Dear HCN,
It seems to me that we
environmentalists are in danger of shooting ourselves in the foot –
again! In retrospect, it’s clear that a major mistake was made in
giving the appearance (sometimes maybe more than that) of not
caring about workers who lost their jobs in mining, timbering or
elsewhere.
This gave the wise-use fraud and its
allies the ammunition they were looking for. Suddenly all those
politicians, who never said a word as corporate decisions to
automate and move overseas cost more jobs than the Endangered
Species Act ever could, became friends of the common man. Efforts
to undo this mistake are all to the good and, hopefully, not too
late.
Now we have grazing on the front burner.
Granted that cattle and sheep should never have been brought to
this arid land and that they have done horrendous damage, ranchers
at least have some kind of historical claim. In Arizona, there are
worse demons – golf courses, over-development and excessive,
careless tourism come immediately to mind. Why should enviros not
work with ranchers who are trying to do it right? There aren’t any,
you say. Not so – I know several. There aren’t enough, you say? So
what; why lump the decent ones with the absentee, greedy or
invincibly ignorant? Impossible, you say. Available evidence
suggests otherwise.
I understand the fear of
Babbitt’s local-control groups. Enviros have been burned in the
past and surely ranchers have a more obvious commitment to
participate. On the other hand, ranchers have their fears: that
enviros will be doctrinaire cow-haters from far away with little
understanding of local issues. Ranchers are hooked, however. After
screaming for local control, they can hardly refuse to participate.
Enviros can hardly object to the Babbitt theory of local
decision-making by the parties most concerned, or deny that it has
sometimes worked. Why not give it a chance? If, in a given group,
ranchers and/or agency people are inflexible, devious or
domineering, this must be publicized (in HCN, for example) and
pressure brought to bear. Participating enviros – and ranchers –
must be prepared to live through their initial distrust and
preconceptions.
I think we are smart enough not
to be “had” and we must not continue to fuel the perception of
enviros as elitists who care more about trees than
people.
Norm
Wallen
Flagstaff,
Arizona
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline We are not elitists.
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