OCR Text |
Show . : THE ZEPHYR/JUNE-JULY 2005 | almost $600,000. BRC’s net assets at the end of 2003 were a paltry $59,100. I don’t suggest here that pro-motorized recreation deserves more funding by any means. And perhaps the funding gap can be attributed to a land ethic that is moving away from motorized recreation. But the notion that environmentalists like SUWA are the economic exploration when our own consumption of oil is staggering? underdogs—the David to BRC’s Goliath—is pure myth. In the end, money ultimately doesn’t seem to be swaying anyone in the decades long fight for wilderness. Ten years ago, SUWA’s staff was half the size it is now. Its starting salaries, in keeping with Brant Calkin’s admonition, were about $16,000. Now, with more embraced for 15 years? How can we condemn the timber industry when we continue to build homes at an alarming rate that encroach on the habitat of the very wildlife we want But how can environmentalists escape the label of hypocrisy? How can we condemn oil How can we condemn the impacts of motorized recreation while we turn a blind eye to the damage caused by evergrowing numbers of non-motorized recreationists? How can we heed Abbey’s warning of Industrial Tourism when, atits heart, thatkind of economy is the future many enviros have money than they can even hope to spend, SUWA and the Utah Wilderness Coalition is no closer to passage of a state-wide wilderness bill than it was then. As Ed Abbey once said: “What we need is something entirely different.” WILDERNESS VALUES: INTRINSIC or ECONOMIC There are voices of dissent as environmentalism falls further away from its ethical roots. A letter to “The Public Forum” in the The Salt Lake Tribune caught my eye not long ago. It was a letter from David Jorgensen of Salt Lake City about environmental ethics. "It is unfortunate," he wrote, "that wilderness advocates must resort to economic arguments as part of their advocacy. There are some areas that...should be left alone for their own intrinsic worth and not just for human economics or even human enjoyment.” But in the same issue, page one, another article only confirmed Jorgensen's fears about the future of the environmental movement. The headline read, “Outdoor Group Threatens to Leave Utah Over Land Deal." In response to a disastrous plan by Interior Secretary Gale Norton to cut millions of acres of BLM wilderness from Utah, and with the support and blessing of Governor Leavitt, Peter Metcalfe threatened to move his Outdoor Retailer trade ATV tracks near Moab, show, worth $24 million to the state's economy, somewhere else. Suddenly, Leavitt was in a panic and quickly scheduled a meeting with Metcalfe and other outdoor industry representatives, "in hopes of,” according to The Tribune, “selling them on his environmental bona fides." It was clear who had become the most powerful environmental lobby in Utah. It wasn’t the Sierra Club. It wasn’t SUWA. It was the Outdoor But how can environmentalists escape the label of hypocrisy? The growing community of Castle Valley, Utah Retailers Association. At the core of the environmental movement has always been the belief that its constituents must adhere to the ethics and values that make them environmentalists in the first place. It's much easier to be a consumer than a conservationist. "Selling" was the key word here, because that's what's happening. All the intrinsic reasons for wilderness are being lost in the hard-sell, not just by the people who oppose wilderness, but by those who support it as well. All the eloquence of John Muir and David Brower and Wallace Stegner and Ed Abbey, among many others, couldn't move hearts and minds to a decent wilderness bill. But the suggestion that eloquence and values and integrity have given way to trade show boycotts, the commodification of Nature and the marketing of beauty as our most powerful tools for wilderness preservation somehow fouls the very meaning of wilderness itself. The Outdoor Industry needs a pristine wilderness to make money, so what better reason to preserve it? For the environmental community to embrace, or even cast a blind eye toward that philosophy is more than many can bear. At the core of the environmental movement has always been the belief that its constituents must adhere to the ethics and values that make them environmentalists in the first place. It’s much easier to be a consumer than a conservationist. From the beginning, we've embraced the idea of living a simpler life. Of leaving a much smaller footprint on this trampled old planet of ours. Of honoring and respecting the natural world. Of even making a sacrifice in order to assure that some part of our earth is left unscathed by the Works of Man. Our purpose and our goal has always been to pay tribute to The Land itself. The threats to The Land are greater than they have ever been. And many of those threats come from the same forces that have always endangered the last special places. Oil. Mining. to protect and then construct them far bigger than anything we'd ever need to be happy? And when some of our biggest environmental contributors consume massive amounts of natural resources to build monstrous part-time homes, how can we possibly accept their donations? Like a civil rights organization in the 1960s accepting money from a man who belonged to an all white country club—these are the contradictions that destroy our credibility. And like the Civil Rights Movement of 40 years ago, saving what's left of the wild American West is a moral issue, first and foremost. We didn’t fight for the rights of African-American men and women because there was a dollar to be made. Nor should that be our motivation as environmentalists to save wilderness. If we continue to follow this dangerous path, we may some day wonder if the Road to Victory was worth it. Or wonder what it is we actually “won.” For other Zephyr stories on this issue, go to our web site: WWww.canyoncountryzephyr.com “It's Time to Look in the Mirror” April/May 2001 “The Feedback Issue,” June/July 2001 “Arches & Loopholes & the NPS,” August/September 2002 “Ranching in the West,” June/July 2003 Timber. Motorized Recreation. Industrial Tourism. elem L088 emo <3 CALL US TOLL-FREE 888.304.8219 MOAB’S FIRST & BEST BIKE SHOP 94 WEST 100 NORTH MOAB, UT 259.5333 rimeyclery.com Utah BIKE RENTAL & SALES GEAR & CLOTHING MAPS & BOOKS ‘RIM-BRANDED' SOW) be |