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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">6/16 also tag</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">SEE MAIN AND SAGEBRUSH</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">BUNDY
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</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ggl docs: ideol entre</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">// standalone 17 pp&nbsp;<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y63J0O629QzfvBDqx8ZiDSJyhBfBM89B2AMSuc67tjo/edit">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y63J0O629QzfvBDqx8ZiDSJyhBfBM89B2AMSuc67tjo/edit</a>
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.kunr.org/local-stories/2022-01-07/big-lie-feeds-off-western-extremism" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.kunr.org/local-stories/2022-01-07/big-lie-feeds-off-western-extremism</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 20px auto; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...Many of the Republicans pushing Trump’s lies have close ties to anti-government extremists in the West.</font></p><p style="margin: 20px auto; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Accountable.US,&nbsp;</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">a left-leaning watchdog group, released a&nbsp;</span><u style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.accountable.us/news/report-insurrectionists-anti-conservation-movement-one-in-the-same/" class="Link" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; touch-action: manipulation;">report</a></u><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;Thursday connecting the insurrection with earlier conflicts over ranching and mining on federal lands, beginning with the&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);"><u style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/a-look-back-at-the-first-sagebrush-rebellion" class="Link" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; touch-action: manipulation;">Sagebrush Rebellion</a></u>&nbsp;</span></font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">of the 1970s.</font></p><p style="margin: 20px auto; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The anti-public lands movement is a breeding ground for this type of animosity that helped supercharge the events of January 6 and contribute to them,” Accountable spokesperson Karl Frisch said.</font></p><p style="margin: 20px auto; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Frisch says far-right politicians like Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert,<b>&nbsp;Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes and Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar were primed for the insurrection by their previous involvement with anti-government extremists.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 20px auto; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">In December 2020, Reyes signed an amicus brief in support of a Supreme Court case&nbsp;<u style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22O155/163215/20201209144840609_2020-12-09%20-%20Texas%20v.%20Pennsylvania%20-%20Amicus%20Brief%20of%20Missouri%20et%20al.%20-%20Final%20with%20Tables.pdf" class="Link" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; touch-action: manipulation;">seeking to have votes thrown out</a></u>&nbsp;in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. He is also the former chairman of the Rule of Law Defense Fund, one of the sponsors of the so-called&nbsp;<u style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://documented.net/reporting/republican-attorneys-general-dark-money-group-organized-protest-preceding-capitol-mob-attack" class="Link" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; touch-action: manipulation;">March To Save America</a></u>&nbsp;that took place just before protesters stormed the Capitol.</font></p><p style="margin: 20px auto; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The fund also sponsored robocalls urging Trump supporters to “march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal” in the days before the insurrection. After the day’s attack turned deadly, Reyes&nbsp;<u style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/2021/01/10/utah-ag-sean-reyes-denies/" class="Link" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation;">sought to distance himself</a></u>&nbsp;from the group.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 20px auto; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Years earlier, as the Accountable report details, Reyes&nbsp;<u style="background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.deseret.com/2014/4/8/20539077/utahns-paying-close-attention-to-dispute-between-blm-nevada-rancher" class="Link" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; touch-action: manipulation;">intervened on behalf of Cliven Bundy</a></u>&nbsp;</span>when the government planned to auction the radical rancher’s cattle in Utah to help pay down the $1 million in grazing fees he refused to pay. Bundy and his sons gained a large following among the far-right after they organized a series of armed standoffs with federal agents in Nevada and Oregon.</font></p><p style="margin: 20px auto; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Frisch predicts the growth of right-wing radicalism will continue in the leadup to midterm elections later this year.</font></p><p style="margin: 20px auto; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Because these two movements are so intertwined, I think we’re likely to see more of it,” he said.</font></p><p style="margin: 20px auto; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, advocates like Lyngar support abolishing the Electoral College and eliminating the filibuster, which would allow Democrats to pass federal voter protections. He told the crowd on Thursday it was up to voters to put pressure on lawmakers for those changes to be adopted....</font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/GroundZero-3.pdf">
</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/GroundZero-3.pdf">http://www.accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/GroundZero-3.pdf</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Executive Summary............................................................................2</font></div><div style="">Elmer Stewart Rhodes.........................................................................4</div><div style="">Trent Loos............................................................................................10</div><div style="">Sean Reyes...........................................................................................18</div><div style="">Paul Gosar............................................................................................24</div><div style="">Wendy Rogers.....................................................................................29</div><div style="">Yvette Herrell......................................................................................35</div><div style="">Cliven Bundy.......................................................................................39</div><div style="">Ammon Bundy....................................................................................43</div><div style="">Phil Lyman..........................................................................................48</div><div style="">Matt Rosendale...................................................................................55</div><div style="">Lauren Boebert....................................................................................60</div><div style="">Sonny Borrelli.....................................................................................69</div><div style="">Walter Blackman................................................................................76</div><div style="">Dennis Linthicum...............................................................................81</div><div style="">Matt Shea.............................................................................................86</div><div style="">Cliff Bentz............................................................................................95</div><div style="">Brady Knowlton.................................................................................10</div></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">no lnx</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div>UMMARY: Trent Loos is a right-wing media personality who works closely with anti-public</div><div>lands extremists to spread conspiracy theories and anti-government messaging.</div><div>Trent Loos is a vocal supporter of zealots who have attacked federal land, frequently praising</div><div>the Bundy-led group that held an armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.</div><div>Loos even joined the militants at the refuge to help them spread their anti-public lands</div><div>rhetoric. Loos has complained that Bundys and other anti-government militants who fight</div><div>public land protections have been maligned by the media and are “true patriots.”</div><div>Trent Loos extended that same support to the Trump-aligned insurrectionists hoping to</div><div>overturn the 2020 presidential election , voicing solidarity with them on January 6 while</div><div>aware that the capitol was being breached. Loos has defended the use of violence and</div><div>perpetuated lies about election fraud. Loos has made repeated comparisons between the</div><div>insurrection and the Malheur Wildlife Refuge occupation, defending both as unfairly attacked</div><div>by a media that vilifies anyone “stand[ing] up for truth and liberty.”</div><div>Right-Wing Media Personality Trent Loos Is An Anti-Public Lands</div><div>Extremists Who Participated In The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge In</div><div>2016 And Supported The January 6, 2021 Capitol Riot</div><div>10</div><div>Trent Loos Works Closely With An Anti-Land Group Led By The Daughter Of Rancher</div><div>Wayne Hage Who Fought The Government After Refusing To Pay Grazing Fees For</div><div>Using Public Lands.</div><div>Trent Loos “Works With The American Stewards Of Liberty Group.” “Loos, who works with</div><div>the ‘American Stewards of Liberty’ group of Texas, just returned from a ‘Freedom Festival’ in</div><div>Tulare, Calif., May 8, where he joined Donald Trump Jr. at a fund-raiser sponsored by U.S. Rep.</div><div>Devin Nunes.” [McCook Gazette, 5/14/21]</div><div>American Stewards For Liberty Is Run By Margaret Byfield, The Daughter Of Wayne Hage,</div><div>A Rancher That Fought Against The US Government Over Public Lands. “Margaret was</div><div>raised on a large cow calf operation in central Nevada purchased by her parents, Wayne and</div><div>Jean Hage in 1978. Her family experienced unprecedented regulatory pressures that eventually</div><div>led to Hage v. United States, the first federal lands grazing case filed in the United States Court</div><div>of Federal Claims. The case was in litigation for 27 years, during which time Margaret launched</div><div>the property rights organization Stewards of the Range.” [American Stewards of Liberty,</div><div>accessed 03/30/21]</div><div>- Like The Bundy Family, The Hage Family Refused To Pay Grazing Fees For Using</div><div>Public Lands. “Before Cliven Bundy, there was Wayne Hage, a Nevada rancher whose</div><div>quarrel with the federal government churned through the courts for 21 years. Hage, an</div><div>outspoken critic of public-land management, held water rights predating federal</div><div>ownership and argued that he therefore didn’t need grazing permits.” [High Country</div><div>News, 09/12/12]</div><div>Trent Loos Is An Anti-Public Lands Extremist And Conspiracy Theorist Who</div><div>Has Routinely Aligned Himself With Zealots Seeking To Eliminate Public</div><div>Lands</div><div>Loos Attended The 2016 Malheur Wildlife Refuge Occupation To Give The Bundys A</div><div>Microphone</div><div>Loos Interviewed Ammon Bundy During the Armed Occupation Of Malheur National</div><div>Wildlife Refuge. [Protect The Harvest, Accessed 5/19/21]</div><div>● In 2014, The Bundy Family And Other Armed Militia Seized The Malheur National</div><div>Wildlife Refuge, Threatening Violence And Saying They Would Not Leave Until</div><div>Dwight And Steven Hammond Be Released From Jail. “The Bundy family of Nevada</div><div>joined with hard-core militiamen Saturday to take over the headquarters of the Malheur</div><div>National Wildlife Refuge, vowing to occupy the remote federal outpost 30 miles southeast of</div><div>Burns for years. The occupation came shortly after an estimated 300 marchers -- militia and</div><div>local citizens both -- paraded through Burns to protest the prosecution of two Harney</div><div>County ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond, who are to report to prison</div><div>on Monday. Among the occupiers is Ammon Bundy, son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy,</div><div>and two of his brothers […] Ryan Bundy said there were no hostages, but the group is</div><div>demanding that the Hammonds be released and the federal government relinquish control</div><div>of the Malheur National Forest. He said many would be willing to fight -- and die, if</div><div>11</div><div>necessary -- to defend what they see as constitutionally protected rights for states, counties</div><div>and individuals to manage local lands [The Oregonian, 01/02/16]</div><div>Trent Loos Participated In The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Loos traveled to Malheur</div><div>and joined Ammon Bundy in the wildlife refuge to interview Bundy and help spread the</div><div>Bundys’ anti-public lands message. [Facebook, 01/11/16]</div><div>Source: Facebook</div><div>August 2017: Loos Called For The Freeing Of The Bundy Family</div><div>Loos Called For Freeing The Bundy And Hammonds Families. “Free #Bundy family</div><div>#Hammonds NOW. The Trials with Not Guilty continue prove no crime Loos Tales Aug 23,</div><div>2017.” [Twitter – Trent Loos, 8/23/17]</div><div>Loos Believes Public Land Use Planning Is Rooted In Nazi Doctrine</div><div>Trent Loos Claimed Hitler’s Signing Of The Reich Nature Protection Act Was The Birth Of</div><div>Environmental Permits, Impact Statements And “Environmental Totalitarianism.”</div><div>“Historians have either overlooked or forgotten that sweeping Nazi environmental laws, all</div><div>signed by Hitler and considered to be his pet projects, preceded the racially charged Nuremberg</div><div>Laws, reflecting the fact that Nazi racism was rooted in ecology. By the summer of 1935, right</div><div>before the Nuremberg laws were set up, Nazi Germany was by far the greenest regime on the</div><div>planet. The Animal Protection laws were followed up by a strong hunting law for Hermann</div><div>Goring in 1934. In 1935, Hitler also signed the Reich Nature Protection Act, the high water mark</div><div>for Nazi environmentalism. Here is seen the birth of environmental permits, environmental</div><div>impact statements and environmental totalitarianism.” [High Plains Journal – Op Ed by Trent</div><div>Loos, 4/3/21]</div><div>12</div><div>Trent Loos Totes Around A Version Of The Conspiracy-Riddled Version Of The</div><div>Constitution Favored By Militia Groups.</div><div>In The Presentation, MC Trent Loos Held A Copy Of The Skousen Constitution. [SD Trumpet</div><div>on Facebook, 04/20/21 (00:19:15)]</div><div>The Skousen Constitution Is A Favorite Of Militia Groups And The Bundy Family, Who</div><div>Have Led Armed Revolts Against The Government. “It’s a message that rings clear to Cliven</div><div>Bundy, who had a copy of the booklet during his 2014 standoff with federal agents on his</div><div>Nevada ranch over unpaid grazing fees. His sons Ammon and Ryan brought it to the Oregon</div><div>wildlife refuge. [...] Bundy gets his pocket Constitutions from a friend in Utah named Bert</div><div>Smith, who buys 1 million at a time, storing them in a warehouse between distributions to</div><div>Mormon groups, schools and soldiers overseas. Smith said that he was a longtime friend of</div><div>Skousen, a Canadian-born onetime FBI agent who died in 2006, and that the booklet was</div><div>Skousen’s life work. Skousen founded the organization that prints and distributes the pocket</div><div>Constitution, the Idaho-based National Center for Constitutional Studies.” [The Los Angeles</div><div>Times, 01/21/16]</div><div>● But Mainstream Constitutional Scholars Say Skousen’s Theories Are For “Paranoid</div><div>Theocrats.” Skousen has posthumously found a big audience, thanks to radio host and</div><div>conservative ideologue Glenn Beck. Attracted by Skousen's conspiratorial view of secular</div><div>government, Beck began promoting the author to his listeners five years ago. He wrote the</div><div>foreword to a recent edition of The 5,000 Year Leap, a central text in the Skousen oeuvre.</div><div>Mainstream scholars have been less kind. [...] ‘There's conservative, there's right-wing and</div><div>there's off the charts,’ said Sean Wilentz, a Princeton University history professor. ‘Cleon</div><div>Skousen was off the charts.’ Wilentz described Skousen and his allies as ‘paranoid</div><div>theocrats.’” [Tampa Bay Times, 12/09/13]</div><div>Trent Loos Aligns Himself With Insurrectionists On January 6th, Routinely</div><div>Making Positive Comparisons Between Insurrectionists And Anti-Public Land</div><div>Zealots That Have Led Armed Revolts Against The Government.</div><div>Trent Loos Spread Misinformation About Election Fraud In The 2020 Presidential</div><div>Election.</div><div>Trent Loos Tweeted About Election Fraud Days After The January 6</div><div>th Insurrection. “Even a</div><div>blind man saw the election fraud that will be exposed this week” [Trent Loos, @trentloos,</div><div>01/14/21]</div><div>Trent Loos Voiced His Support For January 6th Protestors After Knowing The</div><div>Insurrectionists Had Breached The Capitol, Supporting Violence If Someone “Violate[s]</div><div>My Rights.”</div><div>Trent Loos Spoke To An Attendee At The DC Protests On January 6th As The Capital Was</div><div>Breached. “Hello everyone. I’m Trent Loos. Welcome to this Loos Tales Special Report on</div><div>January 6</div><div>th</div><div>, 2021. Coming to us from Washington, DC Missouri’s finest, Dr. Tom Blumhorst. I</div><div>hear a lot of activity taking place. You have been in Washington, DC all day with a group from</div><div>13</div><div>Missouri. […] I happen to know, and I think maybe I have more information than you do</div><div>because I’ve been watching proceeding and watching things. Someone carrying Trump flags,</div><div>wearing the US flags, has stormed the capital.” [Facebook, Trent Loos, 01/06/21]</div><div>Trent Loos [left] Speaking With Dr Tom Blumhorst [right] With The US Capital Building And Multiple</div><div>Police Cars In The Background. [Facebook, Trent Loos, 01/06/21]</div><div>Trent Loos Alluded To Doubts Regarding The Presidential Election Results And Aligned</div><div>Himself With Protestors After The Capital Had Already Been Breached. “Well the theme of</div><div>the day has to be, and I’ve heard it pretty loud and clear and quite frankly heard it from both</div><div>sides of the aisle. The elected officials work for the people. We live in a representative republic.</div><div>And at the end of the day is I think you, and I know I and everybody that thinks like you and I</div><div>do, what we want is what the people are saying. And the questions that we need to get</div><div>answered are what exactly did the people say? That’s what we need to know going forward.</div><div>[…] Dr Tom Blumborst from Washington, DC as events and activities and we the people are</div><div>speaking up for the future of liberty and freedom.” [Facebook, Trent Loos, 01/06/21]</div><div>Trent Loos Agreed That Violence Is An Acceptable Response To “Taking Away Your Freedom</div><div>And Your Democracy,” Going On To Say “There Will Be Violence” If There’s An Attempt To</div><div>“Violate My Rights.” “[Co-Host:] No violence is ever right. Well, unless it’s taking away your</div><div>freedom and your democracy. Look are you telling me that the people in Hong Kong who have</div><div>now been jailed, some of them for 13-25 years for wanting democracy are you telling me that</div><div>you shouldn’t actually stand up and fight for your own freedom? Because I think you should.</div><div>[Loos:] Absolutely […] You come to my house and attempt to violate my rights as Americans</div><div>citizens or a human being, my God-given rights, there will be violence.” [Facebook, Trent Loos,</div><div>01/07/21]</div><div>14</div><div>Trent Loos Compared The Bundy-Led Armed Revolt Against The Government With</div><div>January 6</div><div>th</div><div>, Arguing The Media Intentionally Misrepresented Groups That Stand “Up For</div><div>Truth And Liberty.”</div><div>Trent Loos Described The Media’s Criticism Of The Bundy-Led Malheur Wildlife Refuge</div><div>Occupation As “Practice” For The US Government To Control Messaging Around</div><div>Insurrections. “I see that NPR, National Public Radio, is latching on to the term insurrectionists</div><div>have been in the West forever and they’ve always been agitators and anti-government. So it</div><div>brings me to where I was five years ago this very week. […] As a result of [Steve and Dwight</div><div>Hammond’s arrest], Ammon Bundy and a group of true patriots went to Malheur National</div><div>Wildlife Refuge […] and they occupied a Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to take a stand</div><div>against this ask of overzealous government trying to rule people’s lives instead of</div><div>understanding we the people. […] I was a part of the US Capitol controlling of the message five</div><div>years ago. They were practicing.” [YouTube, Trent Loos, 01/13/21]</div><div>Trent Loos Argued The Story Of January 6</div><div>th Was “Already Written” Prior To The Actual</div><div>Events. “[Co-Host:] You know I asked you the question this morning: is it normal that people go</div><div>to their state capitals on inauguration day and you said no. And I said, well why have the</div><div>Democrats asked for every state to have national guards at their state capital on inauguration</div><div>day and I find that fascinating. [Loos:] I assure you the story’s already written, waiting for</div><div>something to happen.” [YouTube, Trent Loos, 01/13/21]</div><div>Trent Loos Said The Media Uses The Term Insurrectionist To Describe Someone That</div><div>“Stands Up For Truth And Liberty.” “That’s the plan is to paint anyone who stands up for truth</div><div>and liberty as an insurrectionist or as a wacko-jacko.” [YouTube, Trent Loos, 01/13/21]</div><div>Trent Loos Defended The Insurrection, Invoking A Quote From A Leader Of The Militant</div><div>Occupation Of The Malheur Wildlife Refuge.</div><div>Trent Loos Attacked The Media For Described The Events On January 6</div><div>th As An Insurrection,</div><div>Adding A Photo Of Anti-Government Extremist LaVoy Finicum.</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ref</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/a-look-back-at-the-first-sagebrush-rebellion">https://www.hcn.org/articles/a-look-back-at-the-first-sagebrush-rebellion</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">2016</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" rem="rem" line-height="line-height" text-rendering="text-rendering" optimizelegibility="optimizelegibility" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">"(The) Sagebrush (Rebellion) comes into relief as what it really is — a murky fusion of idealism and greed that may not be heroic, nor righteous, nor even intelligent. Only one certainty exists — that Sagebrush is a revolt against federal authority, and that its taproot grows deep in the century’s history. Beyond this, it is incoherent. Part hypocrisy, part demagoguery, partly the honest anger of honest people, it is a movement of confusion and hysteria and terrifyingly destructive potential. What it is no one fully understands. What it will do no one can tell.”</span></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" rem="rem" line-height="line-height" text-rendering="text-rendering" optimizelegibility="optimizelegibility" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px;">While that sounds like an observation from 2016, perhaps nodding toward the armed&nbsp;<a class="external-link" target="
