From: Patrick.Martin@f825.n102.z1.fidonet.org (Patrick Martin)
Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles.dirt
Subject: Wise Use Movement
Date: 5 Jan 1993 04:09:50 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu


[the following article has been reprinted with permission...Pat]

                        WHY ALL THE FUSS
                       by Clark L. Collins
            Executive Director, BlueRibbon Coalition

     There have been numerous articles and even TV shows about
the Wise Use Movement. Environmental pressure groups have even
had several meetings this last year dedicated entirely to
strategizing on how to deal with this ominous threat to their
power. Why all the fuss?

     Environmental pressure groups have always had opposition in
the form of the natural resource industry trade associations.
They have also had opposition to their anti-ORV agenda from the
motorcycle/ATV industry trade association the MIC and the
American Motorcyclist Association. The International Snowmobile
Council and the snowmobile industrie's trade association the ISIA
have always opposed the antis attempts to eliminate snowmobiling
in our National Parks and other public lands. The so-called
environmental groups never made much of a fuss over this
opposition, so what's so different now?

     What's different is that under the banner of "Wise Use" all
the multiple use interests have spawned a grass roots movement 
that has our opponents very worried. So worried, in fact, that
they have unleashed an unprecedented campaign of deception and
distortion. They are just like a scared kid, that has finally
been caught after years of misbehavior, trying to blame someone
else for their naughtiness.

Let me give you some examples. 

     In December of 1991 Outside Magazine kicked things off with
their "Brownfellas" article. It attempted to compare Wise Users
with the Mafia characters in the movie "Goodfellas" and color the
movement Brown as compared to Green. This article focused on Ron
Arnold and the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise. While 
not entirely accurate this article at least fairly attempted to
depict the swelling tide of resentment toward the so-called
environmental movement. Of particular interest to me was the fact 
that when a Sierra Club representative was quoted, to show how
seriously they are taking this threat to their power, he talked 
entirely of his concern over "the very, very rapid rise of an
off-road group in Idaho called the BlueRibbon Coalition."

     Even "Good Housekeeping" got in the act in February of 1992 
and then again in August. The first article "Snowmobile
Intruders" grossly misrepresented reality by stating, "land 
agencies have granted these machines (snowmobiles, motorbikes &
ATVs), access to walking and hiking trails and created 100,000 
miles of new trails." The August article "Wise Use or Abuse of
the Land?" then goes on to quote a representative of the multi
million dollar National Wildlife Federation saying, "Wise Use has 
a lot more money than environmental groups and uses distortions 
and scare tactics." That would be a joke if it wasn't so serious! 

     Next comes my favorite, the May/June issue of Harrowsmith
Country Life. Their 8 page article "Greenscam" was almost
entirely about the BlueRibbon Coalition. It focused on how we
overcame incredible odds to pass the National Recreational Trails 
Act of 1991 over the intense opposition of the environmental 
pressure groups. This article accuses us of being based in Idaho, 
not because I and both of my parents were born and raised here,
but because "Idaho has 9 million acres of potential Wilderness." 
This article also starts the rumor that we want to "open
protected Wilderness areas to recreational vehicles."

     In August we received a copy of a Sierra Club fundraiser and 
12 page internal memo that shows how they are misleading their 
own members. The letter accuses us of accusing them "of 
engineering the Exxon/Valdes oil spill in order to affect the
outcome of the vote on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge!"
We've never accused them of that but they sure seem nervous about 
it, huh! The memo goes on to accuse us of wanting "an end to all 
government regulation, environmental regulation, and public input 
and review of what they (we) want to do with our land and water." 


     In September Wise Use interests were met at the annual "Fly- 
In for Freedom" in Washington D.C. with a National Wildlife 
Federation letter about us. This letter, distributed on Capitol 
Hill prior to our legislative visits, accused us of being "Green
Storefronts of the Anti-Environment Campaign." Calling us "The
Environmental Destruction Lobby" this NWF letter says our "anti- 
environmentalists agenda exposes a vision for the planet that
would be unfit for human life." Give me a break! 

     The Sierra Club and National Wildlife Federation did us a 
favor though. They included partial lists (both including the 
BlueRibbon Coalition thank you!) that should help solidify the 
movement. The American Farm Bureau, American Forest Council,
American Mining Congress, American Petroleum Institute, National 
Cattlemen's Assn., National Association of Realtors and National 
Rifle Assn. are organizations we can be proud to be associated
with.

     The November/December issue of the National Parks and
Conservation Organization's "National Parks" magazine piled it 
on. Once again attempting to make Green mean Good and everything
else bad, this article titled "Greed vs. Green" unfortunately 
left us off their short list of what they called "snakes in the 
Grass." Accusing the American Motorcyclists Association of being 
one of the founders of Wise Use the author says one of our goals 
is "Constructing Wilderness trails for off-road vehicles" (ORVs).
It also says, "$30 million in gasoline taxes was siphoned off a
highway and mass-transit bill to build trails that will open up
Wilderness areas to off-road vehicles." What a crock!

     A November 1991 issue of Forbes may have helped kick this
whole thing off. Their article "The not so peaceful world of 
Greenpeace" exposed the biggest green group of them all as 
nothing more than con-men and shysters. Greenpeace, might be
encouraging all their environmental pressure group friends to 
help them get even for this article. The author said the secret 
to Greenpeace's success is their philosophy that "it doesn't 
matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is
true.... You are what the media define you to be." Greenpeace has 
since gone belly-up in Denmark. This set-back is largely as a 
result of the efforts of "Survival in the High North" video 
producer Magnus Gudmondsson from Iceland. Magnus proved, in
court, that Greenpeace had paid actors to torture animals for 
their fundraising films.

     What this all boils down to is that the reason there is so 
much media attention on the Wise Use movement is that the Greens 
greed is being exposed and they are lashing out. Finally all the 
multiple-use groups are networking and realizing that when one of 
us is in trouble it is only a matter of time before the green's
misinformation campaign turns on their group. We are sticking
together and the old divide-and-conquer technique no longer works 
like it used to.

     Another piece in the December 9, 1992 Washington Times
titled "Meaner grows the greenery" is sure to cause the anti- 
multiple-use groups more concern. Author Candice Crandall of the 
Science and Environmental Policy Project says "If this (all the 
fuss about Wise Use) sounds as though environmentalists are
falling victim to unbridled hysteria, it is perhaps
understandable....... There is a pressing need to stifle the
growing chorus of dissent among scientists, business leaders and 
members of the public, if environmental pressure groups hope to 
maintain their clout on Capitol Hill."

     Crandall shares the view of Newsweek journalist Gregg
Easterbrook that the overwrought rhetoric of these groups 
"Typically is seen when a movementen accomplished, a movement that
threatens to implode."

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