Dear HCN,
In his opinion piece on
the demise of the New World Mine outside Yellowstone (HCN, 9/2/96),
Rocky Barker writes: “Just as important was the fact that the grass
roots led the fight. If national environmental groups had taken the
lead as they did in the Northwest’s ancient forest campaign, my
guess is that the mine fight would still be tangled in the larger
agenda …”
I don’t know where Mr. Barker was
during the 1980s and early “90s, but he was not in Oregon. The
fight to protect ancient forests in the Northwest was fought
primarily by local groups, mainly the Oregon Natural Resources
Council (out of Portland). Earth First! and others worked for years
on the issue before national groups noticed their successes and
began to include ancient forests in their fund-raising campaigns as
if the effort was their idea all along. ONRC and others were
succeeding in nationalizing the ancient forest issue before The
Wilderness Society and Sierra Club moved
in.
Ultimately, the national groups took the
spotlight from environmentalists in Seattle, Eugene, Portland,
Eureka and Grants Pass. But those of us who lived in the region
during those years have no doubt who did the hard work on this
issue, and who was the late
interloper.
Tom
Ribe
Santa Fe, New
Mexico
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline National groups were latecomers.
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