RangeNet2000
By Dave Skinner - Published: 02.16.01
Last November, hard-line Greens gathered in Reno to discuss the elimination of public lands ranching at their "Rangenet 2000" conference. Of course, these "conservationists" insisted, "We are not radicals," as retired physician Bob Witzeman declared to Associated Press reporters. While it is obvious that Rangenet's members aren't exactly mainstream in their thinking, they definitely have tapped into the "money stream." After all, the joke is -- "What do you call an environmental group that can't get grant funding? Night clerk at Fast Gas."
But Rangenet 2000 is not a joke.
Rangenet 2000 keynoter Jon Marvel's Idaho Watersheds Project has 1050 members. At $25 a year dues per member, that would be a total budget of $26,250, but "In the summer and fall months IWP employs seven people to monitor compliance by grazing permittees on six National Forests." That is apparently in addition to Rangenet member Stew Churchwell, IWP's "Central Idaho Director." Usually, volunteers specify their volunteerism -- so who is paying these people?
With a bit of judicious Web-surfing, one can get a hint.
Taxpayers paid travel expenses for Great Basin National Park Superintendent Becky Mills to address Rangenet 2000. Turns out Mills has been to other conferences of this sort, including a 1997 Oregon anti-grazing shindig attended by Rangenet 2000 presenters George Wuerthner, Gilly Lyons, and John Horning. Mills presided over the retirement of grazing rights in Great Basin (the central focus of this conference) helped along by the Conservation Fund, itself run by the controversial John Turner, a potential appointee in the Bush Administration. Other funding help came from the Goldman Foundation, Weeden Foundation, Foundation for Deep Ecology, and, you guessed it, the Turner Foundation.
Of course, there are other foundations, some being the Rockefeller Family Fund, the Brainerd Foundation, and the Bullitt Foundation. So let's just poke around a little: Here are a few grants the New York-based Weeden Foundation made to Rangenet participants in 2000: Alternatives to Growth Oregon (presenter Andy Kerr), $50,000. Forest Guardians (presenter John Horning), $45,000 over two years. California Wilderness Coalition (member Paul Spitler), $40,000, 2 years. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (member Dean Keddy-Hector), $20,000. And, there is a grant for $50,000 for Friends of the Earth to work with American Lands (presenter Mark Salvo) and the Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads on eliminating ORV's and jet skis. More on Mark Salvo later.
Here are some others: Turner Foundation donated $15,000 to the animal-rights-oriented New West Research (member Pat Wolff) for anti-Wildlife Services "road show." Turner also heavily supports the National Wildlife Federation (presenter Tom Lustig), widely known for its crusade to list black tail prairie rats as endangered, with $500,000 in 1999 (2000 was not available on Ted's site). University of Wyoming anti-grazing prof and Rangenet keynoter Deb Donahue is another National Wildlife Federation alumnus.
Eco-lawyer Mark Salvo works for American Lands, focusing on making sage grouse the political equivalent of the Oregon spotted owl. That is logical, as a 1998 Rockefeller Family Fund $25,000 grant summary reads: "Support for organizing and outreach work to train forest activists and achieve national forest protection goals (the group was formerly known as the Western Ancient Forest Campaign)." Spotted owls were WAFC's meal ticket. They were also Andy Kerr's meal ticket. American Lands (the name was changed with focus-group assistance) also landed $40,000 of Weeden money to block a Chilean sawmill -- guess THAT means their name covers BOTH Americas, right? Other loot: $100,000 over two years from the Bullitt Foundation.
Of course, American Lands might be in a bit of trouble. Their Midwest field director, Frank Ambrose, has just been charged with tree spiking in Indiana, and it's a solid case.
Foundations that continue to fund terrorist activity or those who facilitate it can find themselves under serious Internal Revenue Service scrutiny, as well as open themselves to RICO racketeering investigation and asset seizure. Hmmm.
Another Rangenet member, Nicole Rosmarino, is probably finding that out. After the Vail fires, she actually told a Mother Jones reporter the fire was "one of the most beautiful acts of economic sabotage ever in this state." None of the foundations I have researched so far show any grants to her group, Rocky Mountain Animal Defense.
One thing that should be kept in mind is that just part of 2000 saw $4,892,000 in grants to around 250 groups from the Bullitt Foundation alone -- which translates to roughly a hundred $50,000-a-year activists, all dedicated to blowing dams, hanging from buildings and bridges, spinning the press, filing suits -- and holding conferences about eliminating ranching from the West.
When radical ideas have serious money behind them, then their radical protagonists must be taken seriously, too.
Gives you a look at who Marvel is in bed with.
Pick your "friends" wisely.
