The Blue Ribbon Coalition - foreign funded industry group -here's the lowdown

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/17/we...ew/17SEEL.html

"If the public comment periods ceased, both sides could save a lot
of ti
me.""

- Clark Collins


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PROFILE: BLUE RIBBON COALITION

Blue Ribbon Coalition, Inc.

1540 N Arthur Ave

Pocatello, ID 83204-2507

208-233-6570• www.sharetrails.org

Return to Reports Index

Compiled April 2001

Notable Quotes

"Anti-access green groups will have none of this [technological]
progress. Their solution is in controlling people, engineering society
to bend to their will. They would take away your home and give you a
one-room shack. They would take away your car and make you walk. They
most certainly would take away your outdoor fun and choices. They'd
like it if you lived like [Unabomber] Ted Kaczynski did, with nothing
but Al Gore's Earth in the Balance for entertainment. …The anti-access
Greens care little about the human condition." –Blue Ribbon Magazine,
June 2000

"Wilderness areas are being changed into 'no human use areas'. That
poor hiker, when he pays his dues to Sierra Club, doesn't realize he's
paying to keep himself off the land."

–Adena Cook, Blue Ribbon Coalition, Alliance for America Fly-In for
Freedom, 1998.

Role
The Blue Ribbon Coalition (BRC) primarily promotes off-road motorized
vehicle (ORV) recreation. As part of the broader Wise Use movement,
BRC's "keep all public lands open" policy also serves the interests of
resource extraction industries, which financially support BRC. In
recent years, BRC has made efforts to reach out to mountain bikers,
equestrians, and even hikers, by promoting the idea that none of these
things will ultimately be allowed in protected areas. BRC promotes
negative images of environmentalists as uncaring, anti-rural,
anti-progress and anti-human.

BRC was co-founded in 1987 by snowmobiler and anti-wilderness activist
Darryl Harris and trail biker Clark Collins.
The BRC motto is "Preserving our natural resources FOR the public,
instead of FROM the public."
In its early years, BRC boasted about "organizing support" for: 1.
logging road construction by the Forest Service; 2. oil exploration in
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; 3. protection of the Mining Act;
and 4. Continuation of the present grazing formula. (The Wise Use
Movement: Strategic Analysis & Fifty State Review, 1993)
BRC now claims to represents over 800 businesses and organizations
with 600,000 members made up of "motorized recreationists,
equestrians, and resource users." (Don Amador, BRC, comments on Forest
Serving Planning Regulations, January 31, 2000 and Adena Cook, letter
to Mike Dombeck, December 20, 1999)


Funding

The Blue Ribbon Coalition's (BRC) total revenue for 1999 was $556,000
(latest year available). $122,254 came from "gifts, grants,
contributions", $168,248 came from membership fees, $175,474 came from
"gross receipts", and $78,946 from "unrelated business activities."
(IRS form 990) There is an extensive list of business members that
presumably pay membership fees:
http://www.sharetrails.org/Organization/index.html (Not to be confused
with corporate contributors).
BRC spent $25,000 on lobbying in 1999: $20,000 in direct lobbying and
$5,000 on grassroots lobbying. (IRS form 990)
In addition to membership fees, funding has historically come from
timber, mining, petroleum, and motorized recreation industries.
Funders have included the Alaska Forestry Association, American Forest
and Paper Association, American Petroleum Institute, Boise Cascade,
Battle Mountain Gold, Chevron, Colorado Mining Association, Crown
Butte Mines, Exxon, Honda (US), Idaho Mining Association, Louisiana
Pacific, Marathon Oil, Polaris, Potlach Corp, Rocky Mountain Oil and
Gas, Ski-Doo, Suzuki, and Yamaha. (Blue Ribbon Magazine)
Strong Anti-Environmental Ties

