CHALK ONE UP FOR DAVE
Editorial by Brian Hawthorne,
BRC Public Lands Director

I recently toured parts of southern New Mexico where my travels took me to a small town called Glenwood, right next to the Gila National Forest. The folks in Glenwood were very friendly and eager to show me around this small community. I was invited to visit with a group of locals at the Blue Front restaurant in Glenwood. After the best beef brisket lunch I've ever had, I was introduced and given a few minutes to give a presentation about BRC.
The Carter family used to run cattle on public lands near Escalante, Utah. See that alfalfa field in the background? It's irrigated with water from the Wide Hollow Reservoir, shown in the photo below. What's all that got to do with foundation funded "environmental" groups? Wide Hollow Reservoir's dam needs to be replaced. Thanks to lawsuits funded by foundations, plans to re build the reservoir have been litigated into oblivion. The result? The Carter's aren't running cattle anymore, and if the foundations are successful, that alfalfa field will be gone too. Either dried up and brown or built up with vacation condos. It's a crime!

I wasn't into my presentation for a minute when an elderly gentleman interrupted me. He did this remarkably politely, and when I think back on it now, I guess I could have been a bit 'put-out' by the interruption. After all, the group had invited me to come speak to them! But I wasn't bothered and sat down to quietly listened.

The gentleman told me the story of what has happened to Glenwood and other communities in the area. As with most small towns in rural areas, especially in the West, Glenwood had "grown up from nothing" based on resource related jobs. Jobs in logging, mining and agriculture were, and still are, the foundation of this community.

I continued to listen as my new friend described how foundation funded "environmental" groups began to change all that. He described how massive budgets allow these fringe groups to file lawsuits and systematically eliminate natural resource jobs. Closing roads is just icing on the cake, he said.

He talked about what happened to the community when the lawsuits forced the sawmills to close. Cattlemen were similarly affected, he said, and the population has been dwindling ever since. Most local businesses closed and community services dropped. He said this year their public school might have to close for lack of money.

"That hasn't stopped these radical groups," he said. The green groups are using litigation, legislation and, of course, the Endangered Species Act to take long held water rights. He said, "If they take our water, our community will die. There is no doubt about it."

He looked straight in my eye and asked, "Now that you know a bit about our little town, I'm kind of interested to hear what you think what you think you can do for us?"

Wow, I thought, as I looked around the room, which had become suddenly silent. I took a minute to try to think of something to say. Then it hit me, I had been in this room before!

Well, not this room exactly, but I had been in a restaurant in Northern Arizona right after the last saw mill closed. I had also been in a diner in Southern Utah where I heard from a cattleman who had just sold his grazing rights to an "environmental group," although it broke his heart to do it. It was the same story then, and the same sad look on the faces, too.

You're probably wondering what I said. I was totally honest and said that I wasn't going to do anything but fight for roads and trails. My job is to help the local folks with their travel plan, and if that helps the community keep a few jobs, then that's a good thing, in my opinion. The gentleman and others in the restaurant were all very polite and said they appreciated whatever help we had to offer.

It occurred to me that OHV enthusiasts and the folks in rural communities have something in common: His name is Dave Foreman.

For those of you not paying attention, Dave Foreman is the pitchman behind the Wildlands Project. Yes, dear BRC member, the Wildlands Project is a real live thing, and it's moving along quite nicely, thanks to Dave's rousing speeches and exciting Power Point presentations. Dave's been traveling a lot recently, spreading the good word about saving the earth. Don't know about the Wildlands Project? Well, let's just say this scheme is rural cleansing run amok. Dave thinks it would be nice to de-populate about a half of the United States, beginning here in the West. I'm not kidding.

The same wealthy foundations that fund Dave are also funding various other "environmental groups," whether they are of the anti-access, anti-logging or the anti-grazing variety. The names of the groups might be different, but the goal is essentially the same: to implement Dave's grand vision, or at least as much of it as they can.

You can imagine my shock when I looked on my calendar and the first appointment I had upon returning from New Mexico was with a representative of one of these large foundations. Yea, I was thinking the same thing you are . . . can we get a grant?!

Ah, if it were only that easy. This foundation, the pleasant lady said, only solicits grants. Okay, next question; why the heck was she here? "Oh," she said, "our beneficiary wants to learn more about why OHV travel plans are so controversial, and if there is any possibility of compromise with environmental groups."

That was hard to take, considering the reason travel management is so controversial is precisely because these anti-access groups make it so. But I assure you I remained professional and tried my best to answer her questions as honestly as I could. After she left, I took a couple of minutes to "Google" her generous beneficiary. It's a good thing I didn't do this before she came to see me. According to my "Google" search, just from 1999 2001 this foundation gave $1.6 million to various groups, every single one proudly supporting the Wildlands project.
Grassroots groups like People for the West or People for the USA do what they can, but they are no match for wealthy industrialists who do rural cleansing as a hobby.

The feeling I got in my stomach prompted me to sit down and write this way too-long essay.

Folks can think what they want about what's happening to the rural West, and if all you care about is keeping roads and trails open, that's perfectly fine with me. Insofar as that goes, BRC's got your back. But what these foundations are doing to America's rural towns, and the culture that exists there, is a crime.

Nobody is going to deny that abuses occurred in the past. But those days are long gone. The kind of abusive and damaging practices no longer exist. In large part due to the adoption of the multiple use/sustained yield philosophy. Indeed, it was often the rural community's themselves that petitioned for federal control over forests in order to bring a conservation ethic to resource industries.

Do we now try to make amends for the abuses of the past by totally eliminating all resource use of Western public lands? Do we blindly eliminate all logging, all mining, all livestock grazing, drain the lakes and grab up the water rights -- without consideration of the effects it will have to people? These amazingly wealthy foundation donors think we should.

I guess they have every right to do this, but it would be nice if they visited a few restaurants and diners in places like Glenwood before they did. If it were up to me, I'd make those foundation donors look those people in the eye before they pay these "environmental" groups to eliminate their jobs.

Compromise isn't in Dave Foreman's vocabulary. He's on a mission. So, I don't know why our very nice foundation lady came to see me. If her generous beneficiary really wants compromise, maybe he ought to quit giving people like Dave money.

Next year, the only public school in Glenwood, New Mexico, may close for good. If that happens, chalk one up for Dave Foreman. I guess he'll be really happy.

--Brian Hawthorne is the Public Lands Director for the BlueRibbon Coalition. For questions or comments, he may be contacted at: BlueRibbon Coalition, 4555 Burley Drive, Suite A, Pocatello, ID 83202. Phone: 208-237 1008 x 102, Fax: 208-237-9424. Email <brbrian@sharetrails.org>.

BlueRibbon Magazine, April, 2006

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