blank" title="" href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/oregon-occupation-at-wildlife-refuge" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">occupation</a>&nbsp;of a wildlife refuge in Oregon by the radical fringe of the latest incarnation of the Sagebrush Rebellion, this passage was actually&nbsp;<a class="external-link" target="blank" title="" href="http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/example/lammangr.htm" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">written in 1982</a>&nbsp;by then-Colorado Governor Richard Lamm.</p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" rem="rem" line-height="line-height" text-rendering="text-rendering" optimizelegibility="optimizelegibility" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>He referred to the first of three distinct Sagebrush Rebellions of modern times</b>: The first flared up in the mid- to late-1970s; the second occurred in the mid-1990s; and the third began not long after President Obama was elected in 2008. Though the first rebellion had ebbed by the early 1980s, and accomplished none of its big national legislative goals, it did leave a lasting imprint on the West. Here are the big takeaways of that first wave:</span></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" rem="rem" line-height="line-height" text-rendering="text-rendering" optimizelegibility="optimizelegibility" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">What sparked it:</strong>&nbsp;Many miners, loggers and ranchers of the West were rebelling against&nbsp;<b>“federal colonialism” that came in the form of environmental laws, from the Wilderness Act to the Endangered Species Act to, especially, the Federal Land Policy Management Act</b>. Passed i</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">n 1976, FLPMA shifted the Bureau of Land Management’s mandate from one of maximizing extraction from public lands, to preserving — at least to a limited extent — those same lands.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);">To critics, it locked in the “absentee landlord” relationship Washington had with much of the West.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);">To the rebels, President Jimmy Carter was an especially onerous landlord. On the one hand he tried to cut off funding to a slate of federal water projects pending throughout the West (thus depriving the region of its lifeblood), and on the other wanted to turn large portions of the region into an&nbsp;</span><a class="external-link" target="blank" title="" href="http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/utah_today/themxmissileproject.html" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">MX missile launching pad</a></b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);"><b>&nbsp;</b>(cutting off other access to that land and making us a target for the Soviet Union). While Lamm wouldn’t exactly count himself as a Sagebrush Rebel, he also revolted against the federal landlord when&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Carter and Congress implemented an $88 billion synfuels subsidy&nbsp;<a class="external-link" target="blank" title="" href="http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1979083100" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">program</a>&nbsp;that led to water-guzzling, destructive&nbsp;<a class="external-link" target="blank" title="" href="https://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/the-estonian-connection-or-how-i-started-worrying-about-oil-shale" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">oil shale</a>&nbsp;development in the Interior West.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Who were the rebels:</strong><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);">&nbsp;The movement had many layers, from local politicians and entire boards of county commissioners, to state legislators and even U.S. congressmen.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The leaders included San Juan County, Utah, Commissioner and uranium miner&nbsp;<a class="external-link" target="blank" title="" href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/is-san-juan-countys-phil-lyman-the-new-calvin-black" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">Cal Black</a>&nbsp;— the model for Edward Abbey’s antagonist Bishop Love in his novel, “The Monkey Wrench Gang”&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);">— Nevada state legislator Dean Rhoads,&nbsp;<b>U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch, from Utah, and a handful of other politicians, mostly from Nevada and Idaho.</b></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Hatch, Black and Sens. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., and Ted Stevens, R-Ak., headed up the League for the Advancement of States Equal Rights, or LASER, the biggest and most influential rebel organization</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);">. The Idaho-based Sagebrush Rebellion,<b>&nbsp;Inc.</b>, also touted a large membership. Funding for these groups came mostly from the extractive industry; the Rebellion was hardly a pure grassroots movement. The closest analogues in today’s movement would probably be the corporate-sponsored, right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council and the&nbsp;</span><a class="external-link" target="blank" title="" href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/the-push-is-on-to-take-back-public-lands" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">American Lands Council</a><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);">.</span></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" rem="rem" line-height="line-height" text-rendering="text-rendering" optimizelegibility="optimizelegibility" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;">What did they want:</strong><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;">&nbsp;Quite simply, they wanted more local control over the land that surrounded them, therefore gaining more control over their own destiny. Some wanted to transfer federal lands to the state, others were okay with the land remaining under the federal umbrella, as long as they got more say in how the feds managed the land. In most cases, this would mean fewer regulations.&nbsp;</span></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" rem="rem" line-height="line-height" text-rendering="text-rendering" optimizelegibility="optimizelegibility" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px;" /><div class="image-inline captioned" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 2rem 0px; padding: 0px;"><figure style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: auto; max-width: 100%; width: 1500px;">
<figcaption style="box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.375rem; text-align: right; margin-top: 0.5rem; width: 721.01px;"><div class="caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[pix Ronald Reagan supported the Sagebrush Rebels' cause, and they supported him. This appeared in High Country News in 1980.</div><div class="credit" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">High Country News</div></figcaption></figure></div><br times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgba="rgba" style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><strong times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">What actions did the rebels take on the ground:</strong><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing">&nbsp;They sure as heck didn’t show up, armed to the teeth, and take over a federal facility, or face down federal officials with assault rifles. But there was violence, or at least threats thereof. In 1979, Black told BLM officials that he was to the point “where I’ll blow up bridges, ruins and vehicles. We’re going to start a revolution.” Black never delivered on his promises, but there was widespread vandalism of ancient Puebloan sites in Utah that appeared to be politically motivated. And in 1980, the Grand County, Utah, commissioners led a group of hundreds of locals in bulldozing a road into a Wilderness Study Area in protest of what they saw as a BLM land grab. No one was prosecuted.</span></span><br times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgba="rgba" style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgba="rgba" style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><strong times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">On a political level:</strong><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);">&nbsp;The first Sagebrush Rebellion was mostly waged in state legislatures, where a number of bills were considered in Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Alaska, Oregon and Arizona, demanding the transfer of federal lands to the states. (Those early bills were mirrored in 2012 and 2013 in Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Montana and Utah).&nbsp;</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Hatch also introduced a bill in the Senate that would have allowed state land commissions to take over some 600 million acres of public lands nationwide. Meanwhile, LASER actively courted 1980 presidential candidate&nbsp;</b></span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a class="external-link" target="
blank" title="" href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/12.24/rebels-revel-in-new-power-polish" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">Ronald Reagan</a><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing">, who declared himself a rebel.</span></b><br times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgba="rgba" style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgba="rgba" style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><strong times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">What happened:</strong><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);">&nbsp;Reagan’s election, and the appointment of p<b>roperty-rights advocate James Watt as Secretary of Interior</b>, defused the rebellion. Watt didn’t go for wholesale federal land transfers to the states, but he and his cohorts rolled back regulations and pledged to incorporate more local say into federal land management. There was suddenly far less to rebel against, at least for the extractive industries and their allies.</span><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" rem="rem" line-height="line-height" text-rendering="text-rendering" optimizelegibility="optimizelegibility" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px;" /><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" rem="rem" line-height="line-height" text-rendering="text-rendering" optimizelegibility="optimizelegibility" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Meanwhile, consensus among what was left of the Rebellion fell apart. Even many of the Rebellion's leaders understood that state-level land transfer bills were symbolic and had no real legal basis, so they'd get shot down by the courts thanks to the property and supremacy clauses of the U.S. Constitution,&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);">as well as the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in&nbsp;</span></span><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/220/523" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: 1.875rem;">Light v. United States</a><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;">. A congressional bill like Hatch's might make it through the courts if it passed, but the chances of that were slim to none.</span></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" rem="rem" line-height="line-height" text-rendering="text-rendering" optimizelegibility="optimizelegibility" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;"><b>Besides, when the costs of such transfers were revealed, they didn't seem so great.&nbsp;</b>A study by the Interior Department found that states could end up losing millions of dollars if they were to similarly manage the land and reap the same revenues from it as the feds did. Also, the Payments in Lieu of Taxes program, or&nbsp;</span><a class="external-link" target="blank" title="" href="https://www.doi.gov/pilt" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: 1.875rem;">PILT</a><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);">,</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);">&nbsp;was just kicking in at that time.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Under the program, the feds pay counties in order to make up for property taxes that the counties can’t collect from public lands — that money would be lost if the state took over the land.&nbsp;</span></span></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" rem="rem" line-height="line-height" text-rendering="text-rendering" optimizelegibility="optimizelegibility" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;">Many ranchers and miners had second thoughts about the states taking over federal land, as well. Hardrock miners have nearly unfettered access to federal lands and have to pay no royalties for the minerals they extract. Oil and gas drillers pay low royalties, and ranchers get a prime deal for grazing on BLM lands. They were worried they’d lose those deals under state management — royalties and grazing fees for state lands can be 50 percent higher or more than for federal lands.&nbsp;</span></span></span></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" rem="rem" line-height="line-height" text-rendering="text-rendering" optimizelegibility="optimizelegibility" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;"><b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);">As governor, Lamm occasionally sided with the Rebels. But he came to see the Rebellion as a fool's errand.</b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);">&nbsp;In&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7); box-sizing: border-box;">“</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);">The Angry West,</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7); box-sizing: border-box;">”</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);">&nbsp;he wrote:&nbsp;</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);">“… by asserting, even flaunting, a regional independence that never existed, the proud West becomes the foolish West.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Worse, by continuing to act today as though it still has no need for the federal government, even as it continues to profit from federal largesse, it compounds its hypocrisy and undermines its credibility.”</span></span></span></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" rem="rem" line-height="line-height" text-rendering="text-rendering" optimizelegibility="optimizelegibility" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;">Aftermath:</strong><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;">&nbsp;While the regional, state-level Rebellion faded after 1981, it just kept on flaring up at the local level, particularly in parts of Nevada and Utah. Black didn’t stop fighting until his death in 1990, and by then the next iteration — Sagebrush Rebellion Part II — was about to ignite.</span></span></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" rem="rem" line-height="line-height" text-rendering="text-rendering" optimizelegibility="optimizelegibility" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">
There has long been resentment toward the federal land agencies in the West, which gave rise to rebellions here and there prior to 1970. One of the early major&nbsp;<a href="http://www.foresthistory.org/Publications/Books/Origins_National_Forests/sec13.htm" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">such uprising</a>&nbsp;was in the late 1800s, and mostly played out in Colorado.&nbsp;</span></p><p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" rem="rem" line-height="line-height" text-rendering="text-rendering" optimizelegibility="optimizelegibility" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;">Jonathan Thompson is a senior editor of<i>&nbsp;</i></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;">High Country News.&nbsp;</span><a href="https://twitter.com/jonnypeace" class="twitter-follow-button" data-show-count="false" data-size="large" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: 1.875rem;">Follow @jonnypeace</a></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ref 2</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><div class="post-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-transform: uppercase; margin-bottom: 0.25em; font-weight: 600;"><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251);">P</span><a class="post-cat" href="https://www.accountable.us/news/category/press-release/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; margin-right: 0.3em;">RESS RELEASE</a><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251);">&nbsp;</span><span class="separator" style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-right: 0.3em;">//</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;<span class="post-date" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block;">JANUARY 6, 2022</span></span></div><h1 style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; line-height: 1.1; overflow-wrap: break-word;">REPORT: Insurrectionists, Anti-Conservation Movement One in the&nbsp;Same</h1><div class="rte post-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 28px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Washington, D.C. —</span><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251);">&nbsp;</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251);">T</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">he anti-government extremism that fueled the insurrection on January 6, 2021 aligns almost perfectly with the violent opposition to public lands conservation, a new report from the nonpartisan watchdog Accountable.US found.&nbsp;</span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;">Anti-government extremists who want to end public ownership of land and water have infiltrated the halls of power from county commissioners all the way to the United States Congress, according to the report which can be downloaded&nbsp;</span><a href="https://act.myngp.com/el/si8-djrf7pHc9azhz4iqkFj8C5wTKXbcJeVSOpp6MY8=/jcQWqhdO1b_Q8p-eKeCHwMVCbvWw8TBLxJQ248oKhaA=" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">HERE</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251);">. Those same leaders and their allies in groups such as the&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Oath Keepers have been on the front lines of the attempt to overturn the 2020 Election and undermine democracy based on Donald Trump’s “Big Lie.”&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></p><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5; position: relative; padding-left: 1.25em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">“It is time to call opposition to conservation what it truly is: an attack on American democracy,” said&nbsp;</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Kyle Herrig, President of Accountable.US.</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;“The movement to end public ownership of land is almost identical to the movement to overrule the public’s right to choose who leads the country.”&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Key findings from the report reveal the far-reaching connections between anti-public lands and anti-democracy leaders and groups:</span></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding-left: 2.4em;"><li aria-level="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Before the&nbsp;</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Oath Keepers</span></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;tried to overturn the 2020 election, they participated in multiple armed attacks on public lands in Nevada, Oregon, and Montana.