Cockburn
/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
Now Available!
Today's
Stories
July
7, 2004
Mickey
Z
Elie Wiesel's Parade: Madman or Commisar?
Diane
Christian
Sovereignty and Freedom in Iraq
July
6, 2004
Lisa
Viscidi
Fleeing Guatemala: Central Americans
Risk Lives to Reach El Norte
Marc
Norton
The Felonious Five Ride Again: the
Supreme Court and Enemy Combatants
James
Brooks
Chemical Warfare on the West Bank?
Ray
McGovern
Porter Goss as CIA Director?
William
Cook
Legacy of Deceit: If Dante Knew of Bush and the Neo-Cons...
July
5, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
US Imperialism in Latin America: Sept.
11, July 4 and Systematic Torture
Chris
White
A Former Marine Sgt. on the Meaning
of Independence Day
Joe
Bageant
Cranky Reflections on the 4th of July
Robert
Jensen
Stupid White Movie: What Michael Moore
Misses About the Empire
Kathy
Kelly
"Two Days an' a Wake-Up"
July
3 / 4, 2004
Elaine
Cassel
Bush's Police State and Independence
Day
Stan
Goff
ABC of Opportunism: "Progressive"
Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti
Snehal
Shingavi
"We Want Real Justice for Bhopal": Two Survivors Speak
Out
Bruce
Anderson
The Cheney-Leahy Metaphor and the Greens
Sharon
Smith
Twilight of the Greens: the Chokehold of "Anybody But Bush"
Josh
Frank
Ralph Nader's Revolt: an Interview with Greg Bates
Robert
Fisk
Pentagon Tried to Censor Saddam's Hearing
Joe
Bageant
Sons of a Laboring God: Leftnecks Unite!
Brian
Cloughley
Fortress Bush and the One Law Doctrine
Justin
Delacour
The Anti-Chavez Echo Chamber: Venezuela's Media Tycoons
William
S. Lind
Saudi Spillover
Linda
S. Heard
A Joke Called "Justice"
Greg
Moses
"It's Illegal, But It's Our Right": Korean Labor Won't
Back Down
Ron
Jacobs
"Ain't You Proud to be White on Independence Day?"
Toni
Solo
Weary of Indigenous Resistances? Just Pretend They're Not There
Dan
Nagengast
Chicken Manure as Cattle Food: Safe, But Do We Want to Eat It?
Stew
Albert
Brando, a Personal Recollection
Dave
Zirin
From the Black Panthers to Sacheen Littlefeather: a Eulogy for
Our Brando
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Progressive Case for Dodgeball
Steven
Rosenthal / Junaid Ahmad
The Problem is Bigger Than the Bushes: a Review of F911
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Ford and Davies
Website
of the Day
Global Peace Solution
July
2, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Suicide Right on the Stage: the Demise
of the Green Party
Douglas
Valentine
Fahrenheit 911: Mocking the Moral Crisis of Capitalism
Gary
Leupp
"Just Because I Could": On Obscenities and Opportunities
Lee
Ballinger
Illegal People: Kerry Opposes Immigrant Rights
Robert
Fisk
Saddam in the Dock: Confused? Hardly
CounterPunch
Wire
"What Law Formed This Court?": a Transcript of Saddam's
Arraignment
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's Drug Card Lottery: the Price Ain't Right
Saul
Landau
Buzz Words and Venezuela
July 1, 2004
Katherine
van Wormer
Bush's Damaged Mind: the Madness in
His Method
Joe
Bageant
Is Our President a Whackjob? Does It Matter?
William
James Martin
The Dogma of Richard Perle
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Evacuation Moment
Robert
Fisk
Bread and Circus Trials in Iraq
Alan
Maass
Green Party in Reverse
Website
of the Day
Michael Moore and Israel: Blind or a Coward?
June
30, 2004
Kurt Nimmo
Nicholson
Baker's Checkpoint: a New Kind of Anger About Bush
Tariq
Ali
Getting Away with Murder in Iraq
Jennifer
Van Bergen
Bush and the Detainees
Douglas
Valentine
Apotheosis of the Psychopaths: Instead of Fahrenheit 9/11, Rescreen
The Quiet American
David
Price
Fahrenheit 9/11 Through the McCain-Feingold Looking Glass
Roger
Normand
America's Criminal Occupation of Iraq
Stan
Cox
Sanitized for Your Protection: Ashcroft's
War on Art
Henry
David Thoreau
On the Futility of Bush v. Kerry: All Voting is a Kind of Gaming
Ben
Tripp
Who Dast Call Him Liar: a Rebuttal to Nicholas Kristof
June
29, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
The Cloak-and-Dagger Handover
Robert
Fisk
Alice in an Iraqi Wonderland
Troy
Selvaratnam
New York Times Boosts Pet Developer
Harry
Browne
Bush in Ireland
Ray
McGovern
The CIA According to Anonymous
Elaine
Cassel
Hamdi, Padilla & Rasul: Who Really
Won?
