows, let them know what 'it's really like' out here in the trenches and Why we want an intelligent wise-use, multiple-use, cooperative strategy employed in the management of our public and private lands here in America.

We don't need discriminatory, lock-everyone-else out federal land-use legislation and we don't need to surrender our Private Property and Public Access Rights in order to 'protect the environment.'

What we do need to do is to 'Capture that High Ground' by Activating Mr. & Ms. Average American to stand up and let their voice be heard when adverse environmental legislation is up for consideration. Our Lawmakers need to hear from each one of us on specific issues all the time on a regular basis. Are you doing your part?

Their ideas are great, but their methods leave much to be desired. As free citizens, we have learned to be more 'environmentally sensitive, energy efficient and conscious of our responsibilities.' But we don't need to surrender our rights, our freedoms, our property, nor our livelihoods in order to build a better world for all.

That's our message friends, let's get it out. When the media tells or repeats lies about us, our support, our movement, lets challenge them with 'the truth'. We'll never get a fair shake, responsible journalism, if we don't demand it and do it again and again. We need to see that the public gets our 'wise-use' message straight and clear. Once they do, we've 'captured that high ground' and won the war! Then again we have chance of living in the most prosperous, productive and environmentally responsible nation mankind has ever seen!

Can you catch the vision and share it? We thank our 'friends' for sharing this vital piece of information with us . . . and to Ann Corcoran of the Land Rights Letter for her investigative reporting of this conference, and to Harry McIntosh of the Alliance for America for bringing it to our attention. These people also deserve your funding support.

Audio tapes of the EGA Conference are available for $11 per session from The Conference Recording Service, Berkeley, CA Ph. (510) 527-3600. This session was entitled: "The Wise Use Movement - Threats and Opportunities." -- Land Rights Letter (301) 797-7455 -- Alliance for America (518) 835-6702 Both have informative newsletters you can subscribe to. Contributions welcome.

WHY ALL THE FUSS
by Clark L. Collins

Environmental pressure groups have always had opposition in the form of the natural resource industry trade associations. They have also had opposition to their anti-ORV agenda from the motorcycle/ATV industry trade association the MIC and the American Motorcyclist Association. The International Snowmobile Council and the snowmobile industries trade association the ISIA have always opposed the antis attempts to eliminate snowmobiling in our National Parks and other public lands. The so-called environmental groups never made much of a fuss over this opposition, so what's different now?

What's different is that under the banner of "Wise Use" all the multiple use interests have spawned a grass roots movement that has our opponents very worried. So worried, in fact, that they have unleashed an unprecedented campaign of deception and distortion. They are just like a scared kid, that has finally been caught after years of misbehavior, trying to blame someone else for their naughtiness.

Let me give you some examples.

In December of 1991 Outside Magazine kicked things off with their "Brownfellas" article. It attempted to compare Wise Users with the Mafia characters in the movie "Goodfellas" and color the movement Brown as compared to Green. This article focused on Ron Arnold and the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise. While not entirely accurate this article at least fairly attempted to depict the swelling tide of resentment toward the so-called environmental movement. Of particular interest to me was the fact that when a Sierra Club representative was quoted, to show how seriously they are taking this threat to their power, he talked entirely of his concern over "the very, very rapid rise of an off-road group in Idaho called the BlueRibbon Coalition."

Even "Good Housekeeping" got in the act in February of 1992 and then again in August. The first article "Snowmobile Intruders" grossly misrepresented reality by stating, "land agencies have granted these machines (snowmobiles, motorbikes & ATVs), access to walking and hiking trails and created 100,000 miles of new trails." The August article "Wise Use or Abuse of the Land?" then goes on to quote a representative of the multi million dollar National Wildlife Federation saying, "Wise Use has a lot more money than environmental groups and uses distortions and scare tactics." That would be a joke if it wasn't so serious!

