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Show THE UTAH MEDIA and WILDERNESS OPPONENTS: Asked what has changed about Utah since he started this work, Brant offers that the media has not. “Informed reporting is still in the witness protection program” he says. “ If the Utah Association of Counties claimed the world was flat, the Utah press would fail to ask for documentation. If someone drops into Escalante to announce he just located the world's largest deposit of tapioca nearby it becomes true and the environmentalists who question such a thing instantly become demons.” Brant adds of some wilderness opponents, “for some people the Pleistocene was just moving too fast.” Our adversaries may never understand how much they have motivated us. Volunteers who go to considerable trouble and expense to attend a meeting only to be ridiculed by some local politician or rancher usually control their anger at the time, but the drive home can be a time of building a resolve that will live a lifetime. Nothing sustains us so much as the arrogance of our adversaries.” ENVIRONMENTALISTS SHOULD WEAR THE HAIR SHIRT: Brant offered his staff low pay but lots of autonomy to “do good and fight evil. The benefit of lousy pay is you get to experiment.” Calkin offered low wages because no environmentalist should be in it for the money, and “pay doesn't affect the quality of the staff.” He offers as rationale both that environmentalists have an obligation to spend their members’ money wisely, and that small salaries ensure that only the passionate keep their jobs. He adds that while experience is useful, it doesn't automatically result in better or smarter actions: “smart young people with fresh ideas are just as important as those who have been around the track a couple of times.” Brant never asked his staff do anything he wasn't already doing. For example, he and Susan Tixier earned a total annual salary of $20,000 between the two of them as Director and Associate Director, about a third of what the current SUWA director makes now. Brant never stopped working, whether it was leading the Utah Wilderness Coalition out of shaky consensus efforts, hustling money, or fixing a fleet a beater SUWA cars (he was renown for resurrecting aging office equipment and trucks). done, he'd start cleaning the office. COMPROMISE: Sometimes environmentalists SUWA. Brant currently declares himself homeless. “Probably missed by the census,” he adds. He's doing “a little stuff” to save sea turtles in Baja, has a few projects in La Paz, dabbles in Utah, and is available for small projects “stirring up hate and evil” where ever he goes. He's learned how to sail just enough to spend winter months in the Sea of Cortez and, judging from reports, make regular stabs at drowning himself. He has voice mail at the SUWA office in SLC, rents a storage unit in New Mexico, parks his sail boat on the Mexico mainland, gets mail froma forwarding service in Nevada and reads email when he crosses back into the states. I can personally report that he is as good a partner for a back country trip as you'll find, especially if you want to lounge in the shade while he's out in the 100 degree heat amiably fixing busted sea kayaks. Clinton, Reagan or Bush, we only get what we fight for. It is when we are under attack that we should be at our most ambitious and announce our plan for the most imaginative, far sighted, creative, and wildlife. We should create an agenda that excites the public in a way which blurs state lines and keeps us from being hostage to those politicians who are the "Worst of the West.” And the time to do it is now.” God Bless Brant Calkin. Scott Groene works as the National ORV Campaign Coordinator for Wildlands C.P.R. And when it seemed everything was confuse passing a wilderness bill with protecting because we've worked long and hard,” Calkin warns. Brant quickly rejects the notion that wilderness advocates should settle for a bad compromise, and come back for more later. “We passed a Utah Forest Service bill in 1984 and nothing has happened since except too much land has been lost to chainsaws.” HIGH DESERT DIGITAL Creator and Sponsor of Virtual Moab, The Canyonlands Area Information Index Visit our web site: virtual.moab.ut.us Will take your business beyond ordinary web sites. Offering 3D Animation, Digital Video, Real Audio and Secure Commerce Servers for Online Transactions. We specialize in design, management, and hosting of web sites. For a list of sites created by High Desert Digital please call us at: 435-259-7062 lands.com oab or email us at: highdeser J WHAT'S NEXT? After retiring as SUWA's director, Brant took a SUWA slide show on the road to help stop Hansen's anti-wilderness bill, living in his Volkswagen van to save SUWA motel costs (sleeping at the Newark Airport when showing in Manhattan, and on the streets of the most expensive suburb in the US--Shaker Heights outside Cleveland, where the cops ticketed his van while he lounged inside). He then traveled to Arizona to get Ed Abbey's old truck running and brought it back to Utah where it sold for over $26,000 to benefit ‘THUNDER HORSES Ne" F sea Panguitch... It sounds like a neurological condition. Books public lands policy and reform that any nation ever too often guilty, it is underestimating the desire of the American people to save our lands where wilderness has been lost to the timber industry, in Utah we've kept the losses to a minimum-—-we grieve each one, but they are minimal.” “Those of us in the environmental movement don't have the right to be impatient just PANGUITCH sweeping, exciting conceived. Let our adversaries attack that! If there is anything of which I think we are all wilderness. As Brant says, “you can pass a bad bill anytime, a good bill takes time.” As I interviewed Calkin, Utah environmentalists were struggling to respond to a crappy wilderness compromise brokered by Utah Governor Mike Leavitt and the Bureau of Land Management. The BLM, as would be expected, performed miserably during negotiations and the result was a proposed settlement of one million acres out of the 2.6 million that qualify in Utah's west desert-—an offer no environmentalist could seriously consider. Brant says, “Leavitt would like to cut off the interest in the new wilderness that has been inventoried [the recent inventory raised the citizen's wilderness proposal from 5.7 to 9.1 million acres], and one way to do it is pass a bad bill.” Calkin's advice on the matter is “don't give up future options. What it takes is a favorable congressional attitude. We've demonstrated to Utah politicians they can't pass a bad bill, but the time won't be ripe until they are convinced we can pass a good bill, or their replacements are convinced. If it's in my lifetime, fine, if not, fine. Unlike Idaho, M .-E. -R.- G@: Al He can fix your car, stare down a D.C. thug, traverse a slot canyon or save the wilderness. He's Mr. Goodwrench, Batgirl, Everett Ruess and Ed Abbey packed in one compact frame. After watching him with strays, I also suspect he can converse with animals. He offers this final advice for those who love wild places: “whether under Carter or ° Music HISTORIC - Art DISTRICT ELL SEVENTEEN sS ES |