14
Monday, April 1, 1991 / University Daily Kansan
Sierra Club is selling out, critics say
Leaders accused of compromising environment for political support
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Dissident members of the Sierra Club say the environmental group is selling out, and saying they are not as it gains political clout in Congress.
"There's a climate of almost revolt at the grass roots level. The business of making deals and using our native forests as a bargaining chip is appalling," said Margaret Hays Young of the club's New York City group.
The critics say they want to publicize the internal wringing over the new rules. The other organization will be shared into endorsing more extreme proposals to
halt logging on federal lands.
Club leaders think they are on the verge of winning congressional approval of unprecedented protection for old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest, but club activists in New York, Oregon, California, Texas and Louisiana are among those who continue to push for proposals that many in Congress consider radical.
"We have destroyed 95 percent of America's forests. We should be trying to save every last stick of what is left," said Tim Hermach, a 30-year member of the Sierra Club's Oregon chapter who launched a splinter
group in 1988 because of his frustration with the Sierrans' search for moderate, middle ground.
National leaders say they welcome the internal debate, but fear the more radical proposals could threaten their cause.
"If you embrace the most radical or visionary proposals, my sense is you are not going to be able to rally sufficient political support in the next five years to pass anything and, as a result, we will lose everything," said Bruce Hamilton, director of field services for the club.
George Russell of Huntsville, Texas, the forest practices chairperson for the Sierra Club's Lone Star Chapter, said the group's lobbyists had developed too cozy a relationship with politicians, especially Oregon Sen. Mark Hatfield, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
"They are losing sight of the fact their mission is to save ecosystems, not to have lunch with Sen. Hatfield," Russell said.
The growing dispute centers on environmentalists' efforts to protect the Northwest's oldest forests. The Sierra Club has endorsed Indiana Rep Jim Jontz's Ancient Forest ban logging on potentially more than six million acres of the region's old growth forests.
The club has withheld support for Hermach's proposed Native Forest Protection Act, which would end clear-cutting and road building on all national forests and prohibit timber harvests on all previously uncut federal lands.
Ranchers upset that wolves may return to Yellowstone
The Associated Press
HELENA, Mont. — Gray wolves stalked through Yellowstone National Park until being removed from the park by man 60 years ago. Now, the government is considering bringing them back, and that has nearby ranchers in an uproar.
Wolves disappeared in Yellowstone in the 1930s after ranchers and the government eradicated them. Now they are predatory activity, it still is.
The wolf could help limit growing herds of elk and bison, but tens of thousands of domestic cattle and sheep graze just across the park boundary.
"We're trying to coordinate this so everybody gets a chance to speak and nobody gets hurt," said Joel Scarafford of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Wolf Management Committee appointed by Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan meets with the public here today. It is the last public hearing before the committee to make its recommendations, due May 15.
The militant environmental group Earth First!, which supports wolf reintroduction, and the New Wool Growers Association, which opposes it, are mar shaling their forces for a show of strength.
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