http://www.wildlandsproject.org/

What if I said to you "I want to set aside 50% of the North American continent, put it TOTALLY off limits to humans, & call it "Turtle Island"?

What If I said to you "That's not enough. I want "Buffer Zones" with only "limited human activity", and I want to create them from PRIVATE LAND, and that they must be managed with native biodiversity as a preeminent concern"?

What if I said to you, "I will control, manage, etc. "Turtle Island" and these "Buffer Zones" based on the morality & ethics of "Deep Ecology *"?

* Deep Ecology

What if I told you that an acceptable population for this area was 144,000 people?

What if I told you, that the timeframe for implementation of this project was 100 years?

I imagine right after you called the nice young men in their clean white coats to come and take me away (HA! HA!), you would wonder what tragedy in my life led me to such delusional behavior.

Well guess what? Those are the goals of "The Wildlands Project", direct from their website, and their founder, Dave Foreman; seated Sierra Club board member, and founder of the Eco-terrorist group Earth First.

Presented below are some excerpts from an interview conducted by Derrick Jensen, some time ago. I'd like to take these quotes on a point by point basis.........First, a little background, cited under "fair use"....

More recently Dave Foreman helped to found The Wildlands Project, an effort bringing together grassroots activists and conservation biologists to design and establish linked areas of wilderness extensive enough to support large mammals. In addition to being chair of The Wildlands Project, he is executive editor of Wild Earth magazine and author of Confessions of an Eco-Warrior and The Big Outside (with Howie Wolke)." -- Derrick Jensen

DJ: "When are you happiest"?

DF: "When I'm not thinking abstractly. When I am being fully an animal, when I'm in the middle of a rapid on the river and having to respond to the river".

My question......

But Dave, when you lock up "50% of the North American Continent", placing it totally off limits to humans, exactly what "Rapid" will you be in the middle of??? Where will you find rapids? Your plan calls for eliminating human activities in every area that rapids exist, so are you saying that while you personally were able to enjoy the experience, no one else should be able to? How do you justify that?

"Deep ecology becomes something real when it motivates our day-to-day actions, and there is no more honorable thing any of us can do with our lives than to work to put part of the world off-limits to the activities of human beings."

My question......

But Dave, you just said that you were"Being fully an animal" (though by your acts of terrorism, and published indifference for human life, you express it more than most). Since we each have that capacity, are we not entitled to roam the lands as you do, to express our animal nature?

"There's incredible fun in working with people you connect with and feel close to. Fun comes from going into the wilderness and experiencing it on its own terms."

My question......

But Dave, in order to "experience the wilderness on it's own terms", we have to be able to get to it. Your plan locks us into "corridors" where we cannot "GET TO IT!" Healthy, physically active people cannot "GET TO IT" when you will not let them. Elderly or handicapped people are denied admission regardless because of their reliance on mechanical conveyance, and (drum roll please).....CANNOT GET TO IT"!

So spell it out for us Davester, HOW do you intend to place all that land off limits, deny humans access to it, and allow them to get "in the middle of a rapid on the river and having to respond to the river" to "Experience it on it's own terms"? Where EXACTLY is the "Fun" here?

Just as a side note, I know there are far more honorable things we can do in this life. One of them is caring for & loving our fellow Man / Woman, rather than reducing their numbers from 250+ Million, to 144,000 in a 100 year timespan. Such a population reduction would require forced sterilization, genocide, nuclear war, or other global holocaust.

Since realistically there's no way that we as a people will voluntarily commit suicide, abandon procreation, or rain nuclear death on our own heads, that leaves Forced Sterilization, and Genocide. If you will refer to your history books, oh....say around 1936-45, you will see the results of the environmental & personal destruction that happened the last time some "visionary" out to save the world, tried it. Would that be your idea of "Fun" Dave?

"Fun comes from the privilege of being born into this blue-green living planet, no matter how bad the situation gets. Fun has to motivate it all, or as I prefer to say, joy. Joy in living. Joy in fighting the good fight. Even sometimes joy in saying, "Today is a good day to die," and going for it."

You First! If You are so big on suicide, you surely cannot have much regard for anyone else's life now can you? We'll have our own "fun", we don't really care for yours. It involves wheels, tires, tents, campfires, gears, hot dogs and marshmallows. It involves "Living". Joy in suicide & joy and living are two contradictory things.

"If you want to put it in somewhat religious terms, fighting to save biodiversity, the process of evolution, is a way for us to save our souls."

My question......

And you would be the Messiah? Jesus "Foreman"? Lets remember that religion is a personal thing Dave. I have my beliefs, you have yours, and each of us has the "right" (though you despise the term) to them. The problem comes when you try forcing that belief on us. We reject your "religion", we reject it's teachings and it should be that simple, unfortunately it is not. You have used the money & influence of the Sierra Club, along with paid lobbyists & politicians, to slowly implement your "religion" on all us "Non Believers". Perhaps "Torqamada" fit's you better.

Slowly and steadily you have moved (or helped to) legislation through congress & the Senate that strips "the people" of the land that THEY, not YOU or SIERRA own. You make attempt after attempt to circumvent the established laws like RS2477, and call down the fiery wrath of governmental agencies (I.E. the BLM, Fish & Game, & the USFS), through those aforementioned avenues.

And what of "Evolution"? Humans evolved FROM cave dwellers wearing animal skins. Yet you espouse reverting society to that level. So, you either lied about fighting to save "evolution", or lied about our need to "devolve" back to a more primitive society. The bottom line is that you present two diametrically opposed concepts as being "truth".

