Dear
HCN,
Ed Marston’s essay (HCN, 6/04/01:
Environmentalism meets a fierce friend) regarding future strategies
of the conservation movement was dead-on, and sparked a predictable
response from Dave Skinner (HCN, 7/02/01: Greens are still a
minority) with a list of red-herring comments that completely
ignored the important facts in the fight to protect America’s
heritage of public wildlands. Yes, the conservation movement must
employ a many-pronged approach in the conservation battle,
including professionally run, business-minded organizations that
can match the destructive agenda of extractive
industry.
Mr. Skinner throws out some salary
figures for conservation leaders and staff, as if he expects them
to employ their talents for free.
Should we be
suspicious if organizations must pay executive talent below-market
wages? One must wonder what someone of Carl Pope’s leadership
abilities would earn in a private, for-profit corporation. I am
sure he is taking an effective pay cut to work to protect what he
loves, much like most dedicated “professional” environmentalists I
have met.
They don’t even get option-like
compensation for the billions of dollars in ecosystem services that
their work generates directly for the economy. The missing analysis
in this exchange is actually the massive resources invested by
extractive industry to further their agenda. Don’t think for a
moment that the mining, logging, real estate development,
agri-business, energy, and motorized “recreation” industries (did I
leave anyone out?) do not employ their staff and resources to fight
for access to every square-inch of the public land, often at the
taxpayer’s subsidy, of course.
It speaks to the
force of their argument that a few conservation organizations,
being run on donations and underpaid staffers, have been able to
achieve so much in the face of a profit-motivated and politically
connected opposition.
Maybe Mr. Skinner has
failed to notice from Whitefish, but the West is changing, and the
conservation agenda is taking hold as the preferred alternative
among reasonable people in cities and rural areas alike. It’s time
that the region’s business leaders and politicians take
notice.
Paul
Brookshire
Seattle, Washington
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Dave Skinner’s red herrings.
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