Life was much simpler when I
viewed the battle to “save” the West through a black-and-white
lens. As a young environmentalist, it was easier to condemn my
adversaries’ beliefs without scrutinizing my own. And it was
easier to attack my adversaries when I didn’t know them. I
have agonized over this for years now.
At the heart of
this land war — and that’s what we should call it
— is a conflict of cultures. On one side stand the “New
Westerners,” mostly urbanites who consider themselves
environmentalists, but whose connection to the land comes through
recreation. On the other side are the “Old Westerners,” most of
whom live and work in small rural communities and make their living
from the land.
In the last three decades, each side of
the conflict has so caricatured their opponents, that they have, in
the process, turned themselves into cartoon characters as well.
Here are some generalizations:
Most New Westerners long
for the simple life in a small town, but they hold Old Westerners
in low esteem and abhor their politics. And when they move to a
small town, they build an oversized home, complain about the lack
of amenities and try to change everything.
Most Old
Westerners live the simple lifestyle that New Westerners claim to
admire. Their homes are smaller and their cars are older, and they
lack a lot of the luxuries without which a New Westerner could
never endure. But if they had more money they would probably live
just as extravagantly.
Old Westerners like cows. Millions
of cattle still graze on public lands and some ranchers who hold
federal grazing allotments are terrible stewards of that land. They
allow overgrazing, destroy rare streamside habitat, and turn public
lands into wastelands.
New Westerners hate cows. They
think most ranchers are bad stewards. They want to eliminate public
lands grazing. But when they buy a condo in a New West town, they
love the view of cows on the alfalfa field from their picture
window and complain bitterly when yet another development wipes out
the pastoral scene.
Old Westerners like their jeeps and
their off-road vehicles and a minority of thoughtless idiots cause
a disproportionate share of the resource damage. Many of their
peers know this and don’t like it, but say nothing because
the one thing they’d rather not do is be seen agreeing with
an environmentalist.
New Westerners drive hundreds or
thousands of miles in gas-guzzling vehicles so they can pedal their
bicycles 40 miles and say they’re non-motorized
recreationists. Bicyclists gather for rallies and races just like
their motorized cousins and cause extraordinary damage when the
numbers are high enough.
Some Old Westerners like to
hunt, mostly deer and elk. Each year a few thousand hunters get a
permit to kill a cougar. They chase the big cat with their dogs,
run it up a tree and shoot it.
Most New Westerners
don’t hunt and would never kill a cougar. But when thousands
of cougar-loving recreationists invade once empty public lands, it
is a hunt of sorts already — a hunt to eliminate the habitat
that reclusive animals like cougars need.
Most Old
Westerners oppose wilderness, since they believe it will limit
their access. On the other hand, Old Westerners understand one key
component of wilderness far better than their adversaries. They
understand solitude. They like the emptiness.
New
Westerners are terrified of solitude. Leave most of them alone in
Utah’s canyons without a cell phone and a group of
companions, and they’d be lost. As a result, the search and
rescue budgets of many rural Western communities have increased
astronomically in recent years. Most members of Search and Rescue
teams are Old Westerners.
Old Westerners agree with the
Bush administration that increased production of oil and gas on
public lands is necessary to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
Many of those same people mock efforts to reduce U.S. dependence
through conservation efforts, which is really stupid.
New
Westerners oppose increased oil and gas exploration and advocate
conservation. Yet most of them are bigger consumers of natural
resources than the people who defend drilling on the public domain.
Most Old Westerners hate the writer Ed Abbey, who once
said, “If America could be, once again, a nation of self-reliant
farmers, craftsmen, hunters, ranchers and artists, then the rich
would have little power to dominate others.”
Most New
Westerners love Ed Abbey, even though they despise half the people
Ed honored in the preceding quote. They may have read all his
books, but they understand far less than they realize.
As
long as Westerners, new and old, refuse to acknowledge the
fruitlessness of their inflexible positions, the West will suffer
for our stubbornness. This is not about compromise, it’s
about dialogue and discussion. An honest discussion.
im Stiles is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a
service of High Country News (hcn.org). He
publishes the Canyon Country Zephyr in Moab,
Utah.
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