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251);">&nbsp;[The Atlantic,&nbsp;</span></span><a href="https://act.myngp.com/el/si8-djrf7pHc9azhz4iqkFj8C5wTKXbcJeVSOpp6MY8=/dj4Vi3GDnF3u1I4QlQHnyPHHFAYqKAzv-xzGXiz22R0=" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">09/30/20</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;">; Vox,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://act.myngp.com/el/si8-djrf7pHc9azhz4iqkFj8C5wTKXbcJeVSOpp6MY8=/LGPdGU8zYDWAQBNA4BFUzZpO8sSE3YW4aOZwYDg_FCw=" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">11/07/16</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;">; Montana Public Radio,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://act.myngp.com/el/si8-djrf7pHc9azhz4iqkFj8C5wTKXbcJeVSOpp6MY8=/78A2DychWQpiq4kAPabKV6qU7VeqjDNwPl_ULoJYOJA=" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">08/12/15</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;">]</span><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;</span></li><li aria-level="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">Cliven Bundy</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">&nbsp;declared “Range War” on the federal government prior and supported the forcible occupation of the capitol during the January 6 riot&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251);">[Reno Gazette Journal,&nbsp;</span></span><a href="https://act.myngp.com/el/si8-djrf7pHc9azhz4iqkFj8C5wTKXbcJeVSOpp6MY8=/zlZHlNgJkta-SrjwGVRhAm0gLEAT6v3dKAqOw4fw1ms=" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">01/08/21</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;">; Vox,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://act.myngp.com/el/si8-djrf7pHc9azhz4iqkFj8C5wTKXbcJeVSOpp6MY8=/A28h_SXZW7rjcE1RK07NVoaO0W-J33h2sy-0O6Vt9zQ=" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">05/14/15</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;">].</span><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;</span></li><li aria-level="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Arizona Congressman&nbsp;</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Paul Gosar</span></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;encouraged lawbreaking at the January 6 insurrection and the selling off of public lands</span><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251);">&nbsp; [Business Insider,&nbsp;</span></span><a href="https://act.myngp.com/el/si8-djrf7pHc9azhz4iqkFj8C5wTKXbcJeVSOpp6MY8=/1WF0WdUVVYYXyWXgNNTcZ9tN1UneLHTzajVcFjKwWPY=" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">10/24/21</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;">; Paul Gosar, D.D.S.,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://act.myngp.com/el/si8-djrf7pHc9azhz4iqkFj8C5wTKXbcJeVSOpp6MY8=/03HK4PPGUD2MNxUWFHbVfBt07XrsYYXtL3Z_fJopiiI=?DocumentID=1488" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">07/15/16</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;">].</span><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;</span></li><li aria-level="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Colorado Congresswoman&nbsp;</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Lauren Boebert</span></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;collaborated with extremists comparing protecting public lands to Hitler and Stalin&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251);">and was reported to have been in prior contact with the organizers of the January 6 attacks.&nbsp; [Washington Post,&nbsp;</span></span><a href="https://act.myngp.com/el/si8-djrf7pHc9azhz4iqkFj8C5wTKXbcJeVSOpp6MY8=/RmTlZifgZJK_GGMnKtOrYOBG5c7b8zCrzPcXR9XW9ac=" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">01/19/21</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;">; Rolling Stone,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://act.myngp.com/el/si8-djrf7pHc9azhz4iqkFj8C5wTKXbcJeVSOpp6MY8=/aDgM6z5YIVTX6gtkV7-GlPIkiN7iVZlIR70YgWed6mY=" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">10/24/21</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;">; The Guardian,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://act.myngp.com/el/si8-djrf7pHc9azhz4iqkFj8C5wTKXbcJeVSOpp6MY8=/4IFaOiit4JaENNjKVLzT10uNDtM9wbFRFXXc08N-RL8=" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">05/14/21</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;">].</span><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;</span></li><li aria-level="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Right-wing talk show host&nbsp;</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Trent Loos</span></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, who has been a leading critic of campaigns to protect nature, supported violence during the capitol riots and participated in the occupation of Malheur wildlife reserve</span><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251);">&nbsp;[Facebook,&nbsp;</span></span><a href="https://act.myngp.com/el/si8-djrf7pHc9azhz4iqkFj8C5wTKXbcJeVSOpp6MY8=/pDQUNXMXca1rxzUtCrbUtOCdC99VQnP0bIOcb8p2yLE=" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">01/11/16</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;">; The Oregonian,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://act.myngp.com/el/si8-djrf7pHc9azhz4iqkFj8C5wTKXbcJeVSOpp6MY8=/LLOj4vhrvY-Y-B0PSKUhx4mbFBC1yJwoMHnTXBEzSUg=" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">01/02/16</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;">; High Plains Journal – Op Ed by Trent Loos,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://act.myngp.com/el/si8-djrf7pHc9azhz4iqkFj8C5wTKXbcJeVSOpp6MY8=/bxvFsqcI_mIDsAoTiPG2OAMxA-ikxYDhIeXv3btBGLs=" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">04/3/21</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;">].</span></li></ul><p style="background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><a href="https://act.myngp.com/el/si8-djrf7pHc9azhz4iqkFj8C5wTKXbcJeVSOpp6MY8=/QH6uq313DFdBInkr8gZlflmA4E9rtgkahYZtIJsaa0U=" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Read the full analysis.&nbsp;</span></a></p></div></div><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</p></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ew 819</font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Brazil's right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro is giving President Trump a run for his money in the alternative facts department.</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>Responding to international outrage following the news that there are record numbers of wildfires burning in the Amazon rainforest, Bolsonaro tried to shift the blame away from his pro-business administration and onto an unlikely culprit: non-governmental organizations.</div><div>
</div><div>"Everything indicates" that NGOs were planning to set fires to the forest, Bolsonaro said on Facebook Live Wednesday, as Reuters reported. When asked if he had proof, he could not provide any, answering that he had "no written plan."</div><div>
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</div><div>Later the same day, he repeated the claims at a steel industry congress in Brasilia, The Guardian reported.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"On the question of burning in the Amazon, which in my opinion may have been initiated by NGOs because they lost money, what is the intention?<b> To bring problems to Brazil," he said.</b></span></div><div>
</div><div>Environmental groups, however, say that the fires are a result of deforestation encouraged by Bolsonaro's policies. He has promised to open the Amazon to mining and agriculture, and that has encouraged farmers to start illegal fires in order to clear land. Local papers report that farmers emboldened by weaker enforcement are even organizing "fire days" in some regions, according to The Guardian.</div><div>
</div><div>"This is a sick statement, a pitiful statement," Greenpeace Brazil Public Policy Coordinator Marcio Astrini told Reuters of Bolsonaro's remarks. "Increased deforestation and burning are the result of his anti-environmental policy."</div><div>
</div><div>The fires came to global attention this week when Brazil's space agency announced that the number of fires burning in the year since Bolsonaro took office were up more than 80 percent when compared with the year before. On Wednesday, the hashtag #PrayforAmazonas was the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter worldwide.</div><div>
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</div><div>Experts attribute the fires to deforestation because this year has not been particularly dry.</div><div>
</div><div>"In the previous years [wildfires] were very much related to the lack of rain, but it has been quite moist this year," ecologist Adriane Muelbert told National Geographic. "That leads us to think that this is deforestation-driven fire."</div><div>
</div><div>Farmers and ranchers start fires to clear forest for soy or grazing land, but the fires then catch and spread. If this continues, ecologist and National Geographic Explorer-at-Large Thomas Lovejoy explained to the nature magazine that it could have devastating consequences for the rainforest, and for the world:</div><div>
</div><div>Lovejoy describes a cyclical system in which deforestation fuels forest loss, making the region drier, spurring even more deforestation. Much of the rain in the Amazon is generated by the rainforest itself, but as trees disappear, rainfall declines. Experts worry that this downward spiral could increasingly dry out the forest and push it to a point of no return, where it more resembles savannah than rainforest.</div><div>
</div><div>"The Amazon has this tipping point because it makes half of its own rainfall," says Lovejoy. That's why, he says, "the Amazon has to be managed as a system."</div><div>Not only would such a change endanger the 40,000 species of plants, 1,300 species of birds, 430 mammals and 400 to 500 indigenous communities that call the Amazon home, it would also make it harder to fight the climate crisis. The world's largest tropical rainforest is an important store of carbon, absorbing millions of tons of emissions per year.</div><div>
</div><div>Given the global stakes, it's no wonder that Bolsonaro has come under international scrutiny for his policies, as The Guardian explained. Both Germany and Norway recently suspended donations to the Amazon Fund, and there is pressure for the EU to block a trade agreement with Brazil and other countries in South America.</div><div>
</div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/48.2/the-hidden-connections-of-the-sagebrush-insurgency/sagebrush-insurgency-connections">https://www.hcn.org/issues/48.2/the-hidden-connections-of-the-sagebrush-insurgency/sagebrush-insurgency-connections</a></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">map&nbsp;</font></span></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ESA &nbsp;</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font>https://www.hcn.org/issues/47.8/counties-use-a-coordination-clause-to-fight-the-feds</div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>JANUARY 8, 2016</div><div>Rancher Rebels: the Rise of the Wise-Use Movement</div><div>by JEFFREY ST. CLAIR - JAMES RIDGEWAY</div><div>
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</div><div>Out in the high desert of Nevada’s basin and range country, down roads with names like the Extraterrestrial Highway that run off into the sky, and where the hardscrabble rancher and the miner still call the shots, a full-scale insurrection was born.</div><div>
</div><div>You drive through this sagebrush landscape for miles and never see another car. Then, suddenly, you come across a man sitting by the side of the road, staring off into the distance of a bombing test range, watching for the latest incarnation of the Stealth bomber or maybe a UFO. This is Edward Abbey country, home to loners and drifters, people on the lam, desert anarchists.</div><div>
</div><div>In the corner of a Tonopah coffee shop, called the Station, next door to the incessant cacophony of a casino, where old ladies play the slots and men gather in clouds of ambient smoke around the roulette wheels, sat <b>Wayne Hage</b>, a top icon of the Sagebrush Rebels. Three years after his death in 2006, Hage remains a heroic figure for Western traditionalists in their fight against the evil doers in Washington and the environmentalist menace.</div><div>
</div><div>Here at the Station House, Hage sat, day after day, drinking bottomless cups of bitter cowboy coffee and looking out the window at the rusting remnants of mining derricks strewn across the town. Trucks thundered past, and in the sky, the odd Japanese tourist teetered precariously with his camera from a hot air balloon that carried him past the wonders of the old mining world, being celebrated at the annual Jim Baker Days, a weeklong drunkfest in honor of the miner who, the story goes, discovered Tonopah’s silver load when his mule kicked at him and dislodged some rocks that glistened in the sun.</div><div>
</div><div>Wayne Hage was the man to see if you really wanted to know what motivated the Wise Use Movement’s battle against environmentalists and the federal government. Hage was reluctant to meet on this blistering day in early June. He said he’d been hammered by the press too often, especially by the liberal press with an ax to grind against the Wise Users.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>The Wise Use Movement consists of more than a thousand local organizations across the country, representing roughly three million people—people who fear the infringement of their property rights, mostly by what they see as oppressive federal government regulations. These are Palin people– rural, gun-packing Christians.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Some of these groups are simply out for money: they want the federal government to pay them considerable sums in exchange for changing traditional uses of their property that have run afoul of federal laws or even in exchange for cutbacks in the commercial use of public lands or resources. Custom and culture, they call it.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Other Wise Use groups have congealed as a political force to demand unrestricted access to federal lands, whether it be to log, run cattle, or for less than environmentally friendly recreational pursuits, such as off-road motorcycling or snowmobiling.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Corporate America</b> has also invested heavily in certain factions of the Wise Use movement, using them as a grassroots stalking horse in their efforts to the preserve the archaic system of laws and regulations that allow them heavily subsidized entry to the natural wealth of the public domain. With the active help of Republicans in congress and a weak, conflict-averse executive branch , t<b>he big transnationals are intensifying their efforts to exploit the land, notably through the revival of gold mining and wide-spread oil and gas drilling.</b></span></div><div>
</div><div>The federal lands are at the center of a growing political struggle over the concept of property rights. Making up one-third of the nation, the public domain is by federal agencies, such as the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, and encompasses what remains of the nation’s valuable minerals, old growth forests, native grasslands and the extremely valuable oil and gas reserves—from the Rocky Mountain Front to the outer continental shelf.</div><div>
</div><div>Although shown as a lush green on road maps, much of this territory has been grotesquely transformed over the last half century by big companies into kind of industrial wasteland, consisting of atomic and other bombing ranges, ammo dumps, military and energy facilities, strip mines, clearcuts, dammed, dredged and scoured rivers, and leaching mounds of cyanide. Still, though victim to decades of abuse and neglect, the public lands also hold the last remnants of wild America, its salmon and trout, elk, grizzlies, spotted owls and wolves, its ancient forests, deserts and mountains—the American wilderness.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Wise Use movement has created a profile of its enemy. They see themselves as being engaged in a high-stakes chess game with the elite legions of the environmental movement, who are covertly carrying out a sinister master plan, a vast socialist experiment to depopulate the rural West. As evidence they point to the Wildlands Project and to quotes from various greens calling for a 50 percent reduction in North America’s population by the year 2100. The Wise Use movement often suggests that the real goal of the environmental movement is to clear rural Westerners off the land, so the West can be turned into an “eco-theme park” for the pleasures of vacationing suburbanites.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In order to advance their socialist agenda, the Wise Users argue, environmental infiltrated the federal government. </span>Under Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, the thinking goes, embedded key leaders into powerful positions inside the EPA, Interior and Agriculture Departments, and then, acting through their positions on government regulatory bodies, the environmentalists have set out to first reduce and then eliminate all grazing and logging on public lands and sharly curtail mining by driving up the cost of doing business.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Furthermore, Wayne Hage argued, through the Endangered Species Act, environmentalists have covertly turned fights over such seemingly innocent creatures as the coho salmon, northern spotted owl and gray wolf into national symbols of a broad land use planning instrument, a kind of bureaucratic club wielded against rural landowners.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Occupying a ranking position on the Wise Use movement’s enemies list is former Clinton Interior Secretary <b>Bruce Babbitt,</b> who initiated the National Biological Survey in 1993—known in the ominous parlance of the Wise Use movement as the NBS. “The NBS is fascist, man, it’s socialist,” proclaimed Chuck Cushman, head of the American Land Rights Association, based in Battle Ground, Washington. “These guys map your property with infrared satellite photos, looking for plants, you know, then they can actually come on your property without your permission. If they find one of those plants, you know you’re screwed worse than if they found dope.”</div><div>
</div><div>But, of course, in the minds of many of these Sagebrush populists, the real menace lies not with the environmentalists, but with the political and financial powers that prop them up. It is the big East Coast foundations who now provide the principle financing of the big green organizations that are pulling the strings. And who is behind these foundations? The Rockefellers, the Pews, the Mellons and other titanic American families made rich through the Standard Oil trust and the like. Through their securities portfolios, naturally, these foundations are interlocked with the multinational corporations that run the world, and who eye the public estate as a source of cheap wealth when times get hard. And thus it is, according to Hage and his followers, that the small rancher in the Interior West is driven off the land by Forest Service and BLM rangers who are nothing more or less than federal agents of the Rockefellers.</div><div>
</div><div>“It’s not some deep dark conspiracy,” Hage told us in 1994. “The information is out there for anyone to see. Most people don’t pay attention to economics. And when they do, they say, ‘My god, it’s one of those conspiracy theories.’ No, it isn’t. It’s just the record. So you have the environmental movement as a stalking-horse, used to carry out the transfer of property rights of individuals over to the hands of government and multinational corporations, which serve the interest of the old nobility under the monarchists. And look at who owns these damn gold mines out here in Nevada … foreign corporations.”</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 1991, Hage’s cattle were impounded and sold off by Forest Service agents after the rancher blatantly overgrazed his allotment on the Toiyabe National Forest in central Nevada. Hage promptly closed down his cattle operation and filed a $24 million suit against the Forest Service in federal claims court The suit, which became a cause celebre for the property rights movement, alleged that the seizure amounted to a <b>“taking” of his property rights</b></span><b>.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Hage wrote a manifesto titled Storm Over Rangelands, which presented his historical overview of the political economic of the western United States. Hage and his book have become part of a carefully crafted legend that occupies center stage in the Wise Use movement.</div><div>
</div><div>According to Hage’s interpretation of western history, the public lands were always meant to be sold off to private ownership—and even though they never were, the actual ownership at the end of the 20th century has become a mélange of various tangled interests, both public and private: the so-called split estate. In fact, Hage argued, there’s no such thing as “public” lands. Of course, that didn’t stope the government from expropriating them, nationalizing the lands over and over again.</div><div>
</div><div>As an example of this kind of thought lurking in the shadows of American history, Hage pointed to the career of Carl Schurz, Interior Secretary under President Rutherford B. Hayes. Hage wrote in Storm Over Rangelands that “Schurz’s efforts to prevent the establishment of private property rights on the public lands may have sprung from his socialist background. Schurz was a controversial German immigrant who had fought along with Karl Marx in the Revolution of 1848, came to America, was elected senator from Missouri and supported the radical Republican’s reconstruction plans.”</div><div>
</div><div>So, argued Hage, with the nation deeply in debt after the Civil War, the European banking houses, led by the Rothschilds, conspired with the federal government to use the western lands as collateral against repayment of the war debt. The government reneged on the Spanish land grants and sent the cavalry out to kill off the Indians, who had real and justifiable land claims, to clear away any obstacles to this loan repayment scheme. The European financial interests joined forces with the big East Coast families to build the railroads, control the new towns and farms and, through the American Cattle Trust, turn the livestock business into a huge monopoly.</div><div>
