Conservation Northwest

15 years of Northwest Ecosystem Alliance commonly called The Meadows. It's part of the Okanogan National Forest, and a stone's throw away from the Loomis State Forest. In the heavy fire season of 1995, about 10,000 acres of lodgepole pine forest burned there. Of course the Forest Service moved quickly to sell timber from the burned area. I tracked their planning and environmental review process—which was poor, in typical Forest Service fashion. When the final EIS came out, we wanted to appeal it. It was clear that the logging would have no environmental benefits but would do substantial damage to this roadless habitat. This was in the days before the Forest Service claimed that every logging project would benefit "forest health," and the agency was honest enough to make no such claim here. The only benefit the public stood to get was the log revenue. But our hands were tied. Shortly before the EIS was released, Congress passed the infamous Salvage Rider, also known as Logging without Laws. We had no legal standing to oppose the timber sale. I remember briefing Mitch and everyone on a staff conference call. I described the situation and our inability to act. And I added that an additional insult was that the timber market was so weak, and this timber sale so unattractive, that to attract any bidders the Forest Service had to mark down the opening bid amount to an insane $8 per thousand board feet (about $25 per truck load). I said it was possible that even at that price, nobody would bid. Then Mitch laughed. He said, "Somebody's going to bid. Us." The rest is history. No, we weren't awarded the timber contract. Yes, the sale did eventually get logged. But along the way we made national headlines, raised conservative Republican allies in Congress and elsewhere, and built public awareness and opposition to the Forest Service's money-losing timber sale program. As Mitch put it, "The Forest Service manages our public lands like a good old boys club. A checkbook won't get you in; you need a chain saw." Magic Movement for the Loomis Forest Following the Loomis Forest Campaign, Fred Munson, NWEA's current deputy director, served as the first director for The Cascades Conservation Partnership. In the 1980s and '90s he worked masterminding campaigns for Greenpeace. He and his family live in Ballard in Seattle. In 1998, Mitch Friedman was looking for someone to direct the fundraising effort to protect 25,000 acres of the Loomis State Forest. In the job interview I asked an obvious question: So how much money do we need to raise? The answer—"somewhere between $10 million and $30 million dollars"—would have sent any rational person screaming from the room. Luckily for me, I decided to stay and take on the challenge. We worked hard at that campaign! But ultimately it was the good will of our donors, and some magic, that helped us protect the Loomis. Two of those magic moments are worth recounting. Early in the campaign we held a chichi donor appreciation event at the World Trade Center in downtown Seattle. I arranged for the mayor of Seattle to speak and a TV personality to be master of ceremonies; we even had an ice sculpture of a lynx on the buffet table. This was all a bit much for an ex-Earth First!er like Mitch, who needed reassuring that this was how it was done. Something about that night's event ended up inspiring one of our donors so much that he walked over to Mitch at the end of the evening and pledged $2 million worth of stock. That was a bit of magic at work! Keeping the Northwest wild NWEA spearheaded the coalition effort that saved the Loomis Forest in perpetuity. Bill Pope Summer 2004 17

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