BRC is a regular participant at the Alliance for America's Fly In for
Freedom, and is a member of the Alliance for America network. The
Alliance for America is the umbrella group for property rights groups
and resource extraction associations/industries. The Alliance works on
changing and promoting the image and message of the Wise Use movement.
BRC promotes idea popular amongst the anti-environmental crowd that
there is a conspiracy to "depopulate rural America". The instruments
of this plot include the Endangered Species Act, environmental
organizations, the Clean Water Act, the EPA and the World Trade
Organization. (Blue Ribbon Magazine, June 2000)
BRC was an original sponsor of the 1988 Reno Wise Use Leadership
Conference which advocated, among other things, "Immediate wise
development of the petroleum resources of the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge," "Creation of National Mining System" under which "all public
lands including wilderness and national parks shall be open to mineral
and energy production under wise use technologies," and "passage of
the Global Warming Prevention Act to convert in a systematic manner
all decaying and oxygen producing, carbon dioxide-absorbing trees to
help ameliorate the rate of global warming." (25 Point Wise Use
Agenda, 1988)
Contributes a regular column to Off-Road.com, which represents the
interests of motorized recreation through a web site and e-mail news
list, the Land Use Network. Off-Road.com consistently refers to
environmentalists as "eco-freaks," "Nazis," "communists," and
"eco-nuts." The Land Use Network is tied to "Wise Use" groups through
overlapping membership and interests, some with extreme
anti-environmental messages and agendas, such as the Sahara Club,
which has advocated violence and exhibited extreme disrespect towards
environmentalists. (Particularly Sahara Club newsletter #35)
Several board members are active in the Wise Use/Property Rights
movement, including Grant Gerber, an Elko Nevada Attorney who most
recently defended " The Jarbidge Shovel Brigade", a group of land use
activists who protested the closing of a forest service road by
illegally digging out the boulders blocking access to the road. Also
worth mentioning is Del Albright of the Land Use Network.
Board Members and Key Personnel:

Clark Collins, BRC Founder and Executive Director. Member of American
Motorcyclist Association, PocatelloTrail Machine Association, and
Idaho Trails Council

Adena Cook, Public Lands Director.

Don Amador, Western States Representative, member of American
Motorcycle Association District 36.

Jack Welch, President. Member of the Colorado Off-Highway Vehicle
Association, and the Colorado Snowmobile Association Director Of Land
Use And Legislative Activities.

A.D. "Dean" Richardson, Vice-President

Joni Mogstad, Sec-Treasurer. Member Oregon State Snowmobile
Association and Oregon Lands Coalition, a wise use group.

Del Albright, Director. Founder/Moderator, Land Use Network, mentioned
above for connections to extreme anti-environmentalists.

Carl Atamanczyk, Director.Member of the daho Falls Trail Machine
Association, Mountain River Snoriders Snowmobile Club, and the Moody
Powder Pushers Snowmobile Club.

Tom Crimmins, Director.

Bill Dart, Director. California Lobbyist For The American Motorcycle
Association. (Fresno Bee, March 8 2001) Member California-Nevada
Snowmobile Association; High Sierra Motorcycle Club; and California
Off-Road Legislative Coalition.

Karl Frank, Director. Associate Member Oregon Motorcycle Dealer
Association, Associate Member Washington State Motorcycle Dealer
Association

Marcel Fortney, Director.

Grant Gerber, Director. Gerber founded the Wilderness Impact Research
Foundation, in Elko, to fight "preservationists" by "educating the
public about the damage [to] society, the economy and even wildlife."
The organization's national steering committee included
representatives of the mining, timber, oil and gas, ranching and
off-road vehicle organizations. Affiliated groups included the
American Farm Bureau Federation, American Forest Council, American
Mining Congress, American Motorcyclist Association, and the American
Petroleum Institute Gerber is also notable for organizing the third
and fourth Wise Use Conferences in Reno, Nev. In 1990 and 1991
respectively. (50 State Review, 1992) To our knowledge, Wilderness
Impact Research Foundation is dormant.

Tom Glass Director. Member Idaho State Snowmobile Association
Scholarship Committee, and Co-Chair; Boise Basin Trail Breakers
Snowmobile Club

Pat Harris, Director.