"The Wildlands Project is audacious. It's big not only in terms of space but also in terms of time. If we identify, say, a private ranch in Montana that's between two wilderness reserves, and we feel that fifty years from now it will be necessary as a corridor for Wolves to go from one area to another, we can say to the rancher, "We don't want you to give up your ranch now. But let us put a conservation easement on it. Let's work out the tax details so you can donate it in your will to this reserve system." When it's needed as a corridor, it will be there."

My question......

Gotta give you your due there. At least on the surface it sounds "reasonable", but what about the legacy that family will leave it's own children? Robbing a family of it's birthright to satisfy a "feel good" donation to your cause (because that's all it really amounts to) is poor compensation indeed.

Since we already established that a population reduction of the magnitude you suggest is impossible without a gross violation of human rights, all us living, dog loving people need to eat. We need clothes. To fill these needs, we rely on ranches/farms, or in the case of synthetic clothing, the chemical industry. all of which you propose to eliminate.

Now what purpose do these "corridors" actually serve? If, according to plan, they "allow limited human usage" and are managed based on a clearly anti-human philosophy, why not just close them off too? Deep ecology tells us that our need to travel from point "A" to point "B" is outweighed by the "right" of a rock to lay undisturbed, or a blade of grass to grow unmolested.

We cannot hunt there, we cannot fish there, we cannot farm there, we cannot recreate there, we cannot defecate there, any form of mechanical vehicle is forbidden. So what can we actually "DO" there? Walk? Not all "CAN" "walk".

"DJ: You were one of the founders of Earth First! and helped make famous the phrase, "No compromise in the defense of Mother Earth."

DF: I'm all for compromise. It's just that our opportunity for compromise passed about one hundred years ago.

My question......

You made a 180 degree shift in a deep seated philosophy. What are you going to believe next week? Or is it that your ethics are less "Deep Ecological", and more situational? What about all the starry eyed readers of the hate manual called "Ecodefense"? You had no room for compromise there old buddy. Did you ever re write the book to reflect your "new" value system, or are you hoping that these kids and deluded neo-hippies will just keep starving in the tops of trees, getting arrested in acts of violent protest, and sabotaging anything they don't agree with? What do the ethics of "Deep Ecology" tell you to do?

"I get pi$$ed off at the so-called conservatives today who prattle on about property rights -- rights this and rights that -- without any sense of responsibility. With rights come responsibilities and accountability."

Free Clue....Pushing junk science and personal pseudo-religious beliefs...to say nothing of the "ethics & morality" of "Deep Ecology", down our throats doesn't make happy campers out of us either.

Now Dave, we do (like it or not) have rights. We will continuing exercising them, and you will not stop us. Now, why are your rights, beliefs et all, any more important than mine? Why should we throw society back to "future primitive", to satisfy the desires of a deluded, and "misled" few? Where is YOUR responsibility for the broken homes & families caused by the spotted owl fiasco? Where is YOUR responsibility? You say "retrain them" (the workers) . To do what? The Eco nuts recommended that unemployed loggers work at minimum wage jobs in an area that had none! What kind of "morality" is that? Did Sierra dig deep into its coffers and provide one dime to help relocate & retrain these men & women? No, of course they didn't.

"But damn it, I am emotional. I'm an animal, and I'm proud of it, Descartes was wrong when he said, "I think, therefore I am."

Arrogance is an awful thing Dave...who was it that said "Pride commeth before a fall"? I think "Dave Foreman" was wrong when he spouted this nonsense.

Anyone thinking that the Wildlands Project is a joke, a twisted fantasy, had best think again. As you read this, "our" government is hard at work implementing it under the guise of "Conservation Biology", and the UN Convention on Biodiversity" .(a plan which incidentally names the Wildlands Project "specifically" as it's model.) Millions of acres of land locked up. Millions more illegally declared "roadless" when in fact roads have crossed them for well over a hundred years. President Clinton telling governmental bodies to "proceed as if the biodiveirsity treaty had in fact been ratified (it was not). And so on...

What's the logic there, the relationship? Simple. To meet the definition, of "Wilderness" an area must be "roadless". Ergo, instant wilderness without proper public review & comment, and controlled by "Non Governmental Organizations". Instant wilderness' that bypasses public law. Instant wilderness' that requires "Buffer Zones". All these "Instant wilderness areas" keep adding up....to the realization of Foreman's "Wildlands Project"

Does any of this sound familiar?

For more information regarding the "Wildlands Project", you can contact:
The Wildlands Project
P.O. Box 1276
McMinnville, OR, USA 97128
Voice: USA 503-434-9848 -- Fax: USA 503-434-2781

This dialogue with Dave Foreman was originally published in Derrick Jensen's book, Listening to the Land, copyright ? 1995 Derrick
Jensen. You must obtain permission from the original publisher to reproduce the dialogue in any electronic or hardcopy form.

Not when you report on it you don't! Free speech and "Fair use" guys!....or are you trying to "hide" it from the public at large?

For permission contact:
Sierra Club Books
Attn.: D. Gynn-MacDougall
100 Bush St 13th Floor
San Francisco, CA, USA 94104

Fax: USA (415) 291-1602

Sierra Club Books huh? You mean the kind that use
paper that comes from Trees?

"It's Not Easy Being Green" - Article Index

Links to so called "Environmental Organizations"

The Sierra Club Homepage - http://www.sierraclub.org
The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance - http://www.suwa.org/
Earth First! Homepage - http://www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/campaigns/ef/pubs/aulat.html