You are here: home   Issues   Ripple Effects   Partisan missteps
Topic: Politics & Policy     Department: Letters

Partisan missteps

Document Actions

Sierra Club lobbyist Debbie Sease laments the lack of Theodore Roosevelt-style conservationist Republicans in the current Congress (HCN, 5/2/11). As one cause for that deficiency, she need look no further than her own organization.

Protection of the environment is historically a nonpartisan issue. All citizens want to breathe clean air and drink clean water. Unfortunately, the Sierra Club, under the leadership of former executive director Carl Pope, made a disastrous decision some years ago to align environmental activism with social justice and other left-wing, liberal causes. Some of these causes have validity. But I don't get involved except as an individual. I don't try to entangle conservation groups that I might happen to belong to. Other environmental groups followed Mr. Pope's misstep in forgetting the nonpartisan nature of environmental protection.

I was a Sierra Club member for 30 years, ending in 2003. I don't feel that I left the Sierra Club. Rather, as a conservative Republican who is a conservationist and who advocates for protection of wildlife and protection of public lands, the Sierra Club left me years before.

Steve Bonowski
Lakewood, Colorado

Email Newsletter

The West in your Inbox

Follow Us

Follow us on Facebook! Follow us on Twitter! Follow our RSS feeds!
  1. In the field with a Montana couple hunting wolves | Amid bitter controversy over allowing hunters and ...
  2. How right-wing emigrants conquered North Idaho | Conservative transplants largely from California h...
  3. Seeking balance in Oregon's timber country | Can logging towns and old-growth forests both thri...
  4. (Still) getting the lead out | When will hunters stop poisoning condors with ammu...
  5. Save our gauges | Important USGS stream gauges imperiled by austerit...
  1. Don't mess with the Forest Service | How a determined and feisty Forest Service held of...
  2. How right-wing emigrants conquered North Idaho | Conservative transplants largely from California h...
  3. How technology detected a huge mine landslide before it happened | Employees at a Kennecott copper mine outside Salt ...
  4. Seeking balance in Oregon's timber country | Can logging towns and old-growth forests both thri...
  5. The Forest Service battles placer mining with an obscure law | A little-known 1955 law gives the Forest Service a...
Subscriber Alert
HCN Classifieds
More from Politics & Policy
Once there was an effective governor and a middle ground Remembering former Oregon Gov. Tom McCall, a centrist who got good things done.
Save our gauges Important USGS stream gauges imperiled by austerity
The other Cannabis legalization story Is victory finally within reach for hemp growers?
All Politics & Policy
 
© 2013 High Country News, all rights reserved. | privacy policy | terms of use | powered by Plone | site by Groundwire | design by Ryan Foster

HCN Logo High Country News in your inbox!


Sign up now to receive our weekly email newsletter!

• The best weekly collection of Western environmental news

• An at-a-glance look at our latest news and analysis


This box was designed to only appear once. It uses a "cookie" (a small file stored on your computer) to remember that it has shown the box to you.

If you are seeing this box appear multiple times, then something is not allowing the cookie to be stored properly. Browsers can be set to not allow cookies, and some people choose to disallow cookies for security reasons. If your browser is setup this way, please consider adding "www.hcn.org" as an exception to your no-cookies rule. For information about how to do this, just search the Web for "browser cookie exceptions."

If you're sure this isn't the problem, then it could be related to how your browser has stored information from our site in previous visits. Browsers often "cache" images, text and other website content in order to make them appear faster if you ever go back. Sometimes the browser's cache can be corrupted or become outdated. The simplest fix for this is to try reloading the page. If that doesn't fix the problem, it may be necessary to clear your temporary items from your browser. Again, a web search will provide you with lots of options and instructions.

Either way, we're sorry to hear that this box is getting in the way of your enjoyment of the HCN website. If you continue to have trouble, please contact our Subscriber Services team.