By Dave Skinner - Published: 02.16.01
Last November, hard-line Greens gathered in Reno to discuss the elimination of public lands ranching at their "Rangenet 2000" conference. Of course, these "conservationists" insisted, "We are not radicals," as retired physician Bob Witzeman declared to Associated Press reporters. While it is obvious that Rangenet's members aren't exactly mainstream in their thinking, they definitely have tapped into the "money stream." After all, the joke is -- "What do you call an environmental group that can't get grant funding? Night clerk at Fast Gas."
But Rangenet 2000 is not a joke.
Rangenet 2000 keynoter Jon Marvel's Idaho Watersheds Project has 1050 members. At $25 a year dues per member, that would be a total budget of $26,250, but "In the summer and fall months IWP employs seven people to monitor compliance by grazing permittees on six National Forests." That is apparently in addition to Rangenet member Stew Churchwell, IWP's "Central Idaho Director." Usually, volunteers specify their volunteerism -- so who is paying these people?
With a bit of judicious Web-surfing, one can get a hint.
Taxpayers paid travel expenses for Great Basin National Park Superintendent Becky Mills to address Rangenet 2000. Turns out Mills has been to other conferences of this sort, including a 1997 Oregon anti-grazing shindig attended by Rangenet 2000 presenters George Wuerthner, Gilly Lyons, and John Horning. Mills presided over the retirement of grazing rights in Great Basin (the central focus of this conference) helped along by the Conservation Fund, itself run by the controversial John Turner, a potential appointee in the Bush Administration. Other funding help came from the Goldman Foundation, Weeden Foundation, Foundation for Deep Ecology, and, you guessed it, the Turner Foundation.
Of course, there are other foundations, some being the Rockefeller Family Fund, the Brainerd Foundation, and the Bullitt Foundation. So let's just poke around a little: Here are a few grants the New York-based Weeden Foundation made to Rangenet participants in 2000: Alternatives to Growth Oregon (presenter Andy Kerr), $50,000. Forest Guardians (presenter John Horning), $45,000 over two years. California Wilderness Coalition (member Paul Spitler), $40,000, 2 years. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (member Dean Keddy-Hector), $20,000. And, there is a grant for $50,000 for Friends of the Earth to work with American Lands (presenter Mark Salvo) and the Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads on eliminating ORV's and jet skis. More on Mark Salvo later.
Here are some others: Turner Foundation donated $15,000 to the animal-rights-oriented New West Research (member Pat Wolff) for anti-Wildlife Services "road show." Turner also heavily supports the National Wildlife Federation (presenter Tom Lustig), widely known for its crusade to list black tail prairie rats as endangered, with $500,000 in 1999 (2000 was not available on Ted's site). University of Wyoming anti-grazing prof and Rangenet keynoter Deb Donahue is another National Wildlife Federation alumnus.
Eco-lawyer Mark Salvo works for American Lands, focusing on making sage grouse the political equivalent of the Oregon spotted owl. That is logical, as a 1998 Rockefeller Family Fund $25,000 grant summary reads: "Support for organizing and outreach work to train forest activists and achieve national forest protection goals (the group was formerly known as the Western Ancient Forest Campaign)." Spotted owls were WAFC's meal ticket. They were also Andy Kerr's meal ticket. American Lands (the name was changed with focus-group assistance) also landed $40,000 of Weeden money to block a Chilean sawmill -- guess THAT means their name covers BOTH Americas, right? Other loot: $100,000 over two years from the Bullitt Foundation.
Of course, American Lands might be in a bit of trouble. Their Midwest field director, Frank Ambrose, has just been charged with tree spiking in Indiana, and it's a solid case.
Foundations that continue to fund terrorist activity or those who facilitate it can find themselves under serious Internal Revenue Service scrutiny, as well as open themselves to RICO racketeering investigation and asset seizure. Hmmm.
Another Rangenet member, Nicole Rosmarino, is probably finding that out. After the Vail fires, she actually told a Mother Jones reporter the fire was "one of the most beautiful acts of economic sabotage ever in this state." None of the foundations I have researched so far show any grants to her group, Rocky Mountain Animal Defense.
One thing that should be kept in mind is that just part of 2000 saw $4,892,000 in grants to around 250 groups from the Bullitt Foundation alone -- which translates to roughly a hundred $50,000-a-year activists, all dedicated to blowing dams, hanging from buildings and bridges, spinning the press, filing suits -- and holding conferences about eliminating ranching from the West.
When radical ideas have serious money behind them, then their radical protagonists must be taken seriously, too.
Gives you a look at who Marvel is in bed with.
Pick your "friends" wisely.