Next comes my favorite, the May/June issue of Harrowsmith Country Life. Their 8 page article "Greenscam" was almost entirely about the BlueRibbon Coalition. It focused on how we overcame incredible odds to pass the National Recreational Trails Act of 1991 over the intense opposition of the environmental pressure groups. This article accuses us of being based in Idaho, not because I and both of my parents were born and raised here, but because "Idaho has 9 million acres of potential Wilderness." This article also starts the rumor that we want to "open protected Wilderness areas to recreational vehicles."

In August we received a copy of a Sierra Club fundraiser and 12 page internal memo that shows how they are misleading their own members. The letter accuses us of accusing them "of engineering the Exxon/Valdes oil spill in order to affect the outcome of the vote on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge!" We've never accused them of that but they sure seem nervous about it, huh! The memo goes on to accuse us of wanting "an end to all government regulation, environmental regulation, and public input and review of what they (we) want to do with our land and water."

In September 1992 Wise Use interests were met at the annual "Fly-In for Freedom" in D.C. with a National Wildlife Federation letter about us. This letter, distributed on Capitol Hill prior to our legislative visits, accused us of being "Green Storefronts of the Anti-Environment Campaign." Calling us "The Environmental Destruction Lobby" this NWF letter says our "anti-environmentalists agenda exposes a vision for the planet that would be unfit for human life." Give me a break!

The Sierra Club and National Wildlife Federation did us a favor though. They included partial lists (both including the BlueRibbon Coalition thank you!) that should help solidify the movement. The American Farm Bureau, American Forest Council, American Mining Congress, American Petroleum Institute, National Cattlemen's Assn., National Association of Realtors and National Rifle Assn. are organizations we can be proud to be associated with.

The November/December 1992 issue of the National Parks and Conservation Organization's "National Parks" magazine piled it on. Once again attempting to make Green mean Good and everything else bad, this article titled "Greed vs. Green" unfortunately left us off their short list of what they called "snakes in the Grass." Accusing the American Motorcyclists Association of being one of the founders of Wise Use the author says one of our goals is "Constructing Wilderness trails for off- road vehicles (ORVs). It also says, "$30 million in gasoline taxes was siphoned off a highway and mass-transit bill to build trails that will open up Wilderness areas to off-road vehicles." What a crock!

A November 1991 issue of Forbes may have helped kick this whole thing off. Their article "The not so peaceful world of Greenpeace" exposed the biggest green group of them all as nothing more than con-men and shysters. Greenpeace, might be encouraging all their environmental pressure group friends to help them get even for this article. The author said the secret to Greenpeace's success is their philosophy that "it doesn't matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true.... You are what the media define you to be." Greenpeace has since gone belly-up in Denmark. This set-back is largely as a result of the efforts of "Survival in the High North" video producer Magnus Gudmondsson from Iceland. Magnus proved, in court, that Greenpeace had paid actors to torture animals for their fundraising films.

What this all boils down to is that the reason there is so much media attention on the Wise Use movement is that the Greens greed is being exposed and they are lashing out. Finally all the multiple-use groups are networking and realizing that when one of us is in trouble it is only a matter of time before the green's misinformation campaign turns on them. We are sticking together and the old divide-and-conquer technique no longer works like it used to.

Another piece in the December 9, 1992 Washington Times titled "Meaner grows the greenery" is sure to cause the anti-multiple-use groups more concern. Author Candice Crandall of the Science and Environmental Policy Project says "If this (all the fuss about Wise Use) sounds as though environmentalists are falling victim to unbridled hysteria, it is perhaps understandable....... There is a pressing need to stifle the growing chorus of dissent among scientists, business leaders and members of the public, if environmental pressure groups hope to maintain their clout on Capitol Hill."

Crandall shares the view of Newsweek journalist Gregg Easterbrook that the overwrought rhetoric of these groups "Typically is seen when a movement is about to be discredited..... But when organizations like the Sierra Club irresponsibly counsel their members, in hysterical tones, 'to take whatever action is necessary to stop the destruction,' and then hand out arbitrarily designated hit lists, it becomes something much worse -- it becomes a movement that threatens to undo much good that has been accomplished, a movement that threatens to implode."