Were there efforts made to divide and conquer as a way to hurt the other camp?
I can’t say there was ever a particular strategy, though we wouldn’t be averse to doing so. Anyone who was industry
oriented or a tree farmer who endorsed wilderness helped us. I remember James Monteith making the comment that “The irony of our culture is that the further away you were perceived to be from having a reason to protect the environment, the more credibility you had.” If some guy who was laying low as a mill owner, and suddenly got religion and said we should save the land, that person had more credibility than somebody who has been eating peas and carrots all their life and wouldn’t hurt a fly.
So it’s more beneficial to have Paul going to Damascus, as opposed to the true believer?
James could carry an analogy too far, but we said that if Jesus Christ made one tiny mistake, he’d get crucified. The media always loves it when an environmentalist clear cuts part of their land. Nevermind that they cut maybe 40 acres and that a CEO is responsible for laying low millions of acres. If you find somebody in the industry who is perceived to hold the contrary position, and if they say that this area is too special to log, that holds more weight than someone who has always believed that wilderness is valuable and been true and pure, if you will (laughs).
I certainly think James Monteith brought a lot of vision to the effort, but a lot of it was just responding to the
immediate situations and opportunities that availed themselves. That isn’t to say there wasn’t any bigger, overall vision. When people ask “Why did you pick the spotted owl?”–I don’t recall anybody sitting down and saying “Okay, here’s the strategy, we’re going to pick the spotted owl and make it the issue.” It was more like, I1Oh, this species is in trouble?” and “Oh, that would be a violation of law.” Of course we were going to defend it [the owl]. It is interesting that the salmon has the potential to affect far more acres than the spotted owl ever did. The salmon is lower down the evolutionary scale than the owl or a mammal, but the [human] lifestyle associated with it is on our side for once.
