=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #335
— April 29, 1993 —
News and resources for environmental justice.
——
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403
Fax (410) 263-8944; Internet: erf@igc.apc.org
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WISE USE REVISITED
The so-called “wise use” movement is something to be reckoned
with. Several thousand small groups and countless individuals
now identify to some degree with the movement. They say they
are the only true environmentalists; everyone else in the
environmental movement they label “preservationists who hate
humans.” In a nutshell, the “wise use” movement aims to repeal
or gut all environmental laws on the theory that environmental
regulation has ruined America by curtailing the rights of
property owners. Many “wise use” advocates avoid complexity by
simply denying the existence of many problems. For example,
many “wise use” leaders insist that the ozone depletion problem
was manufactured by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space
Administration) and isn’t real.
The movement originated in the western states, but now is active
in the East as well, where it is championed by “developers” who
want to abolish wetlands regulations and other restrictions on
land use. The movement first came together under the banner
“wise use” in 1988 when two men from the Center for the Defense
of Free Enterprise in Bellevue, Washington, Ron Arnold and Alan
Gottlieb, published a book called the WISE USE AGENDA. Ron
Arnold is a writer and a showman who is expert at inciting angry
crowds of “little guys” who are being squeezed economically,
such as ranchers and commercial fishermen. Gottlieb is a
phenomenally successful fundraiser for right-wing causes, a
convicted felon who filed false income tax returns as head of
the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms in
1984.[3]
Another leader of the “wise use” movement is W. Cleon Skousen,
founder of the National Center for Constitutional Studies
(NCCS). Skousen once suggested that President Eisenhower had
socialist tendencies. In 1987, Skousen’s NCCS was promoting
classroom use of a history book called THE MAKING OF AMERICA
which was accompanied by a “Study Guide and Bible Supplement.”
NCCS distributed the book free to schools. In describing the
15th amendment to the Constitution, which outlawed slavery, the
book blames slaves for their own mistreatment, offers racial
stereotypes of blacks (including repeated use of the term
“pickaninnies”), and portrays slavery as a normal expression of
the “dark side” of human nature. The book argues that the U.S.
Constitution was derived from the Bible and that the Supreme
Court has illegally usurped power. Each state should be free to
impose its own restrictions on free speech and the press, the
book argues, and all national forests and parks should be
abolished.
Some of the glue linking NCCS with other “wise use” leaders, like
Ron Arnold and Alan Gottlieb, is funding provided by Sun Myung
Moon’s Unification Church. Moon is a Korean multi-billionaire
who has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into militant
right-wing organizations in the U.S., including a right-wing
newspaper Moon publishes in the nation’s capital, the WASHINGTON
TIMES. (As TIME magazine said January 13, 1992 [pg. 64],
“political power, not profit, is Moon’s goal–and… he is
quietly achieving it.”)
For several years Ron Arnold was a registered agent of the
American Freedom Coalition (AFC), which was begun with a $5
million loan from Moon’s Unification Church. AFC was for a time
housed in a building Gottlieb owns. AFC now has 70 full-time
employees, pushing pro-development land-use laws, state by
state.
Various parts of the “wise use” agenda are not new. They trace
their heritage to the “Sagebrush Rebellion” led by Ronald
Reagan’s first Secretary of the Interior, James Watt. Simply
put, Mr. Watt believes that God commanded humans to “multiply
and subdue the Earth;” in this view, bulldozers are the highest
expression of God’s handiwork and conservationists are in league
with the devil.
Going further back, the “wise use” movement represents nothing
more than a longstanding controversy over the best use of public
lands–the 29.2% of the total area of the U.S. (forests,
prairies and deserts) that is owned by the federal government
(all of which was taken, it is worth remembering, from the
native people who lived on it without any concept of ownership
until Europeans swept westward between 1790 and 1890).
Traditionally, the timber companies and the mining companies
seek unrestricted access to public lands, and traditional
environmental groups (Wilderness Society, Audubon, Sierra Club,
Nature Conservancy) want to restrict access so that there’ll be
something left for the next generation. This controversy has
been in open debate since at least 1877 when Carl Schurz, then
Secretary of the Interior, proposed the idea of national
forests, to be rationally managed instead of pillaged.[1]
It would be a serious mistake to believe that everyone who
identifies with the “wise use” movement is a religious nut or a
right-wing wacko. Throughout the 1980s, small farmers, small
ranchers, small mining operations, and small logging operations
have come under tremendous financial pressure. As resources
dwindle, the cost of mining anything (gold, copper, trees) goes
up. As costs go up, either prices have to go up in lock step,
or yields decline. In either case, the little guy gets hurt.