</div><div>It was, after all, that great hero of environmentalism, geologist Clarence King, explorer of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the father of the Smithsonian Institution and Geological Survey, the very father of federal science, who secretly sent his geology students from Ivy League schools to rustle cattle for his own profit on the western plains during summer vacation, abetting his huge cattle operation.</div><div>
</div><div>As time went on, according to Hage’s history, western lands were set aside through the conservation movement, starting with Yellowstone National Park, then Yosemite. These shrines to conservation were, according to Hageian theory, part of a vast project of “nationalization,” the equivalent, Hage wrote, of the “crown lands” in England.</div><div>
</div><div>Hage also contemptuously cites how the Taylor Grazing Act, which organized and regulated public land grazing during the 1930s, “created the collateral base for funding of Roosevelt’s New Deal.” According to Hage similar expansions of federal authority over western lands coincided with the Vietnam War (Wilderness Act).</div><div>
</div><div>Hage was one of the leaders of a group called Stewards of the Range, headquartered in Boise, Idaho, and founded by Hage’s attorney Mark Pollot, a former assistant secretary of the Interior under James Watt during the early Reagan years. During his tenure at Interior, Pollot authored Executive Order 12630, which required the federal government to attest that all federal agencies compensated landowners if federal regulations or actions infringed on property rights. Pollot’s group, Stewards of the Range, became a legal battering ram in the ranchers’ running resistance against federal authority, backing, for example, Cliff Gardner’s willful trespass of his cattle on lands of the Humboldt National Forest in the Ruby Mountains of Nevada.</div><div>
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</div><div>
</div><div>A thousand miles north in the posh Seattle suburb of Bellevue, Washington, are the officesof the group that published Hage’s manifesto: the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise. The group is run by <b>Ron Arnold</b>, the man who coined the term “eco-terrorism,” and his business partner Alan Gottlieb. Together they served as the field managers and media packagers for the property rights movement.</div><div>
</div><div>Arnold was a former draftsman for Boeing, a public relations man for different companies, a writer and film-maker, while Gottlieb made his money (lots of it, too) from direct mail operations for Republican candidates, and most significantly, from gun groups, including the Second Amendment Foundation and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Bear Arms. Gottlieb also published a magazine called Women and Guns.</div><div>
</div><div>The Wise Use movement is a significant popular grouping. “There are 1200 to 1500 groups we can identify,” said Arnold. “Few of these groups ever got any real money from big corporations. Neither are they especially aligned with small business. In fact, probably a third of our members are housewives.” Altogether, Arnold and Gottlieb estimated that there are as many as three million people on their mailing list.</div><div>
</div><div>Much of the Wise Use movement has a strong, though peculiar, libertarian bent. “There’s a strain that runs through it that is upset with government interfering in their lives,” said Gottlieb. “Not just libertarian or conservative, but an awful lot of people who are to the left of center and they are very upset with the government telling them what to do.”</div><div>
</div><div>These people are the proto-tea-baggers, a strange mix of populists, anarchists and libertarians. “It’s a diverse collective,” Arnold said. “For example, I’m pro-abortion and Alan is not. I’m for legalization of marijuana. We never got into immigration. We did try to see if there was a bridge between the Wise Use groups and the gun movement. But, no. Wise Use people pretty much support gun right. But it doesn’t work the other way around. Gun rights people don’t do much for the property rights movement. And that’s the part that pisses me off.”</div><div>
</div><div><b>Even though the Wise Use movement may attract people form diverse political and ideological heritages, it was also lustily embraced (and some might say co-opted) by Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey’s anti-government revolution of the 1990s. </b>Today the Wise Use movement nestles among the rightwing organizations and tendencies of the post-Bush Republican party on Capitol Hill and in statehouses across the south and the mountain West. But it can be an uneasy alliance.</div><div>
</div><div>It is a world that Ron Arnold knows very well. During the early 1980s, Arnold was brought in by Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation to write a glowing authorized biography of James Watt, then viewed by the media and most of America as a kind of neo-fascist, born again lunatic from Wyoming.</div><div>
</div><div>Watt, of course, was the messiah of the Sagebrush Rebellion, the precursor of the Wise Use movement, which helped put Ronald Reagan in the White House. Once installed Reagan began talking about privatization of public lands and Watt soon had people thinking he would sell them off to the highest bidder.</div><div>
</div><div>But, according to Arnold, shortly after Watt took over at Interior, he told the more radical factions of the Sagebrush Rebels (folks like Wayne Hage) to knock it off. Privatization was scrapped,” Arnold recalled, “because Watt and the others discovered that you can’t sell off what you don’t own. If you try to auction off pieces of ‘public’ property, you can’t do it because the ownership is split. There are so many stratifications you could never figure out who really owned what. So notions of ownership looked more and more like a commons than a capital asset.”</div><div>
</div><div>Among many in the Wise Use movement, however, there is a deeper feeling of betrayal associated with Watt’s abbreviated tenure, a belief that Watt came to be entranced by the corridors of power, that he was seduced by the sense of control he had over the public lands. As an example of this, hard core rebels like Hage pointed to the “good neighbor policy,” developed by Watt, which allowed the governors of the western states to work with the Interior Department in developing policy for federal lands, a gutless retreat from the core principles of private property rights.</div><div>
</div><div>The administration of George W. Bush also proved to be a disappointment to the aspirations of the Wise Use ultras. While giving lip service to the Wise Users, his Interior Department, headed by Watt protegé Gale Norton, rapidly began cutting one sweatheart deal after another with the big oil and gas companies and mining operations and the property rights agenda stalled once again on the doorstep of power.</div><div>
</div><div>
* *</div><div>
</div><div><b>Until the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, the Wise Use movement was building a great deal of political momentum</b>. Then suddenly it had to backpedal furiously to get away from both the militia and county supremacy movements, which threatened to drag them onto the dangerous edges of the anarchist right.</div><div>
</div><div>Political investigators, such as Tarso Ramos and David Helvarg, linked some elements of the Wise Use movement to both the racist Posse Commitatus and the militias. Ramos and Helvarg highlighted the role some of the Wise User leaders have played in the <b>National Federal Lands Conference,</b> headquartered in Bountiful, Utah. Ron Arnold, for example, once served on the board of advisors of the Conference and Wayne Hage served as its former president. The Conference was a leading force behind the county supremacy movement in the West.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">More to the point, the Conference enthusiastically endorsed the creation of the militia movement in its October 1994 newsletter, urging interested individuals to get in touch with, among others, </span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">MOM, the Militia of Montana</span>.</b> The article argued that militias are needed to defend states from an overbearing federal government poised to enforce “seizure orders which can be enacted with the stroke of a bureaucratic pen,” plunging the nation into “an absolute, marital law mode of repression.”</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Arnold bristled at questions about the Conference, saying he cut all association with it years ago. He had a right to be concerned. With this one article, investigators, journalists and opponents of the Wise Use movement have been able to tar them as little more than a collection of pistol-packing whackos, aligned with the most paranoid and dangerous elements of the far right.</span></div><div>
</div><div>http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/08/rancher-rebels-the-rise-of-the-wise-use-movement/</div><div>
</div><div>A version of this article was published by the Village Voice.</div><div>
</div><div>Jeffrey St. Clair is editor of CounterPunch and author of Born Under a Bad Sky. James Ridgeway is a journalist living in Washington, DC.</div><div>
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</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.hcn.org/articles/sagebrush-rebellion</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</b></div><div>The Oregon occupation, the 2014 Bundy standoff and many other stories are all related to a long-simmering movement.</div><div>High Country News Jan. 4, 2016 Web Exclusive</div><div>
</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>The Sagebrush Rebellion has roots that go back to the early 1900s, when the federal government first started reserving public lands and developing water for early settlements. It took off starting in the 1970s, when the environmental movement pushed Congress to pass The Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Air and Water acts, and others. It appeared again during the Clinton Administration, as it took on public land grazing, mining, and logging, while creating new controversial monuments under The Antiquities Act. &nbsp;Finally, the election of President Barack Obama brought on the latest iteration, with renewed calls for public land transfers to the states and rising anti-federal sentiment, such as that exhibited by the Malheur occupation.</div><div>
</div></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/articles/oregon-occupation-at-wildlife-refuge" title="" target="
blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Malheur occupation, explained</a>&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">(Jan. 4, 2016)</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The deep history behind the Bundy brothers’ takeover of a wildlife refuge in Oregon.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/articles/photos-from-the-oregon-refuge-standoff-Hammonds-Burns/" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">In eastern Oregon, a protest over imprisoned ranchers becomes an occupation of a wildlife refuge</a>&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">(Jan. 4, 2016)</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Photos from the Burns, Oregon, protests, the latest iteration of the Sagebrush Rebellion.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/articles/modern-sagebrush-rebels-recycle-old-western-fantasies" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Modern sagebrush rebels recycle old Western fantasies</a>&nbsp;(Jan. 4, 2016 op-ed)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/articles/ethical-public-land-transfer-ken-ivory-lobbying" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Public-land transfer proponents may have violated lobbying laws</a>&nbsp;(October 2015)&nbsp;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Colorado puts the American Lands Council on "notice" for ethical missteps.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="internal-link" href="http://www.hcn.org/articles/dispatch-from-oath-keepers-security-op-in-montana" target="blank" title="" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);">Dispatch from White Hope Mine dispute in </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Montana</span></a><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);">&nbsp;(August 2015)&nbsp;</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);">The constitutionalist group Oath Keepers is defending a mine that the Forest Service says is out of compliance.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/47.8/counties-use-a-coordination-clause-to-fight-the-feds" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Counties use a ‘coordination’ clause to fight the feds</a>&nbsp;(May 2015)&nbsp;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />An obscure provision in two environmental laws is the weapon of choice in a bureaucratic Sagebrush Rebellion.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/articles/the-taxpayer-money-behind-local-control-demands" title="" target="self" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">The taxpayer money that fuels federal land transfer demands</a>&nbsp;(May 2015)&nbsp;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />How the behind-the-scenes lobby group American Lands Council gets funding.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/articles/oath-keepers-show-up-for-another-public-lands-squabble-this-time-for-gold-miners-in-oregon" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Oath Keepers show up for a public lands dispute in Oregon</a><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Plus a Cliven Bundy supporter is charged and BLM emails about the Nevada standoff were released.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/articles/state-bills-to-study-federal-to-state-land-transfers" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">State bills to study federal-to-state land transfers</a>&nbsp;(April 2015)&nbsp;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />A rundown of the legislation in each state and a look into the motives behind them.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/articles/who-showed-up-at-the-bundy-standoff-anniversary-not-ranchers" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Dispatch from Cliven Bundy's latest gathering</a>&nbsp;(April 2015)&nbsp;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Who showed up at the one-year anniversary of the BLM standoff? Most of them weren't ranchers.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/articles/cliven-bundy-rancher-nevada-scofflaw" title="" target="self" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">An update on Nevada scofflaw Cliven Bundy</a>&nbsp;(March 2015)&nbsp;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The rancher still has influence in some circles, and has seen zero repercussions for trespass cattle and unpaid fees.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Cliven Bundy</strong>&nbsp;(April 2014)</font></span></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem 1.1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; list-style-position: outside; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a class="external-link" target="blank" title="" href="http://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/in-nevada-delicate-20-year-standoff-with-blm-ends-in-a-tense-roundup" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.875rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Rancher vs. BLM: a 20-year standoff ends with tense roundup</font></a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a class="external-link" target="blank" title="" href="http://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/after-the-standoff-whats-next-for-bundy-and-blm" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.875rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">After the standoff, what's next for Bundy and the BLM?</font></a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a class="external-link" target="blank" title="" href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/46.8/the-revolt-that-wouldnt-die" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.875rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">The revolt that wouldn't die</font></a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/articles/bundy-tresspass-cattle-stand-off-with-blm-feds" title="" target="self" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Photos of a standoff</a>&nbsp;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Armed militia members join a Nevada rancher to protest a cattle roundup from public land.</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/46.8/the-blm-vs-cliven-bundy-timeline" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Timeline: The BLM vs. Cliven Bundy</font></a></span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/wotr/cliven-bundy-needs-to-pay-his-grazing-bills" title="" class="external-link" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.875rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Cliven Bundy needs to pay his grazing bills (Writers on the Range op-ed)&nbsp;</font></a></li></ul><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Defuse the West&nbsp;</strong>(October 2014)</font></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem 1.1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; list-style-position: outside; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/46.18/defuse-the-west" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Defuse the West</a>&nbsp;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Public-land employees are easy targets for a violent, government-hating fringe.</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/46.18/reports-from-the-front-lines" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.875rem;">Reports from the front lines</a>&nbsp;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Excerpts from official accounts of threats against U.S. Forest Service and BLM employees.</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/46.18/forum-Sagebrush-rebellions" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.875rem;">Roots of rebellion: A forum</a>&nbsp;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Four experts discuss threats to federal public-lands employees and where we go from here.</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/46.18/incidents-map" title="" target="self" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Mapping threats on public land</a>&nbsp;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Intimidation of federal officials is widespread across the West.</font></span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/articles/the-blm-fails-to-provide-public-records" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">The BLM fails to provide public records</a>&nbsp;(op-ed)&nbsp;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The agency's main Freedom of Information Act office appears incompetent or overworked.</font></span></li></ul><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="state-public" href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/46.18/western-states-eye-federal-lands-again" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Western states eye federal lands—again</a>&nbsp;(October 2014)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="external-link" target="blank" title="" href="http://www.hcn.org/articles/is-san-juan-countys-phil-lyman-the-new-calvin-black" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">A reluctant rebellion in the Utah desert</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;(May 2014)&nbsp;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />For ATVers at Recapture Canyon, realpolitik meets out-of-town zeal.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/45.8/how-right-wing-emigrants-conquered-north-idaho" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">How right-wing emigrants conquered North Idaho</a>&nbsp;(May 2013)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/44.16/one-sagebrush-rebellion-flickers-out-or-does-it" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">One Sagebrush Rebellion flickers out -- or does it?