June
28, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn / Leyla Linton
Grisly Rituals in Iraq
Amira
Hass
Confronting Myths and Deadly Power
June
26 / 27, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Venezuela: the Gang's All Here
Patrick
Cockburn
Iyad Allawi, the CIA's New Stooge
in Iraq
Dennis
Hans
Once They Were Sweethearts: Cheney,
the NYTs and the Myth of an Iraq Link to 9/11
Ben
Tripp
Adventures in Fuel Efficiency
Dave
Lindorff
That State Department Terrorism
Report: What They Knew, But Didn't Tell You
Chris
Floyd
Cold Irons Bound: the Russian Gambit
Ali
Tonak
Contamination at Berkeley: Profit Motives,
Academic Freedom and the Case of Ignacio Chapela
Keith
Rosenthal
The Withering of the Anti-War Movement
Bryan
Sacks
The Failure of the 9/11 Commission
Wayne
Madsen
Another Case of Blowback
Thomas
St. John
L. Frank Baum, Racist: Indian-Hating
in the Wizard of Oz
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
American Swadeshi
June
25, 2004
Stephen
Gowans
US to North Korea: "Trust Us"
Saul
Landau
2006 Pentagon Budget as Sacrilege:
Bush Invests the National Treasure in Death and Destruction
Amir
Butler
Iraq: the Deadly Embrace
Jack
McCarthy
Another Times Plagiarism Scandal?
Did Maureen Dowd Lift from the World Weekly News?
Greg
Bates
Chomsky and Zinn Plan to Vote Nader
June 24, 2004
Gary Leupp
John
Lehman on the Iraq / al-Qaeda Links
Patrick Cockburn
A
Day in the Life of Col. Abu Mohammed: Defusing Bombs, Facing
Death Threats
Harry Browne
On
the Rebound: Bush Bounces Back...in Europe
Bill Kaufman
Another
Marxist for Kerry: Joel Kovel's Sad Smear of Ralph Nader
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush,
Cheney and the 9/11 Commission: What Did They Know? What Did
They Tell?
Rick Gioimbetti
Andrea Yates: Victim of Psychiatric Violence?
John Chuckman
Call Center ID Hypocrisy
Diana Johnstone
Kerry
and Kosovo: the Lie of a "Good War"
June 23, 2004
Laura Carlsen
Bush
and Castro Face Off
Dave Zirin
Barry
Bonds vs. Boston: "A Flea Market of Racism"
Kurt Nimmo
From
Saddam, With Love
Patricia Wolff
Foundation Wars
Mahboob A. Khawaja
"They Had Me Arrested and Shackled My Son"
Patrick Cockburn
The
Pretense of an Independent Iraq
Website of the Day
The Road to Abu Ghraib
June 22, 2004
Dave Lindorff
The
Meaning of Putin's Pronouncement: Mutually Assured Pre-emption
Ron Jacobs
Nuclear Plants in US Protectorate of Iraq?
Vanessa Jones
Coogee, Peter Garrett and Valium Earrings
Mickey Z
An Open Letter to the People of Iraq
John L. Hess
Clinton Exhales
Pedro Marset/Ex-Solidarity
Committee for Pacho Cortés
An Exchange on the Case of Pacho Cortés
Bruce Jackson
Saying
No to Prosecutors: Why Steve Kurtz's Colleagues Refused to Testify
Website of the Day
From Boot Camp to Boot Hill
June
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Putin's Helpful Remarks
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti After the Press Went Home: Chaos
Upon Chaos
Cockburn
/ Khan
Saddam May Face Death Penalty
Uri
Avnery
Irreversible Mental Damage
June
19 / 20, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Inside the Green Zone: US is Paranoid
and Isolated
Bruce
Anderson
Frozen Gringos
Diane
Christian
Morality and Death: a Meditation
on Bush and Blake
Walter
A. Davis
Passion of the Christ in Abu Ghraib
Josh
Frank
How Democrats Helped Bush Rape Mother
Nature
Col.
