I didn’t know Holly real well. He was a librarian at the University of Oregon and strongly believed in wilderness protection. I just think some of the hardball politics didn’t suit his personality. David Simons, who is another fellow I never got to meet, had a vision that James described as the “Shining Cascades National Park.” This guy died of spinal meningitis. Holly had a whole bunch of David Simons’ black and white photos of the Three Sisters Wilderness. He came into our office [one day] and gave us those pictures. I sort of latched on to them because [I thought] nobody would appreciate their importance. Holly later died [in 19861 of Lou Gehrig’s Disease and at that point was barely able to speak. He was very much aware [then] that he would not be living much longer. I certainly respect him and don’t want to sound otherwise, but Holly was not a strong leader.
The Sierra Club was an interesting phenomenon in this whole thing. The Sierra Club in Oregon was not a strong organization. We ended up attracting the stronger advocates and that sort of left the Sierra Club with less stronger advocates. The problem that the Oregon Wilderness Coalition had in our early days [was] we’d be pushing for some roadless area out in eastern Oregon and the people who lived on the west side [of the Cascades] had never been there. So they did not endorse those areas. I remember going into the congressional offices and talking to the aides who would say “The Sierra Club doesn’t support this.” It wasn’t like they were against a proposal, they didn’t support it. In terms of DC language, as I caution our own staff, that’s taken [to mean] you’re against it. The Sierra Club in Oregon has been very strong on defense, but not so strong on offense.
Did this change when Liz Frenkel became more prominent?
Liz Frenkel would probably epitomize the person who was very strong on defense but always had a reason why it couldn’t be done on offense. She’s very respected by the club because of her years of dedication. The work she did on defense was very important and there would be more scars on the land if she hadn’t done what she did. We had a lot of problems with the Sierra Club in the ’80s’ but as we became more established this wasn’t really an issue. People didn’t turn to the club first anymore for their opinion, [making us] feel like we were undercut. The Sierra Club was not as keen for the litigation to save the spotted owl, they just didn’t want to get into a fray that would get hot and heavy.
Is that a reflection of the earlier separation between the legal defense fund and the Sierra Club proper?
I’m not sure but I do know that the public, of course, is forever confusing the Sierra Club with the legal defense fund. Each is forever explaining that they are a separate organization. I think the Sierra Club has gotten more credit, if you will, than they wanted for things that they were really not a part of, where in some cases [they] may not have even been plaintiffs on cases that the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund brought. But the headline in the newspapers reads “Sierra Club stops timber sale.” My understanding is that at some point the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund wishes to assume a different name to avoid that confusion.