</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;(September 2012)</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/44.2/fearful-of-Agenda-21-an-alleged-united-nations-plot-activists-derail-land-use-planning" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Fearful of Agenda 21, an alleged U.N. plot, activists derail land-use planning</a>(February 2012)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="internal-link" href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/44.3/how-arizonas-culture-helped-shape-the-shooting-of-gabrielle-giffords" target="blank" title="" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">How Arizona's culture helped shape the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords</a>&nbsp;(February 2012)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/looking-past-joe-arpaio" title="" target="self" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Looking past Joe Arpaio</a>&nbsp;(December 2011)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/43.1/utahs-sagebrush-rebellion-capital-mellows-as-animal-lovers-and-enviros-move-in" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Utah's Sagebrush Rebellion capital mellows as animal-lovers and enviros move in</a>&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">(January 2011)</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/43.1/a-dark-moment-a-glimmer-of-light" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">A dark moment, a glimmer of light</a><a href="http://www.hcn.org/43.1/a-dark-moment-a-glimmer-of-light" title="" class="external-link" target="parent" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">&nbsp;</a>(January 2011)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/369/17663" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Pillaging the Past</a>&nbsp;(April 2008)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/360/17399" title="" target="self" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Rebels with a lost cause</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;(December 2007)</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/360/17393" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">The Sagebrush Rebels ride again -- and again</a>&nbsp;(December 2007 op-ed)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/326/16409" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Taking Liberties</a>&nbsp;(July 2006)</font></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/258/14236" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">The West’s Biggest Bully</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;(September 2003)</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/248/13869" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Change comes slowly to Escalante country</a>&nbsp;(April 2003)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/243/13697" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Road warriors back on the offensive</a>&nbsp;(February 2003)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/209/10672" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Showdown on the Nevada range</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;(August 2001)</span></font></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/174/5646" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.875rem;">Shoveling vs. sniveling</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;">&nbsp;(March 2000 essay)</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/174/5647" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">The last Celtic warlord lives in New Mexico</a>&nbsp;(March 2000)</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/165/5338" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">The Forest Service sets off into uncharted territory</a>&nbsp;(November 1999)</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/167/5393" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Nevadans drive out forest supervisor</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;(November 1999)</span></font></span></span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/166/5352" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Nevada rebellion ends with a whimper</a>&nbsp;(October 1999)</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/126/4036" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Idaho stubbornly remains what America used to be</a>&nbsp;(March 1998 essay)</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/101/3146" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Founding father challenges his movement</a>&nbsp;(March 1997 op-ed)</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/91/2836" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Wise-users try to whip up a recipe for their own salvation</a>&nbsp;(October 1996 op-ed)</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/92/2868" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Utah counties bulldoze the BLM, Park Service</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;(October 1996)</span></font></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/62/1920" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Catron County's politics heat up as its land goes bankrupt</a>&nbsp;(June 1996)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/46/1407" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Nevada's ugly tug-of-war</a>&nbsp;(October 1995)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/46/1410/" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Nevada's most rebellious</a>&nbsp;(October 1995)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/45/1397" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">To save a Utah canyon, a BLM ranger quits and turns activist</a>&nbsp;(October 1995)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/32/919" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">County commissioner courts bloodshed</a></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;">&nbsp;(April 1995)</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/35/1043" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Armed, crazy and lost in the Wild West</a></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;">&nbsp;(May 1995 op-ed)</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/29/842" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Waaaaaaaaaaaahh! The West refuses to be weaned</a>&nbsp;(February 1995 essay)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/26/743" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Land-use plan is disemboweled</a>&nbsp;(December 1994)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/20/582" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Ranchers arrested at wildlife refuge</a>&nbsp;(October 1994)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/18/537" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">'Wise use' plans abhor change</a>&nbsp;(September 1994)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/9/265" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam</a>&nbsp;(June 1994)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/11/320" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">The Not O.K. Corral</a>&nbsp;(May 1994)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/hcn-media/archive-pdf/1993_02_08_rfs.pdf" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Landowners turn the Fifth into sharp-pointed sword</a>&nbsp;(February 1993)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/hcn-media/archive-pdf/1982_02_19.pdf" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Trying a "Bold" landswap</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;(February 1982)</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/hcn-media/archive-pdf/1980_02_22.pdf" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">The Sagebrush Rebellion: misdirected dynamite</a>&nbsp;(February 1980 op-ed)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.875rem; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.701961);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/hcn-media/archive-pdf/1978_05_05.pdf" title="" target="blank" class="external-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit;">Environmentalists, backlash, and the 'New Right'</a>&nbsp;(May 1978)</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">High Country News -- Printable -- December 10, 2007: Rebels with a Lo... http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.PrintableArticle?article_id=17399</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1 of 11 12/8/2007 10:55 AM</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">www.hcn.org</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/west/rebelslostcause.pdf</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Rebels with a Lost Cause</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">feature article - December 10, <b>2007 </b>by Ray Ring</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A movement of property-rights lawyers emerged from the sagebrush in the 1970s to fight a wave</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">of environmental regulations. They are still fighting in courtrooms across the West, but their</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">role remains ambiguous.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bill Jennings, a veteran fisheries activist in Stockton, Calif., remembers the Christmas season of 2004 as "a</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">nightmare." He adds: "It was absurd."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He's talking about how some of the West's most powerful farmers tried to throw off the yoke of environmental</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">law. Like countless similar battles, this one came down in a courtroom, in a case titled Tulare Lake Basin Water</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Storage District, et al., v. The United States.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For decades, the farmers had diverted rivers and dried up a huge lake to grow hundreds of thousands of acres of</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">crops south of Stockton, resulting in catastrophic losses of fish and birds. Finally, during a 1990s drought,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">wildlife agencies invoked the Endangered Species Act and withheld some irrigation water, trying to save</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">vanishing populations of chinook salmon and Delta smelt. That triggered the farmers' lawsuit.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The farmers demanded payment for surrendering the water. They claimed that the government's environmental</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">action violated the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment, which holds that no property shall be taken without</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">compensation. They found a sympathetic listener in Judge John Paul Wiese, at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">in Washington, D.C. In a surprising series of rulings, Judge Wiese ordered the government to pay the farmers as</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">much as $26 million. Many believed that if the feds filed an appeal, a higher court would overturn the rulings.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But five days before Christmas, the George W. Bush administration settled the case and agreed to pay $16.7</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">million.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Tulare outcome hit like a thunderbolt. The farmers' lawyer, <b>Roger Marzulla</b> of the D.C.-based lawfirm</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Marzulla & Marzulla, told Greenwire, "This is the first time (the government has) been required to pay for</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">anything" related to enforcing the Endangered Species Act.<b> The West's leading anti-green congressman at the</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>time, Calif. Rep. Richard Pombo, R, could barely control his glee. "This case should spell profound change for</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>conservation policy," he told the Washington Post. A California water official, in the Los Angeles Times, called it</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>"a devastating setback for the environment."</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If the logic of the Tulare rulings spread, enforcement of many environmental laws might cost the government</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">billions. And if the government preferred not to pay, the laws would be castrated.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More striking, Marzulla & Marzulla stood among a battalion of lawfirms dedicated to challenging environmental&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">laws. The movement had its roots in the West and appeared to be making progress on many fronts, firing a</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">barrage of lawsuits and claiming a run of important victories in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They'd rolled</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">back regulations covering not only endangered species, but also cattle grazing, commercial development and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">many other activities. They even seemed to be on the brink of redefining government employees as criminal</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"racketeers."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I think this fight is going to get a lot meaner ..." predicted <b>Andrew Lloyd, a lawyer for Pacific Legal Foundation,</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">another firm leading the charge, in California's West County Times in January 2005. He and others envisioned</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">more lawsuits and more big victories.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These days, the anti-regulation lawyers still portray themselves as wizards, shooting bolts of legal lightning at the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">government agencies and power-hungry environmentalists who oppress them and their clients. In press releases,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">news and opinion articles and speeches, they boast about carrying out a crucial role.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To get a better sense of their role, I explored the legal battlefields and visited some of the movement's key</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Western lawfirms. I found a group of people who believe strongly in freedom and individual rights.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But their record includes some recent big defeats, and their conviction arguably outweighs their influence. I</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">found that they may indeed be legal wizards, but more in the mode of a Wizard of Oz: They're full of sound and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">fury out front, but if you pull back the curtain, they're not so formidable.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION became a formidable force in the decade and a half that began in 1964.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During that time, Congress and state legislatures passed a torrent of new laws protecting wilderness and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">endangered species, requiring the study of environmental impacts, setting tough standards for clean water and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">air, and applying limits to grazing, mining, logging and driving on public lands.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The regulations poked at some peoples' livelihoods and chafed against their beliefs, especially in the West, the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">region with the most public land. So they began to hire lawyers to fight back. The ragtag resistance grew into a</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">movement with the 1973 founding of Pacific Legal Foundation, headquartered in Sacramento, Calif. It's a</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">nonprofit lawfirm, following the model of older, liberal nonprofit firms, such as those associated with the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American Civil Liberties Union and environmental groups.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Oil and tobacco corporations, chamber of commerce groups, and rightwing billionaires such as Joseph Coors (a</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Colorado beer baron), Richard Mellon Scaife (a Pittsburgh heir to the Mellon banking, oil and aluminum</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">empire), and John Simon Fluor (a California mining, nuclear and oil baron) poured millions of dollars into</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">launching Pacific Legal Foundation and similar nonprofit lawfirms across the country.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The most famous is <b>Mountain States Legal Foundation</b>, founded in Denver in 1976. Mountain States has helped</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">launch two lawyers - James Watt in the early 1980s and Gale Norton in the early 2000s - to tenures as</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">secretaries of the Interior. Each used the cabinet post to push general deregulation and the commercial uses of</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">federal lands.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The movement has grown to include the D.C.-area Institute for Justice, which describes itself as "a merry band</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">of litigators," run by William "Chip" Mellor, formerly of Mountain States Legal. Dozens of lawyers in private</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">practice also jumped into the fray. Roger Marzulla is among the most prominent, as is Karen Budd-Falen, a&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">specialist in ranchers' cases based in Cheyenne, Wyo. Both of them also had stints with Mountain States Legal.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These lawyers share similar or identical goals, they're related to each other through overlapping resumes and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">backers, and they file briefs supporting each other's cases. Many of them got to know each other while working</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">for Ronald Reagan, when Reagan was California's governor in the 1970s, or when he was president during the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1980s. They're also tied in with the libertarian, property-rights think tanks, such as the Cato Institute.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Those in the movement and those who study it call it by various names, including the Freedom-Based Public</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Interest Law Movement, or just the property-rights lawyers. For Westerners, the most accurate term would be</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sagebrush Rebel lawyers: They're entwined with the angry rebellion that began in 1979, when many Western</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">legislatures claimed authority over federal land, and continues today in local flare-ups against the feds.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The lawyers, and their clients, have some legitimate complaints. Environ-mental laws, especially in their infancy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">in the 1970s and 1980s, did tend toward bullying and unrealistic expectations. For instance, the Clean Water Act,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the Clean Air Act, and other laws vowed to catalog and choke off hundreds of thousands of pollution sources</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">within a few years. Anyone who didn't cooperate was subject to penalties.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The game of politics is largely a struggle for control of the initiative," says Gregg Cawley, head of the political</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">science department at the University of Wyoming, in a book he wrote about the Sagebrush Rebellion.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Environmentalists had the initiative at the start as they set up their enforcement strategy. Then the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">anti-regulation forces rose up and took the lead.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We realized we needed to counter what the liberal, socialist (environmental) groups were doing," says James</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Watt, who earned his law degree in his home state at the University of Wyoming. Watt served as the first boss of</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mountain States Legal, running it until 1980, when Reagan picked him to be secretary of Interior.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Environmentalists - I'm not talking about the members of the groups, I'm talking about the leaders - were really</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">not concerned about the environment. They were concerned about the form of government we would have."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They wanted big government that was too intrusive on individuals' freedom, Watt says.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While Watt held the throne at Interior, he supported ranching, mining and logging. Though he resigned after</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">only 33 months atop Interior, he's a Sagebrush hero. Now retired and shuttling between homes in Arizona and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wyoming, Watt still talks a fiery game. The battle rages on, he says, because environmentalists and their allies in</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">government are still too "dictatorial ... (they) should work with the users, the locals who will benefit from using</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">these public lands."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Mountain States Legal scored another apparent political victory in 2001, when Gale Norton became George W.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Bush's Interior secretary.</b> She'd worked for the lawfirm in the early 1980s, and though she was less abrasive than</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Watt, her ideology echoed his during her tenure at Interior.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Norton and Watt left little lasting imprint on the ground - nothing on the scale of the bedrock environmental</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">laws, nothing even as noticeable as President Bill Clinton's environmental legacy, which includes the restoration</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">of Western wolves and 23 new or expanded national monuments, orchestrated by Interior Secretary Bruce</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Babbitt.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Watt quit amid controversy over his frank manner of speaking, and Congress and environmentalist lawsuits</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">stalled many of his policies. "Watt was certainly noticeable as a symbol, he did personify the Sagebrush Rebellion</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">and the takeover (of Interior) by Western resource industries, but surprisingly little happened" during his reign,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">says Charles Wilkinson, a University of Colorado law professor who served as a Clinton adviser and has authored</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">13 books about law and natural resource issues.