Ralph Mcmullen, Director. Executive Director Elko Convention And
Visitors Authority, Vice President-Cowboy Country Region Nevada,
member Travel Industry Association Of America; and member of Western
Association Of Convention And Visitors Bureaus.

Betty Morris, Director. Snow Mobile Activist, Member Of
California/Nevada Snowmobile Association.

Jim Murphy, Director. Member Backcountry Horsemen Of Washington

Bill Rugg, Director. Vice President 108 Sno-Drifters Club (Ca), member
of Sonora Pass Sno-Goers, California-Nevada Snowmobile Assn., National
Rifle Association, and Honda Riders Club.

Jack Sheets, Director

Scott Sinclair, Director.

Bob Stevenson, Director

Joe Wernex, Director. Member Northwest Motorcycle Association.






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BLUE RIBBON COALITION PROMOTES TIMBER, MINING, AND OIL AND GAS
INTERESTS OVER RECREATION

[Washington, D.C.] - The Blue Ribbon Coalition, one of the most active
opponents of the Forest Service's efforts to preserve large, intact
areas in national forests, is closely tied to the timber, mining, and
oil and gas industry, according to a report released today by U.S.
PIRG.

The Pocatello, Idaho based Coalition has actively opposed any proposal
to protect roadless areas in national forests even if such a proposal
would further the Coalition's stated recreational interests. While the
group's mission statement values land stewardship and responsible use,
the organization receives funding from 355 corporations including the
American Forest and Paper Association, Exxon, and Sierra Forest
Products.

"Far from being a grassroots organization simply advancing an agenda
of
access to public lands for the public, the Blue Ribbon Coalition is
working hand-in-hand with industry to keep our national forests open
to
chainsaws, bulldozers and oil rigs," said U.S. PIRG Forest Campaign
Coordinator Aaron Viles.

The U.S. PIRG report, "The Blue Ribbon Coalition: Protector of
Recreation or Industry?" was released as a battle is waged over how
the
last third, or 60 million acres, of untouched, pristine wilderness in
national forests will be managed. In May, the U.S. Forest Service
released a draft proposal on managing these wild forests, otherwise
known as roadless areas, and is soliciting public comment and holding
more than 400 public hearings around the country, including a hearing
in Arlington, VA on June 26.

Findings of the report include:

* The Blue Ribbon Coalition receives financial support from numerous
timber, oil and gas, and mining companies including Boise Cascade
Corp., Exxon, Chevron, and the American Forest and Paper Association.

* Companies funding the Blue Ribbon Coalition are also involved in
intensive lobbying efforts in Washington, DC to advance their anti-
environmental agenda,
including the demise of the proposed policy to protect roadless areas
in our national forests. These companies have spent $46,115,748
lobbying Congress the Forest Service and other federal agencies in
during the period the Administration has been working on a roadless
area proposal (1997 - 1999), and have had 146 lobbyists on average
working on their behalf during this period.

* The political action committees (PACs) of companies funding the Blue
Ribbon Coalition are also actively funding candidates, having
contributed $ 1,833,241 to candidates -- $1,767,416 to current members
of Congress and $65,825 to presidential candidates Governor George W.
Bush and Vice President Al Gore in the last three and half years (1997
-
May, 2000). Top recipients in the House include: (1) Helen Chenoweth-
Hage ($42,242); (2) Michael Simpson ($33,500); and (3) Don Young
($33,227). In the Senate the top three recipients a (1) Michael
Crapo ($48,950); (2) George Voinovich ($34,675); and (3) Ben
Nighthorse
Campbell ($28,500).

* The Blue Ribbon Coalition repeats and disseminates the anti-
environmental rhetoric of their extractive industry supporters,
including calling for increased logging in national forests, even if
the statements are incompatible with the stated recreational values of
the Coalition. The Coalition has mischaracterized federal land
management policies, calling the roadless initiative a "totalitarian
lock-up of our public lands." The roadless initiative instead seeks to
create a publicly supported policy that would preserve clean water
sources, wildlife habitat, and recreation opportunities in our last
wild national forests.

