Conservation Northwest

15 years of Northwest Ecosystem Alliance Still Fighting the Battles Joe Scott, NWEA's international conservation director, worked for years as a grizzly bear activist before joining the GEA board in 1993. He served as board president from 1995 to 1997, when he joined NWEA staff. He lives in Bellingham. Fifteen years ago NWEA was spawned as GEA at the drive-in in the back seat of an old VW bus; George HW Bush was in the White House working against the environment. Today, NWEA at 15 has overcome its humble beginnings as the love child of conservation biology and grassroots activism, and it's now sporting around in a hybrid Prius. But there's a George Bush still in the White House, and he's launched countless rollbacks of environmental protection. The more things change, eh? NWEA at least has come a long way indeed. After the name change and the departure forever of the VW bus, the organization sort of entered the mainstream. It grew up (in a manner of speaking) and had children of its own (like Little Loomis and Petey Partnership). Oh, don't get me wrong, visitors can still be greeted by barefoot staff and dogs charging through the halls, but the collective NWEA—the sum of all the parts—has gotten rid of its stiff legged gait and learned to coordinate its newfound muscle. Meanwhile in the parallel universe of Washington DC, our Orwellian leaders have led us ahead to the past, with a Healthy Forest Initiative guided by logging big, old trees; a Clear Skies program defined by rewarding polluters; and wild area management marked by drilling those public lands senseless. It seems strange that with all the great work NWEA and its supporters have done, we're still fighting the same battles that we fought in the old days—particularly the one to save old-growth trees. Many of us more naïve types had always thought that the Northwest Forest Plan and a growing public awareness of our natural heritage would finally help guide the country out of the dark ages of oldgrowth logging and species obliteration. I guess we all misunderestimated the sophistication of some of the dinosaurs of DC in the art of deceit, the undermining of democracy, and the desire to enrich their buddies. I guess there's much work yet to be done in the next 15 years, and I think we're up to the task. Singer/songwriter Dana Lyons on the Ancient Forest Rescue Expedition, 1990. Steven Reynolds Humble Beginnings "Wild" Bill Henkel is back in Bellingham with his son Miles, after several years in Oregon and Idaho, during which time he achieved a master's in creative writing. I started working on the GEA newsletter in 1993 on a $500 budget, an IBM 286, and a mandate from Mitch to produce something that our readers could digest during those blessed few moments each day they perched on their porcelain throne. Short. Sharp. Action-oriented. Back then I was working on my master's in environmental writing, covering parades and car wrecks for the Skagit Valley Herald, and cranking out incomprehensible fiction on the side. I was thrilled by the assignment. But I was a hopelessly wordy guy. So we fell short of Mitch's mandate. Scientists mostly wrote like scientists. Novelist wannabes mostly wrote like novelist wannabes. But occasionally we hit the mark. I was especially taken by our interviews, how close to the bone it felt when people just spoke their mind. Bonnie Phillips-Howard. Doug Peacock. Reed Noss. Terry Tempest Williams. I remember being amazed at the number of swear words Harvey Manning managed to fit into a 2-page interview. There were lessons, too. Lessons in the power of the written word. Mitch had Keeping the Northwest wild 1995 cartoon by Chad Crowe. NWEA archives Summer 2004 13

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