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Norton, </b>who left Interior in 2006 and is now with Shell Oil in Denver, has a one-dimensional legacy: oil and gas</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">drilling, which, thanks to the federal backing she provided, goes whole-hog in industry sweet spots around the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Rocky Mountains. Still, "she was an unimportant secretary of Interior," Wilkinson says, "because the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">public-lands policy of this administration is being made by Vice President Dick Cheney, not the secretary's</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">office." Cheney, with his longtime roots in the oil industry, by many accounts wields more power than President</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Bush. "It didn't matter who was secretary of Interior."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">IN THE NATION'S COURTROOMS, the Sagebrush Rebel lawyers win and lose more cases than can fit in</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">any magazine story. The lawyers believe they're generally doing good work. But their impact is as unclear as it</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">was in the Department of Interior.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The mission of Mountain States Legal Foundation is summed up by the title of William Perry Pendley's latest</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">book: Warriors for the West: Fighting Bureaucrats, Radical Groups, and Liberal Judges on America's Frontier.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Pendley</b> has been the firm's president and chief lawyer for 18 years. His staff includes about a half-dozen other</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">lawyers, headquartered in a small office park in suburban Denver, across from an insurance agency, a dentist</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">and Pilates Plus. An American flag on a tall pole marks the building's entrance, with a plaque that says "Old</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Glory."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Inside the headquarters there are more plaques engraved with names: Rocky Mountain family oil companies</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(Yates, Kennedy, McMurry, <b>Anschutz, </b>Dugan), notable ranching operations (Page Land and Cattle Co.), loggers</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">and an aircraft-tour company. They're some of the donors who support Mountain States' work, most of which is</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">done on a pro bono basis - for free, or a relatively small cost to clients.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At his desk several weeks ago, Mountain States Legal's Pendley wore a blue Oxford shirt, gray slacks, and black</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">cowboy boots. He had a short, brush haircut, pale blue eyes, chiseled face. He'd decorated his office with</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mementoes of his five years in the Marine Corps and several years in the Reagan administration, along with</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mining and cowboy knickknacks and samples of his kids' artwork. Born and raised in Cheyenne, son of a union</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pipefitter, Pendley has college degrees in political science and economics, as well as a University of Wyoming law</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">degree. He's 62 years old and no longer works seven days a week; an evangelical Christian, he takes Sundays off.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Asked whether his religious beliefs come into his law practice, Pendley says yes: "Some of it is, 'What would the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lord do? How do you treat human beings?' " But his religion, he says, doesn't determine which cases he takes to</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">court. His book talks about "environmental elitists sitting in their glass towers in New York City and San</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Francisco, their ivory towers in prestigious colleges," and warns they're a "juggernaut" trying to destroy local</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">cultures and economies in the West.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pendley is a kind of modern Western celebrity. He appears on TV and radio talk shows, rural libraries circulate</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">his book, and he's a popular speaker at conventions of mining and ranching groups. When Mountain States Legal</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">presses a lawsuit, it creates excitement in the press and affected communities, due in part to Pendley's&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">reputation as well as the Norton/Watt connection. The firm's biggest win, according to Pendley, was a 1995 U.S.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action in highway contracts.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Among its environmental cases, Mountain States won a $2 million settlement for a New Mexico landowner who</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">handled wastewater from oil and gas wells; the feds gave him permission to dump the wastewater in potholes on</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">federal land and then withdrew it, causing him to lose his business. The federal claims court ruled in 2001 that it</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">was an unfair taking, and eventually the government grudgingly paid him.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But overall, in the dozens of environmental cases Pendley profiles in his book, Mountain States Legal has lost far</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">more often than it's won.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The environmental cases tend to be especially difficult. They're almost always three-sided: The rebels sue the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">government and then environmentalist lawyers jump in, or environmentalists sue the government - demanding</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">tough regulations - and the rebels jump in. They have to climb mountains of administrative records and find</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">their way through the fog of environmental laws, which often contain contradictory phrases meant to placate</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">different interests.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"It's very difficult to sue the government and win these kinds of cases" - whether the plaintiff is a rebel or an</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">environmentalist, says law professor Wilkinson. In an analysis of all lawsuits filed against the U.S. Forest Service</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">from 1989 to 2002, on the basis of the 1976 National Forest Management Act, the plaintiffs won only 28 percent</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">of the time, for instance. "The courts give heavy deference to the government agencies," Wilkinson says.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In cases with wide implications, Mountain States Legal has tried to block Clinton's wolves and monuments,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">discourage the Colorado Division of Wildlife's lynx-reintroduction effort, overturn a ban on oil drilling in a</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">million acres of national forest along Montana's Rocky Mountain Front, and kill a public-access law that says</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">anyone can walk stream banks on private property in Montana. Representing oil companies and off-road drivers</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">and ranchers and other property-rights advocates, Mountain States Legal lost all those court cases.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I'm after more than win-loss statistics, though; I'm interested in the psychology. After losing one case, Pendley</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">vowed: "We'll keep tilting at this windmill until we find a way to go to court and win." When I ask him if he sees</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">himself as a Don Quixote figure, he says no. But he adds, "We take the impossible cases - the cases no one else</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">will take. If these were easy cases, private attorneys would be representing these people," because private</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">attorneys look for "slam dunks" and easy payoffs. He repeats the image: "We're really on a Mission Impossible</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">challenge," he says - an attitude that makes any victory noteworthy. Listening to himself, he laughs, and calls</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">himself "an eternal optimist."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>KAREN BUDD-FALEN </b>bases her law practice in a remodeled house in downtown Cheyenne. A tall rosebush</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">hides her firm's sign. To find her, you have to know where she is. And ranchers around the West do: She's a</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">member of a prominent Wyoming ranch family, the Budds, and her husband, Frank Falen, comes from a</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">prominent Great Basin ranch family. Her father-in-law, John Falen, was featured on the cover of a 1991</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Newsweek, with cowboy hat and horse, beside the headline, The War for the West: Fighting for the Soul of</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">America's Mythic Land. She and her husband have law degrees from the University of Wyoming.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sitting in her office several weeks ago, she wore blue eye shadow and a yellow dress with a whimsical pattern of</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">sheriff's badges and tiny cowboy boots. She talks of growing up on her family's ranch outside a wisp of a town,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Big Piney, doing chores when she was tiny: "Driving the feed truck for my dad in the winter, I'd be on my knees</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">on the seat, and my sister would be down on the floor working the pedals, and my dad would be on the back</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(pitching off hay for cattle) - if you made the truck jerk when you put it into gear, it knocked him off the back,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">and you'd get into real trouble."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She comes across as pleasant but headstrong, and admits to getting impatient when she worked in the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">bureaucracy of Watt's Department of Interior and in the late-1980s Mountain States Legal Foundation. During</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">her time at Mountain States, she says, she had to get every lawsuit approved by the nonprofit's directors, and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">they preferred cases that would help them raise money.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I like making decisions and then acting on it," Budd-Falen says. "I'm really cause-oriented, I really believe in</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ranchers and farmers and what they do. That's the reason I went to law school. I don't love the law. To me, the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">law is the way I'm helping the people I love."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Over the years, Budd-Falen has represented ranchers who've challenged grazing regulations everywhere in the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">West. She says she's not sure of her win-loss record. She's proud of two rulings by the appeals court in Denver:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She forced the feds to do more analysis when designating critical habitat for endangered species, meaning</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">commercial activities must be taken into account. But she lost two lawsuits trying to block wolves in the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Southwest. For several years, she's attacked the Grand Canyon Trust's purchases of ranchers' grazing permits in</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Utah - that group's campaign to reduce grazing through business deals - and she's lost two rounds in that case.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Budd-Falen says her most important environmental case involved Frank Robbins, a wealthy Alabaman who</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">bought several big Wyoming ranches and got into a dispute with the federal Bureau of Land Management. The</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">agency's local staffers cited Robbins for many violations of grazing regulations, characterizing him as a scofflaw,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">but he says they were merely trying to force him to accept a road easement across his land. Budd-Falen tried a</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">novel tactic: <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">She sued the staffers as individuals, invoking RICO, an anti-racketeering law; basically, she cast</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">them as gangsters seeking to extort Robbins.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In racketeering cases, plaintiffs can collect big payments from defendants, so a victory could've ruined the</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>staffers' personal finances. Budd-Falen appeared close to that spectacular win in 2006, when the court of appeals</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>in Denver OK'd the basis of the claim, meaning the case could be tried on the facts. If every federal staffer</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>enforcing regulations could be charged as a racketeer, then no staffer would risk enforcing anything.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That notion was too much even for the Bush administration: Its lawyers appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Though conservative Republican presidents appointed seven of the nine Supreme Court justices, last spring the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">court ruled unanimously against Budd-Falen on the racketeering question. The high court said the racketeering</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">law wasn't intended to expose federal employees to extortion charges whenever they push the envelope with</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">regulations and that fear of such charges "could well take the starch out of regulators who are supposed to</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">bargain and press demands vigorously on behalf of the government and the public."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Robbins says he spent more than $1 million on his nine-year battle against the feds, and now he's going to sell&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">his ranch and move. Even "liberals ought to be outraged," Robbins says. "I think employees of the federal</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">government should be accountable. As long as the apathy continues, the government gets bigger and bigger."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Budd-Falen calls the Robbins case "the most frustrating thing I've been through."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION, the biggest Sagebrush Rebel lawfirm, </b>employs about 30 lawyers and an</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">equal number of support staff, and is headquartered in Sacramento, in a tinted-glass building neighbored by tech</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">companies. At the landscaped entrance, a tiny electric-powered waterfall sings over mossy boulders. On its Web</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">site, Pacific Legal vows to battle the "tyranny engendered by overzealous bureaucracies, government red tape,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ignorance or indifference of our courts and elected officials, and a complex maze of laws and regulations that are</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">strangling our personal and professional lives."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rob Rivett has been with the firm for 32 years and is now the president. A clock on his office wall bears the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">goofy, grinning faces of the Three Stooges. Every hour, it sounds the Stooges' chant of triumph over other</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">people's foolishness, Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Pacific Legal's biggest win against environmental regulations came in a 1987 Supreme Court case, Nollan v.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>California Coastal Commission</b>. That case also involved a kind of extortion: The coastal commission had tried to</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">force a homeowner to grant public access across a beach, in return for permission to build a bigger house. In a</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">five-to-four ruling, the Supreme Court held it was an unconstitutional taking. That was a major inspiration for</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the movement.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We're trying to establish and shake the law," Rivett says. "A lot of what we do takes time to prevail, and the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">point is, we just don't give up."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But Pacific Legal's next big Supreme Court win - a 2006 case challenging federal regulations on private wetlands</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>- has had murkier repercussions</b>: Judges in other wetlands cases and the relevant agency, the Army Corps of</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Engineers, continue to protect wetlands that Pacific Legal thinks do not merit protection.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And in another heralded environmental case, Alsea Valley Alliance v. Evans, Pacific Legal claimed victory</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">prematurely. Representing Oregon developers and farmers against streamside regulations, Pacific Legal sought</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">to redefine what a species is, claiming that hatchery-raised salmon are identical to dwindling wild salmon.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Although biologists scoff at that the notion - it would also mean that breeding programs alone could preserve all</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">kinds of rare animals and plants - U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan in Oregon ruled in Pacific Legal's favor in</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2001, on technical legal grounds. The victory, however, was short-lived: Federal agencies dragged their feet in</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">changing salmon policies, and environmentalists filed countersuits. This year, Judge Hogan said his ruling had</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">been misinterpreted, and the feds can show preference to wild fish. And a judge in Washington ruled, flat out,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">that hatchery fish can't be counted toward population goals.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pacific Legal has appealed those rulings. Meanwhile, the salmon runs are still protected. "We have essentially the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">same regulatory result we had (before Alsea)," says Damien Schiff, a Pacific Legal lawyer handling</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">environmental cases.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In other Endangered Species Act cases, Pacific Legal has found it nearly impossible to knock species off the list of</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>protected wildlife, losing lawsuits on cave bugs, the California tiger salamander, the southwestern arroyo toad,</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>the Puget Sound orca and 15 California vernal-pool species</b>. The lawyers have occasionally whittled down the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">sizes of critical habitats, but even that can be grueling.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Consider how two tiny desert fish - the spikedace and loach minnow - have fared in the courtroom eddies: Both</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">fish were put on the endangered species list in 1986. Environmentalists then demanded the designation of</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">critical habitat, so in 1994 the feds designated 254 miles of rivers and streams. Then Budd-Falen forced the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">government to re-evaluate, enviros sued over that, and in 2000 the feds came back with more than three times</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the original critical habitat (898 miles). Both sides returned to court, and this year the feds reduced the total to</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">522 miles - still more than twice the original amount. So Pacific Legal has filed another suit.