"The timber, mining, and oil and gas industries are using the Blue
Ribbon Coalition as a front group to advance their agenda to keep as
much of our public lands open to logging, mining, and oil and gas
exploration - uses hardly compatible with recreational interests, "
said Viles.

The current draft roadless area proposal prohibits new roads from
being
built in roadless areas in national forests, including 109,000 acres
in
Virginia's forests, but, contrary to the rhetoric of the Blue Ribbon
Coalition, does not exclude off-road vehicle use from roadless areas.

U.S. PIRG was critical of the current proposal's failure to ban
logging, mining or other destructive uses from roadless areas and the
exemption of the nation's largest national forest, Alaska's Tongass
National Forest, from the proposed policy. "The timber, mining, and
oil and gas industries have been successful so far in keeping roadless
areas open for more development," said Viles. "In order to truly
protect the last of our wild forests, the Forest Service must issue a
final policy that bans not just road building, but also logging,
mining
and other destructive uses in all national forests, including the
Tongass."

"The Administration must base its final decisions on science and what
the public wants and not on the smokescreens and influence generated
by
Blue Ribbon Coalition and its corporate backers," concluded Viles.

30-30-30

The U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) is a non-profit,
non-partisan public interest advocacy group with citizen members
across
the country.





W.A.R.C. stands for "Wilderness Act Reform Coalition".

Along with the Blue Ribbon Coalition, Clark Collins also created
W.A.R.C. -




http://www.wildernessreform.com/


The first thing you are greeted to on the WARC
webpage is this quote:

" Finally we are going to do something about

the Wilderness Act".
"The Coalition supports the creation of committees
composed of locally-based federal and state
resource managers, local governments, local economic
interests and local citizens which will initiate a
process to override the basic non-management
directive of the Wilderness Act on a case-by-case basis. "

Here is the number one priority in their goal sheet:



"
1. Developing a mechanism to permit active resource management in
wilderness areas to achieve a wide range of public benefits and to
respond to local needs."

Translation : open up the last of our pristine trout river headwaters
and big game habitat to road building, logging ,mining and ranching.


Now, here is a link to national geogrpahic showing our last protected
wilderness areas i nthe lower 48:

http://www.wilderness.net/nwps/map.cfm


See those tiny bits of green? Thats all the congressionaly protected
wilderness we have left. some states have ZERO.
these areas not only provide clean drinking water to 60 million
americans, they also provide the BEST hunting and fishing habitat in
the nation. countless outfitters i nthe west depend on these areas for
pristine fishing and big game hunting. Economically, these areas are
worth more to the local economies than if they were roaded, mined and
logged.

THIS is what Clark Collins and the blue ribbon coaltion want to get.
They want to turn the green spots into Kansas and Illinois. This is
the wilderness they want to "reform".

Thats not "balance", thats greed and ignorance.

Shame on you Blue Ribbon Coalition, and shame on you clark collins


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(Sportsmen Against Bush) wrote in message . com...
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/17/we...ew/17SEEL.html

THIS is what Clark Collins and the blue ribbon coaltion want to get.
They want to turn the green spots into Kansas and Illinois. This is
the wilderness they want to "reform".

Thats not "balance", thats greed and ignorance.

Shame on you Blue Ribbon Coalition, and shame on you clark collins

Thanks. I'd forgotten to renew my membership. I'll go do it now.
I'm going to make a donation in the name of my tree-hugging,
hand-wringing brother as well.

"wbl" wrote in message Thanks. I'd forgotten to
renew my membership. I'll go do it now.
I'm going to make a donation in the name of my tree-hugging,
hand-wringing brother as well.

Hey thats great! I understand you can now send your generous donations to
the new Idaho offices of the BRC. So much more convienient than sending it
all the way to Japan. Besides Yamaha and Kawasaki can use your money to rip
open ALL the National Parks and the Monuments too to MOTORSPORTS!! Yahoo!
Just can't wait to open up the Gettysberg Battlefield to Motocross and the
Grandcanyon to Dirtbikes. Make sure you make the donation in your real name
so that your grandchildren will be able to know how much you cared about
your country.

Not.
Dave