I am responding to Felice Pace’s letter, in
which he portrays the Arizona campaign to designate wilderness in
the Tumacacori Highlands as the brainchild of the Pew Charitable
Trusts, and the grassroots activists as Pew’s pawns (HCN,
6/21/04: What grassroots wilderness movement?). That perception
couldn’t be further from the truth.
The decision to
promote the Tumacacori Highlands was made by the board and staff of
the Arizona Wilderness Coalition along with many other local
conservationists, staff at Congressman Raúl Grijalva’s
office and the congressman himself — without any
communications or advice from Pew.
The Tumacacori
Highlands certainly wasn’t chosen because it is
non-controversial; we find ourselves constantly defending our
rock-solid proposal from the typical misinformed, yet vocal,
opposition to wilderness. This area was chosen because it is the
largest unprotected U.S. Forest Service roadless area in Arizona,
with tremendous recreational and ecological values.
We
are advocating for the additional designation of about 7 million
acres of wilderness, but when it comes to actually legislating new
wilderness, we have chosen to expend our financial and emotional
resources only where we perceive the opportunity to gain local
political support.
Arizona activists have remained in
control of this campaign, and we have never felt any pressure from
Pew to move away from where our local knowledge and instincts
direct us.
Don Hoffman
Alpine, Arizona
The writer is director of the Arizona Wilderness Coalition.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Locals drive Arizona campaign.
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