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The battle over critical habitat for two other high-profile species - the southwestern willow flycatcher and the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mexican spotted owl - has had the same frustrating pattern in court: Victories by Sagebrush Rebel lawyers have</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ironically led to even bigger habitat designations. The legal arguments seem endless.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">THE CASE OF THE MOST FAMOUS SAGEBRUSH REBEL rancher, Nevadan E. Wayne Hage, has</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">dragged on in various courts for 17 years. The skirmish began when the government yanked Hage's grazing</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">permits because he allegedly ignored regulations; Hage demanded compensation, but his side hasn't gotten it</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">yet. He died last year, and his most ambitious contention - that he actually owned the federal land - has been</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">tossed out.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, similar lawsuits - filed by one of Hage's neighbors, Benjamin J. Colvin, and a New Mexico ranch</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">couple - have gone badly. The feds had also charged them with overgrazing and canceled their permits. Judges</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">dismissed the Colvin case last year, upholding the federal government's actions. In the other case, the New</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mexico Supreme Court said this year that the ranchers are "attempting to wage a battle lost at the turn of the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(19th) century ..."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Silver-haired Ladd Bedford, a private-practice lawyer based in a San Francisco penthouse, says he's put about $2</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">million worth of hours and associated costs directly into the Hage case and been paid no more than $500,000 by</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hage's family and Stewards of the Range, a Boise group run by one of Hage's daughters.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Hage case "is a metaphor for the property-rights movement falling off its tracks," says John Echeverria, head</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">of the <b>Environmental Law Policy Institute at Georgetown University in D.C., who often opposes the Sagebrush</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Rebel lawyers.</b> "The participants in the (Hage) case don't seem to be willing to admit that the case has collapsed."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But nowhere are the movement's reversals more stunning than in the wake of the Tulare Lake Basin ruling in</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">California. Other farmers, under federal pressure to modify their irrigation for the benefit of endangered fish,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">have hired the Marzulla lawfirm to press similar lawsuits demanding compensation. Three of those cases have</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">been shot down. First, in Klamath, Ore., a hotbed of rebellion, Roger Marzulla represents farmers demanding $1</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">billion for surrendering water to salmon. But Court of Claims Judge Francis M. Allegra, in rulings in 2005 and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2007, found that most of the Klamath farmers' claims of property rights in their federal irrigation water were a</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"fantasy." Judge Allegra dismissed that case.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Stockton East Water District v. United States, Court of Claims Judge Christine Odell Cook Miller ruled</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">against Marzulla last year and this year, holding that the government doesn't have to pay two California water</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">districts to surrender water for fish in the San Francisco Bay Delta ecosystem. She cited "the competing needs of</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">a rapidly growing population in a historically arid region and the mitigation of damage to the ecosystem," and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">said, "tossing the problem into the litigation hopper is breathtakingly ineffective."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most relevant, Judge Wiese - the same judge who ruled for the Tulare farmers - has done "an about-face," says</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Echeverria. That happened in a water case Marzulla pressed for the Casitas Municipal Water District in</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">California. Judge Wiese ruled in March that the government doesn't owe those farmers any money for making</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">changes to help steelhead trout. Wiese said a Supreme Court ruling that upheld planning regulations in the Lake</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tahoe area influenced his turnaround.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All three of those water cases are also being appealed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Marzulla, who is blind, graduated first in his class at the University of Santa Clara law school, hiring people to</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">read lawbooks to him and listening to lawbooks on tape. He ran Mountain States Legal from 1981 to 1983, and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">then was in charge of all environmental litigation at Reagan's Justice Department. He blames "the anti-property</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">rights movement, primarily environmentalist forces" for his losses in the water cases: Green lawyers "launched</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an extensive campaign" of legal briefs that confused the judges.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">OFTEN WHEN SAGEBRUSH REBEL LAWYERS LOSE, they complain that the judges were biased or</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">underestimated the malevolence of government regulations. Again and again, Mountain States' Pendley, for</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">instance, writes that judges are "ridiculous" when they rule against him.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But in many of the key cases that Pendley and his cohorts lost, the judges were appointed by President Reagan. If</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">those judges are biased, it's more likely to be in favor of the Sagebrush Rebellion.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Lawyers like these develop a portfolio of cases, which they present to the courts and to the public as horror</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">stories about regulation - 'Here's my client who was just trying to do something perfectly reasonable and in came</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the government saying, in a ridiculous way, 'You can't do that,' " says Mark Tushnet, a Harvard University law</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">professor who has studied the movement. "Of those cases, a few will actually come across as horror stories ... and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">either the government will cave in during negotiations or the court will rule in their favor. But that's a small</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">portion of the group of cases these people assemble. They win some, and they lose quite a few that they have</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">presented to the public in exactly the same terms. Because of their ideological predisposition, they see horror</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">stories more frequently than the rest of us would."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They also ignore some property-rights horror stories. They've filed very few lawsuits on behalf of ranchers who</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">are up against oil and gas companies who drill on their land. The Sagebrush Rebel lawyers also rarely represent</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">people who say their property rights are harmed by a new gravel pit or feedlot or megadairy or racetrack next</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">door. In the West that Pendley portrays in his book, no one lives in a city or suburb plagued by growth; no one</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">wishes for land-use planning; no rancher or logger ever sides with any environmentalist.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Buzz Thompson, a Stanford University law professor who often favors property rights, says these lawfirms "will</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">win a case like the Tulare case, and it's never clear to me that those victories really accomplish much. They have</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">won a victory for that particular person, but given how unique the cases tend to be, it is very difficult to&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">generalize out to other cases. They frequently have not changed the face of the law in a way that would reallocate</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">power between the government and private-property owners."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Sagebrush Rebel lawyers say they're helping to preserve rural jobs and ways of life. Their opponents say</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">those jobs are often a form of denial. "They create a false and desperate hope that (rural communities) can evade</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">environmental protection, and that false hope leads to great controversy, people want to fight and fight and not</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">accept it," says Kieran Suckling, head of the Center for Biological Diversity, which applies lawsuit pressure from</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the green side. "There's always that hope - big-tree logging will come back, and we'll be able to put cows back on</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the range - and as long as (the locals) have that in the back of their minds, they're not going to move forward."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even the lawyers occasionally acknowledge that their movement struggles. Pendley says that little has changed;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the government agencies are still too insensitive. "Getting anyone to make big changes is really hard," says</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Budd-Falen. "Sometimes I think it doesn't matter who's president and in Congress. The bureaucracy is so huge,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">it just eats you alive." But they hope to hit home runs in the realigned Supreme Court, which is far more</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">conservative than it was a few years ago: A key Bush appointee, John Roberts, is now chief justice, and Pacific</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Legal's Schiff says, "I think things are looking in our favor there."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">JOHN SHULER DROVE A BREAD TRUCK for 15 years, ran a feed store for 20 years, and then bought his</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">dream, a 2,200-acre ranch along Montana's Rocky Mountain Front. He raised sheep and cattle. There were lots</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">of grizzly bears in the area, including some that had been moved there by wildlife agencies because they'd gotten</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">into trouble elsewhere. Shuler had to do more and more intensive management, rounding up his sheep at the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">end of every day and keeping them in his yard at night. Even so, he kept losing sheep to the grizzlies.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One snowy autumn night in 1989, Shuler heard a disturbance. The sheep were going nuts. He came out on the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">porch in his underwear, and saw four grizzlies in his yard. He grabbed a rifle and waded in, shot one bear,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">wounded it, and all the bears fled. Next morning, he tracked down the wounded bear. He says that it charged</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">him, and he defended himself and put it out of its misery.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service charged Shuler with illegally killing an endangered species; he faced possible</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">fines of more than $10,000. Mountain States Legal's Pendley heard about it, and got in touch. Pendley and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">another Mountain States lawyer came to Shuler's place, and as Shuler puts it, they "got their hands dirty,"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">reconstructing the events, gathering evidence.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shuler lost in a federal administrative hearing - the judge ruled that he should've hung back and let the grizzlies</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">do their thing. So Mountain States took it to regular federal court, and lost. The feds offered to let Shuler off with</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">a fine of just a few thousand dollars, but he refused because, he says, "The bear was robbing me." After eight</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">years of that battle, in an appeals court, Mountain States won the case.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the feds refused to cover Mountain States' legal bills. Pendley - saying he'd put in $225,000 worth of time</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">and associated costs - went back to court again, asking for payment. The courts held that because the Fish and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wildlife Service's actions were "substantially justified," no payment was necessary. Mountain States got nothing</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">for its work representing Shuler.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shuler says he got charged by another grizzly in 1997 and had to shoot it with a shotgun. Then he got sick, sold</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">his ranch and moved to a warmer climate. Today he lives on five acres on the outskirts of Montrose, Colo. He's</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">68 years old, and you can find him opening the gate in a local stockyard, where he makes a few dollars selling</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">goats. He says Mountain States Legal Foundation is "tremendous." He also says he thinks the battle against</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">environmental regs has gone basically nowhere. The feds, he says, still favor predators over ranchers.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Research for this story was funded partly by the Bill Lane Center for the Study of the North American West, at</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stanford University.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To receive two free issues of High Country News call 1-800-905-1155, or visit:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.hcn.org/freepapersubscription.jsp</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hGYiizqjNdvEwVOnNUyL5Z3Bw1gA2OCpQBXgB_FNFDc/edit"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hGYiizqjNdvEwVOnNUyL5Z3Bw1gA2OCpQBXgB_FNFDc/edit</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-fbdc6162-7fff-e908-e4b6-422bd5cfb59d"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Right Nation</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">:<i>&nbsp;</i></span></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">R Reagan believed in space aliens and appted Commerce sec Malcolm Baldridge b/c he roped cattle for fun, opposed Civil Rights acts. 50 members of anti-detente Committee on the Present Danger appted&nbsp; admin. increased spending but no cuts, so upped debt by $1.5 trillion[also seen 3 trill, despite largest tax hike in history (BC only on top 1.2 %?].</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">RR dereg thrifts cost $1 billion&nbsp; Big Lies p 76</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">He fired 10K air traffic controllers even though it one of few </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">unions </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">to support him (RR had been president of Screen Actors Guild, [helped Pink Lady best Tricky Dick, once an admirer of FDR] but named names at HUAC (secretly FBI informant?]. Reagan promoted Rehnquist and appted Scalia.under b2 coc guy ~v refs head of osha (their legal arm got roberts and alito confirmed) 266</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">RR met w/ PR guys from Philip-Morris, AT&T, </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Hill & Knowlton</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">, GM, Alcoa US </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Chamber of Commerce, who&nbsp; </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">gave him list of JVC civil servants to sack (p 261) . The difference is the RR listened to them and did what they wanted, but Bush 43 gave them jobs and let them do what they wanted; however,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Michael Baroody fil NAM lobbyist nom b2 head consumer product safety comm but howled down) 267.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Wise Use Sagebrush Rebels</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">William Perry Pendley served as deputy assistant secretary for energy and minerals at the Department of Interior</span></p>

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">[[nice sum from demented:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Similar to the anti-Agenda 21 and Tea Party protests of today,</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> Wise Use</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> has a parallel history of fomenting dissent at the behest of private industry’s interests with overblown, nonsensical, and apocalyptic language against any and all environmental regulations</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">. It is the same international, socialist, enviro-Nazi conspiracy rhetoric and coordination tactics, and the same names that are seen today. Rather than battles over stream restoration and endangered species, the focus has now turned toward urban planners and zoning regulations.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Also known as “Multiple Use,” or “Shared Use” in Canada, [LM europe?] the Wise Use movement is a collection of private interests—mining, timber, ranching, construction, agriculture, chemical manufacturers, and oil and gas companies—who have been battling with the federal government over natural resource rights and regulations since the days of Teddy Roosevelt.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Ever since the Mining Act of 1872, private resource industries have had free use of federal lands in many locations to mine, log, and graze cattle with little or no payment to the government. When the government tries to regulate access to those federal lands—be it by blocking stream access to ranchers, closing off mountain roads to loggers, or regulating pollution in the vicinity of a mining operation—legal, political, and sometimes physical conflicts have erupted over whether these actions constitute a </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">“taking.” </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">If an environmental regulation is defined as a taking, rather than the EPA fining polluters for not regulating their emissions properly, polluters could sue the government for the loss of potential income from said restriction. Such a decision would set a precedent that, applied across many mining operations, oil refineries, and chemical plants, would mean billions in government payouts.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">In the seventies, this dissent against government control of public lands led a number of ranching groups to form the </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Sagebrush Rebels</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">.</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> The Sagebrush Rebels were allied to fight the implementation of the growing environmental movement who had won numerous legislative victories in the late sixties and seventies: the Wilderness Act, Roadless Area Review and Evaluation Act (RARE), National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and National Forest Management Act. These policies were put in place to restrict access to government-owned lands and resources that were being used for free or for far below market value while being maintained by the government. The Sagebrush Rebel alliance was able to push their pro-ranching, logging, and mining agenda into the White House with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">The story of </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Wayne Hage</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> is the prototypical example of this battle over government land regulation. A public lands rancher, he grazed his cattle on government-owned lands until the government blocked access to a water source used to feed his cattle. Hage sued the government under takings law for their restriction and eventually won. His twenty-plus-year legal struggle won him $14 million in damages plus interest, and he became a late symbol of the Sagebrush Rebellion and ranchers’ rights.