One result is increased mechanization. Some logging companies
now cut trees with giant scissor-like machines, substituting
factory methods for human labor. These are truly hard times in
the west. Many sincere, hard-working people find themselves in
financial trouble. People are frightened, fearful of losing
their livelihood, and worried that they’re losing their way of
life. The “wise use” movement gives people a focus for their
concern by describing a conspiracy to destroy America, with
environmentalists in a starring role. Environmentalism is
sometimes portrayed as a new communist threat. For example,
conservative political columnist George Will wrote in the
WASHINGTON POST May 31, 1992, that environmentalism is “a green
tree with red roots… a socialist dream… dressed up as
compassion for the planet.”
Some conservationists admit that, though the leadership of the
“wise use” movement is opportunistic, it was conservation
organizations that provided some of their opportunities. John
Rousch, former chairman of the board of the Nature Conservancy
says, “These are hard times, there are real problems. Government
bureaucracies and environmentalists have not been sensitive to
small land owners’ needs and genuine concerns. A lot of the
‘wise use’ leaders are opportunists and the environmental
movement created some of those opportunities. The environmental
movement has some work to do to catch up, there’s no doubt about
that.”[3]
In a sense then, many of the rank and file in the “wise use”
movement represent the same kind of people who make up the
grass-roots movement for environmental justice–people whose
property values, livelihoods, and health have been wrecked or at
least threatened by government and industry programs.
Unfortunately, opportunistic “wise use” leaders have captured
the hearts of these “little guys” and have enlisted them in
fights that promote the not-so-hidden agenda of timber
companies, mining concerns, and ultra-right-wing militants.
As a self-conscious movement, “wise use” began in 1988 when Ron
Arnold’s Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise sponsored a
conference in Reno, Nevada called the Multiple Use Strategy
Conference.
Multiple use is a land-use concept adopted in the 1950s that
allows logging and mining on lands initially set aside for
preservation purposes.[2] In theory, multiple use means that
careful timber harvesting can occur in ways that don’t diminish
wildlife habitat or the recreational possibilities of the
forest. In reality, multiple use led to wholesale clearcutting
(a logging technique that removes all trees from an area,
leaving desolation in its wake). Now 95 percent of America’s
original (“old growth”) forests have been mined and are gone.
The multiple use conference in Reno in ’88 was co-sponsored by
Arnold’s Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise and by a
group called the Multiple Use Land Alliance, which had been
started earlier by Charles Cushman.
Cushman is among the more rational of the “wise use” movement’s
leaders. He grew up the son of a Park Service ranger in
Yosemite. He owns a piece of land inside the park and some time
during the 1970s, his “inholding” (as such properties are
called) was threatened. The government was going to take it. He
fought back and won. Soon, to hear him tell it, he was getting
calls from other little guys who had a beef with the
government. Cushman is a natural community organizer, and he
has led many successful battles on behalf of the little guy. He
speaks proudly of helping the Osage Indian people in Oklahoma
defeat a government attempt to place their land in an Osage
Prairie National Preserve. Cushman swears he advocates only
non-violent political action. However, he is known by the
nickname “Rent a Riot.”[4]
Wise use leaders like Arnold and Cushman acknowledge that they
have adopted organizing techniques from environmental activists
(“They wrote the book, we read the book,” says Cushman). But
there’s a difference: Arnold once explained to a meeting of
executives of the Canadian timber industry that they could not
promote their own agenda directly because people are suspicious
of big business. He recommended that they start citizens groups
instead, because grass-roots groups “can do things the industry
can’t… They can form coalitions to build real political
clout. They can be an effective, convincing advocate for your
industry. It can evoke powerful archetypes such as the sanctity
of the family, the virtues of the close-knit community, the
natural wisdom of the rural dweller, and many others you can
think of.” And so “wise use” is growing bigger by fighting for
the little guy, all the while promoting an agenda that serves
the long-term needs of large land owners and corporate
polluters.
–Peter Montague, Ph.D.
[4] An untitled talk by Charles Cushman can be heard on the tape
described in footnote 3.
Descriptor terms: wise use movement; preservationists;
environmentalists; environmental movement; peroperty rights;
ozone depletion; center for defense of free enterprise; ron
arnold; alan gottlieb; wise use agenda; citizens committee for
the right to keep and bear arms; w. cleon skousen; the making of
america; slavery; african americans; blacks; minorities; bible;
superme court; sun myung moon; washington times; american
freedom coalition; sagebrush rebellion; james watt; public
lands; multiple use; carl schurz; george will; john rousch;
nature conservancy; multiple use strategy conference; old
growth forests; forstry; multiple use land alliance; charles
cushman; chuck cushman;