Are there many politicians or their staff members who have been all that conversant with the environment? Do any of them have a professional background, or is it a continual process of education?
I think it’s the latter. I can’t think of too many examples where they had a professional background. If they did, it’s like they were foresters.
Do they come with a law background or business experience?
Well, again, I think it’s really mixed. In general, the political leaders whose aides we’ve worked with have been generally sympathetic whatever their background. There’s never any mistaking the fact that their main concern is reelection for their boss. It’s not show me how you’re going to protect the environment, it’s show me what’s in it for me. Generally, with members of Congress who are viewed as being sympathetic to the environment, it’s more of a case where they are not hostile toward it. When the Clinton Administration was elected, a sort of euphoria set in with the national conservation groups. Somehow everything was going to be wonderful. I remember saying to Brock Evans, and he agreed with me, that they’ve loosened my straps on the torture rack that I was fastened to–but nobody is stimulating the erotic parts of my brain (laughs). All they’ve done is leave me lying here with the straps loosened … I think the public perception was that everything was going to change after 12 years of Reagan/Bush, but it didn’t really change that much.
Are there formal or informal relationships with the national groups on the part of ONRC?
Oh, it’s both. I think that one of ONRC1s greatest strengths is that while we’ve been painted by our opponents as a radical group, we’ve probably been able to work with all the groups better than any other organization. That isn’t to say that everybody likes us, and I think we’ve had communications with the forest activist grass roots groups who have felt we’ve gotten away from them when we tried to cut a deal with the Clinton Administration. We have worked with the national groups on one hand, who I believe do a lot of good and pull things together, but just the nature of large organizations which become more bureaucratic in their own way, versus the other end of the spectrum–the lean, mean activist types who aren’t chasing foundation grants and feel that everybody is somehow bought off or there’s some conspiracy to soften the movement.