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Because there is so much at stake, any struggle over government regulation anywhere in the country—from an easement used to create a bike lane, a zoning regulation on housing construction, or an attempt to designate a river as “wild and scenic”—could become legal precedent or a rallying point about the injustices of governmental interference and therefore a front line in the conflict over property rights. Throughout the nineties, natural resource industry interests took to this fight by funding front groups to help foment dissent against park rangers, environmental activists, or anybody that stood in the way of anything but one hundred percent private use of park lands.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Groups with innocuous-sounding names like “Friends of the Rivers” worked with right wing think tanks like the John Birch Society, the Heritage Foundation, and the Heartland Institute under the philosophy of Lyndon Larouche to claim a grand socialist plot by the UN. Calling environmentalists “watermelons” (green on the outside, red in the middle), they declared all EPA gestapo regulations to be part of an interconnected global hippie conspiracy aimed at destroying U.S. industry and a new paganism that “sacrifices people and worships trees” in order to recruit members and make money. In their view, ozone depletion was a concocted myth meant to justify land seizures. According to these groups, climate change is also a myth, trees cause smog, and toxic waste cleanup is a misuse of public financing.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Those same </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">think tanks,</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> funded by the natural resource industries, provided boilerplate legal language for politicians to employ across different states and local governments. Pro-bono legal organizations, like Pacific Legal Foundation and Mountain States Legal Foundation, were funded by the same natural resource companies and would seek out and represent individuals with disputes against the government over takings law.</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> A 1984 Yale Law Journal analysis criticized them for not actually serving the public interest as required for 501(c)(3) designation. </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">More often than not they were found to be serving the interests of their oil and ranching industry board members in lawsuits against environmental regulations.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">The tactics of Wise Use are thoroughly documented in </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">David Helvarg’s groundbreaking book The Battle Over the Greens</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">. In it, Helvarg details the same ideology and tactics at the heart of the Tea Party and anti-Agenda 21 movements to come. In many ways, these later groups are merely an extension of Wise Use being led and reinforced by the some of the same actors.&nbsp; It is the same technique of strategic fearmongering at the local level for private interests. Or as Helvarg explains, “the strength of anti-environmentalism is not in its membership rolls but in its ability to mobilize a network of core activists to intervene in and politicize local conflicts, creating a perception of power that they hope can be used as a springboard for further expansion.”</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Long before the Tea Party accused Obama of being an “Alinsky radical,” groups like Bill Grannell’s People for the West!, Charles Cushman’s National Inholder’s Association, and </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Ron Arnold’s </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Center For the Defense of Free Enterprise used the techniques of Saul Alinsky to blame the preservationist elite for the ills of rural Montana. Bill Grannell even took Alinsky’s classes in Chicago before going on to use Alinsky’s tactics for the interests of ranching groups. Instigating instant riots at town meetings, spamming government fax lines, phone lines, and talk radio call-in shows, and threatening a UN takeover of all private property were some of the common tricks of the trade.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Financial backing for </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Wise Use </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">would decline because of associations with militias in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing and the election of a pro-industry president in George W. Bush, but it didn’t disappear. It would eventually make a new resurgence with the Tea Party and its short-lived attempt to alter the 2010 Congressional elections while denouncing the looming threat of Agenda 21. end demented]]</span></p>

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Morell Act 1862 (land grant colleges) for homesteaders, assumed railroad would sell land, but much not good for farming, and Teddy set aside more at the urging of conservationists, so Herbert Hoover offered to states, but they declined because much of it overgrazed, they feared it would be a liability, so BLM set up. Then in&nbsp; 1976 of the </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" underline="underline" text-decoration-skip-ink="text-decoration-skip-ink" none="none" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Federal Land Policy and Management Act</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> (FLPMA) set up to make land available but also preserve it, but any regs seen as onerous if not worse. Since reagan administration did nothing to hamper access to land, Wise Use /Sagebrush fizzled out, but fear that Bush 41 would actually be the environmental president he vowed, rekindled 1988. it aligned with militia movement, which turned out to be bad PR after 1995 Oklahoma bombing (inspired by Turner Diaries).</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">[“Wise-use activists went on to confront the Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club, and local environmental activists, sometimes with vigilante-style tactics ranging from telephone death-threats to arson and shootings. In Washington, Idaho, Montana, and New Mexico, a number of wise-users even united with the militia movement.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">That alliance proved their undoing: Following the deadly </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">1995 attack on the Murrah Federal Building</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> in Oklahoma City by militia associates Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, wise use lost much of its industry backing and went into decline.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Today wise-use veterans and their lawyers and lobbyists are back, working for the son of the president they once detested. Among prominent appointees in the administration with wise-use backgrounds is Interior Department secretary Gale Norton, who began her career at the Mountain States Legal Foundation back when it billed itself as the "litigation arm of Wise Use."</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Mountain States was the brainchild of Reagan's notoriously anti-environmental Interior secretary James Watt. (After being forced to resign, Watt told a group of ranchers that "if the troubles from environmentalists cannot be solved in the jury box or at the ballot box, perhaps the cartridge box should be used.")](</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Helvarg</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-style="font-style" italic="italic" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> )</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">.</span></p>

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Watt dominion theology, </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">"subdue" nature is duty; sold off public assets at</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">fire sale prices : GAO 26&nbsp; </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">"I do not know how many generations we can</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">count on till the Lord returns"&nbsp; </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">greens are plot to delay energy</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">development and "weaken America" , a "left-wing cult which seeks to bring</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">down the type of gov't i believe in" 26 proto-Agenda 21?</span></p>

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">1980 coors etc spearheaded </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Sagebrush Rebellion</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> (corp and rw) turned </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">ctt</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">&nbsp;</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">into pol power </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">25 RR: I am a S rebel"</span></p>

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">&nbsp;</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Coors picked assoc Anne Gorsuch for epa; </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">hubby cattle baron to head BLM, tho had declared to shut it&nbsp; 25 rfk. </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">heritage </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">wants to "strangle the environmental movement...the greatest single threat to the Am economy" (rfk 24) Gorsuch tried to shut down Superfund</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Gorsuch cut budget 30% so no new laws or enforcement; </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">killed Superfund</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> at</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">&nbsp;start, became a welfare pgm of corp lawyers 26 appt lobbyist to run depts</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">CoS timber lawyer, enforcement chief ex-</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">exxon</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">&nbsp;</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">by 1981 1.1 mil signatures on petition to get rid of Watt; after out, 25</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">&nbsp;counts felony, perjury, concealment and obstr of justice. Gorsuch and 23</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">others forced to resign, sweetheart deal w/ coors (her #2 Rita&nbsp; LaVelle</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">jailed perjury and obstruction of justice).&nbsp; 26</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">&nbsp;</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">blow to sagebrush but regrouped</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> at aug '88 nugget hotel reno and renamed</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Wise Use." arnold:</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> our goal is to destroy, to eradicate the env movement. we</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">want you to be able to exploit the environment for private gain, absolutely" p 27&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">[In a 1986 visit to New Zealand, sponsored by the Agricultural Chemical and Animal Remedies Manufacturers,</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> Arnold described himself as the "Darth Vader for the capitalist revolution" and defended the use of the carcinogenic chemical 2,4,5-T. </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">He claimed that chemical manufacturers wanted to make sure their chemicals were used safely. </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" underline="underline" text-decoration-skip-ink="text-decoration-skip-ink" none="none" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">[8]</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> …</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">&nbsp;he realized the potential financial rewards of opposing environmentalism:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre;"> </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre;"> </span></span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">"For </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre;"> </span></span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">us" said Mr. Gottlieb... "the environmental movement has </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre;"> </span></span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">become the perfect bogeyman." </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" underline="underline" text-decoration-skip-ink="text-decoration-skip-ink" none="none" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">[15]</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre;"> </span></span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">ex-con?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">&nbsp;...When a small group, Green Anarchists, organized a tour in 2002, Arnold latched on to their support of people such as the imprisoned Unabomber</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">' Ted </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Kaczynski </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">as a 'political prisoner' to call for the </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" underline="underline" text-decoration-skip-ink="text-decoration-skip-ink" none="none" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">FBI</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">'s Domestic Terrorism Program to investigate the group. Arnold told the </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-style="font-style" italic="italic" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Conservative News Service</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> (CNS) that the tour:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre;"> </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre;"> </span></span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">"presents </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre;"> </span></span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">probable cause for investigation. You do have people here </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre;"> </span></span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">recommending violence, murder, property damage, everything you can </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre;"> </span></span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">think of." </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" underline="underline" text-decoration-skip-ink="text-decoration-skip-ink" none="none" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">[19]</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">The following year Mr. Arnold, long considered a fringe player, landed a role as an "expert consultant on ecoterrorism" to a University of Arkansas Terrorism Research Center project to study terrorism cases in the US. The project was funded to the tune of $343,885 by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" underline="underline" text-decoration-skip-ink="text-decoration-skip-ink" none="none" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">[20]</span></p>

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">]</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">&nbsp;RFK says a number of shifts/convergences: Moonie (Christian, anti-Communist, 1991 </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" underline="underline" text-decoration-skip-ink="text-decoration-skip-ink" none="none" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">The New Order</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> best-selling novel depicts the federal government as trying to wreck family and take guns. Watermelon metaphor and other factors open door to alliances with neo-Nazi, militias etc (rfk) College Republican Ralph Reed (lobbyist?) had been colonizing the Evangelicals for a while, (also selling how to astroturf) so for the first time attracts industry/corporate money (plus church as ground GOTV troops, so start getting their candidates elected, Newt 1994 (Bush 43 gov tx?)</span></p>

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">1992 high water mark because far from being the eco Prez they feared, Bush 41 picked up their anti-green extremist rhetoric to counter the Green Man Gore in the campaign,though it did not save him. PR problem when connections to Moon revealed (when/ why?)</span></p>

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Tom Delay:&nbsp; "biblical worldview"( RFK</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">30)TDelay: DDT</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">as safe as aspirin", ~ESA; Columbine because schools teach evolution.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">1/95 Delay?) invites 350 lobbyists to dismantle regs 30&nbsp; learned from Watt</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">disaster PR, so plant tree photo op and used free mkt rhet to hide; Luntz</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">did PR (wrote Contract for Am[Armey?]) snuck riders on key bills, "supermandate"</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">regulatory reform, ~ unfunded mandates etc but </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">PIRG</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> etc caught them, 1</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">mil signatures, so moderate gop opposed; after gov't shutdown Newt lost public</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">support. TD: “we lost the debate on the environment" (how?)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Bush 43 picked Dick Cheney </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">ensured Wise Use backing. </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">go-to guy for wise use&nbsp; and oil in</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">80's; arranged </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">/led 1st&nbsp; veto of wilderness bill in hist under RR</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">, big win</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">psychol. 1992 to 2000 "distinguished advisor" to Ctr for Def of Free Ent (WU)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Ron Arnold exec VP. Cheney also on bd of Nat'l Legal Ctr for Public Interest, WU</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">CTT 31</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Inaug day, andy card froze all clinton pending regs</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">wu #1 Norton, 2 Griles (mining lobby), mark rey (timber lobby); doj&nbsp; asst</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">ag for env and nat res&nbsp; WUse leader Sansonetti p 32</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">EPA fisher and horinko lobby.consult to Koch; Holmstead (lobbyist and WU</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">front gp)&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Presumably I have covered Bush43 trainwreck elsewhere.</span></p>

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Pendley revisionist/nostalgic history book</span></p>

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">[Behind the </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Sagebrush Rebellion</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> of 2012 [feds tried to close road?]</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">BY </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">JODI PETERSON HIGH COUNTRY NEWS</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">JUNE 13, 2012</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">In late April, </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Arizona</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">’s Legislature approved a bill demanding that Washington, D.C., give the state control over most of its federal land. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed a similar measure in March. These bills are, of course, highly unlikely to result in any actual transfer of land; most legal experts think they’ll prove unconstitutional, and decades of Supreme Court decisions firmly support federal oversight of certain lands.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">The rhetoric behind the measures is all about states’ rights, but they would also boost corporate access to Western natural resources. “</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">This push is driven by the fossil fuel industry,” says Pete Maysmith, executive director of Colorado Conservation Voters, “and it’s been fascinating to see </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">ALEC</span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"> and its agenda and funders more exposed.”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">ALEC — the American Legislative Exchange Council — is funded by major corporations such as Koch Industries, ExxonMobil, and Shell. Nationwide, about 2,000 state legislators are members of the conservative policy group, which furnishes them with model bills, including the template for the current measures. </span><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-weight="font-weight" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">ALEC also supplied language for an unsuccessful 1995 federal Sagebrush Rebellion Act that sought to transfer 422,200 square miles to the states.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">]</span></p>

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">Cliven Bundy</span></p><div><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-variant-numeric="font-variant-numeric" normal="normal" font-variant-east-asian="font-variant-east-asian" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap">
</span></div></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div></div>