Conservation Northwest

Keeping the Northwest wild Spring-summer 2014 13 25th anniversary An interview Scott and Campion Joe Scott: What attracted you to Greater Ecosystem Alliance in the first place? I've always wanted to ask you that. Tom Campion: I was born with problems with authority, so I went into retail and opened a skateboard shop. I got involved in the conservation movement in the 1970s working with Se- attle Audubon on spotted owls and old-growth forests and wil- derness. In the late '80s, I read a Seattle Times article on Mitch Friedman doing some sort of civil action in a forest in Oregon. So I found him, called him up, and said, "You know, I'm gonna help you out." Probably the first thing I did was send him a little bit of money. Mitch and I got together, obviously there was a good match. What he wanted to do was organize around North Cascades because that was critical to what hadn't been protected in the 1984 Washington state wilderness bill. e Forest Service was still heavily cutting in the Darrington and Mount Baker districts, and starting to in the Okanogan. And it just made sense to me, the continuation of the fight to protect these phenomenal ancient forests. Mitch came at it from an ac- tivist background, rather than a court background. We formed a group, the Greater Ecosystem Alliance. e whole alliance met in my living room at the start. We had no money at the end of the year, but we all had a dream and not a lot of big egos. Everyone brought their experience of the last ten years, orga- nizing around spotted owls and timber appeals and actions, and we kept that fight alive in Seattle and western Washington, with Mitch in Bellingham, and we were on our way. JS: I remember those first meetings. My most vivid memory is the baked beans on the counter in the crockpot. TC: Oh, yeah—that was my mom's recipe and I put in some ham hocks. Eventually we had some Seattle board members who were these vegans and lightweight hippy types, and I had to do carnivore baked beans and veggie baked beans. (Laughter) JS: But you know, I remember bonding with you right off the bat because you were laughing all the time and never took yourself too seriously, or anybody else. And I thought that was refreshing because in the most dire situations I like to laugh because it makes you get a handle on stuff. What I particularly like about you is that you haven't really changed since I first met you. To what do you attribute your humility and silliness? TC: Silliness is not right; I'm really competitive. Zumiez now is the largest action sports retailer in the world, 550 plus stores in four countries, and the same approach I take to them, you and I have for conservation: very competitive, and it's never good enough. Whatever it is, you've got to keep going. Today we're working on climate adaptation and protecting wilder- ness in the Kettle Range and rewilding the North Cascades. And for me, Joe, it's always a glass half full: you go at it, go at it, go at it, if it doesn't work, you mark it down, try something else. And that attitude has always worked for me. Do I get pissed off ? Yeah. Depressed? No. Because you keep going at it. We're beating these guys! JS : What keeps you going and supporting Conser vation Northwest in particular? What drives you? TC: I've a commitment to large landscapes in northwestern North America. So we work in Washington and into Montana, north into Alaska—I love Alaska! It represents a third of U.S. public lands and half our nation's shoreline. Largest wild lands le on the face of the Earth. And it's all public, so, Joe, you and I own 'em. You know, the whole concept of our heritage, of our public landscapes, it just drives me. I grew up in Seattle—my dad was a mailman, my mom was a stay-at-home mom and schoolteacher. We always visited national parks—Olympic, Glacier, Mount Rainier—and that stayed with me, to be able to preserve those great landscapes and pass them on to future gen- erations. Anyway, it's always good having a villain or an enemy, so I've gone from big timber to big oil. You can't get any more irascible than that. And it's quite—I call it entertainment! JS: It's the only way you can keep going in this, because if you look at it as a fight, you're shell-shocked and stymied. What keeps you supporting this humble organization? A conversation between two old grizzlies of Conservation North- west: former board and current staff member Joe Scott and past president and long-time board member Tom Campion. Coast to Cascades grizzly bears. © Steve Ogle More Interview, next page

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