Larry Tuttle, director of the nonprofit Center for
Environmental Equity, left his Oregon home on May 10 to go for a
walk – an 1,872 mile walk. The mileage represents Tuttle’s impetus
for taking to the West’s highways – to support reform of the 1872
General Mining Law. “Pending congressional mining reform is a sham,
and the gutting of the nation’s environmental laws to release
billions of board-feet of so-called salvage timber sales
demonstrates just how far Congress is willing to go,” says Tuttle.
On his “march for reform,” Tuttle will trek through Oregon, Idaho,
Montana and Wyoming before reaching Denver, Colo., sometime this
fall. His wife, Judy, says her husband has concluded that the
environmental movement is too much in the habit of getting grants,
sending faxes, and just trading information. “Instead of preaching
to the choir, Larry thought it would be good to get out into rural
America and talk to regular folks.” Tuttle, a former county
commissioner in Oregon and staffer at The Wilderness Society and
the Oregon Natural Resources Council, hopes to show Westerners how
environmental legislation benefits them. The most unusual sight so
far was a two-humped camel spotted on the first day just outside
Salem. “I’m not sure what kind of omen that was,” says Judy.
*Elizabeth
Manning
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline When Tuttle walks, will they listen?.
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