A very big part of our success in raising the issue were the attorneys who were available through the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund and what is now called the Western Environmental Law Center. Anything that gets public attention helps us. The things related to resource management which are, in our opinion, wrong go on because of the lack of public awareness. In other words, newspapers don’t want to write a story about what your concerns are unless you do something. Whether you’re pursuing an administrative appeal, or filing a lawsuit where you enjoin some government activity, that calls more attention to your issue.
You go beyond just being interested citizens?
Right. I can call up the press as Chicken Little and say “The sky is falling.” And they’d say “So, what are you doing about it?” (laughs)
To back up a little bit, what were the circumstances behind the name change from the Oregon Wilderness Coalition to ONRC?
It was because we did recognize that we were dealing with issues other than wilderness. Different staff people at the Wilderness Society have told me at various times that “This [issue] doesn’t have to do with wilderness.I1 We definitely organized around protecting roadless areas as wilderness by being the Oregon Wilderness Coalition, but we acknowledged that our concern was broader than that. There was quite a discussion about what to change the name to … Oregon Natural Resources Council–because it said Oregon and natural resources.