Dan Smith
Respectable Genocide?: the Crisis
in Sudan
Brian
Cloughley
A Profound Disruption of the Senses
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Timken Plant, a
Year Later
Prudence
Crowther
Mr. Ashcroft, Deport Me!
Poets'
Basement
Iqbal/Alam, Krieger and Albert
Kathy
Kelly
Dying to See Their Kids
June
18, 2004
Chris
Floyd
Blood Victory
Dave
Zirin
Danielle Green, Basketball Player
& Disabled Vet, Speaks Out Against War
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Christian Question in American
Politics
Gary
Leupp
The "Long-Established" Link?:
Iraq, al-Qaeda, and al-Zarqawi
June
17, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron
Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They
Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
18, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron
Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They
Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
16, 2004
Lenni
Brenner
A Question for Kerry Supporters
Davey
D
Hip Hop Reflections on Reagan
Daniel
Wolff
Why Did Michael Moore Withhold Video Evidence of US Prisoner
Abuse?
Bruce
Jackson
Harry Levin and the Penultimate Manuscript of Finnegans Wake
Patrick
Cockburn
Boom! Boom! Out Go the Lights: Bombings Target Oil and Power
Facilities
Gary
Handschumacher
Mourn Ben Linder, Not His Killer: Reagan's Death Squads
JG
Turning Haiti into One Big Sweatshop
Mario
Benedetti
Obituary with Cheers
Vicente
Navarro
Meet the New Head of the IMF: Who
is Rodrigo Rato?
Website
of the Day
Iraqi Oil Revenue Watch
June
15, 2004
Harry
Browne
Ireland Adds a Brick to Fortress Europe
Neve
Gordon
The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
David
Palmer
Richard Armitage, Abu Ghraib and CACI
John
Blair
Lovelock's Misguided Call: Nukes Are No Solution to Global Warming
Dave
Lindorff
God Wins in TKO
Bill
Quigley
Blood-Pouring Peace Activists: State Charges Dropped; Feds Step
In
Patrick
Cockburn
Carbombs and Street Dances: 13 More Killed in Baghdad Blast
John
Chuckman
John Kerry, Political Placebo
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
July
7, 2004
Trusting
the Land in the Inland Empire
Our
Own Private Wilderness
By
MICHAEL DONNELLY
By 5AM the sky is getting light and
the birds and squirrels restart the symphony the coyotes and
owls began around sunset. I awake in my bed in the tall grass
and flowers in the middle of the 40-acre meadow and scan the
200-square-mile view. Two Barred Owls, a large female and her
smaller mate, make a final sweep across the meadow; passing three
times just over my head on their way home to the awakening forest.
The sun crests the mountains
and illuminates the east-facing slopes across the deep, still
dark creek basin. The full moon hangs above the ridgeline. A
mule deer ends his night grazing and disappears into the brush
at the edge of the meadow. A flicker squawks, flies overhead,
lands on a nearby large snag and begins to hammer away for her
breakfast.
The meadow, forest and creek
are all part of the Yarrow Land Trust, a Washington State non-profit
group. I am its president. Yarrow has eleven dues-paying members.
Established in 1974 with 80 acres, the trust has been able to
expand to 165 acres, with an adjacent 40 acres owned by one of
the members.
The trust is bordered by the
Colville National Forest and timber-giant Boise Cascade. The
Colville NF cut much of its adjacent forest in the 70s and it
has since grown back -- an even-aged clone forest, but a green
carpet on the facing ridges nonetheless. Boise butchered its
holdings ten years ago and it's still a blight on the landscape
-- a jarring reality of industrial forestry -- the sole stain
in the view. To this day one can stand in the meadow at night
and look out over those 200-square miles and not see a single
light -- not even any of the (in)Security Lights that ubiquitously
dot rural America.
The Setting
The Yarrow Land Trust is located
in Ferry County. It is part of the Okanogan Highlands bordering
Canada in the Northeast region of the state. The county came
about in 1899, after its northern half was taken from the Colville
Indian Reservation as illegal prospecting found gold. It was
named after Elisha P. Ferry, the first governor of the state.
The Colville Nation was reduced to the southern half of the county.
Over two-thirds of the northern half is public land--National
Forest (USFS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and State Forests.
The population has remained
around 7500, yet sprawl, mostly in the form of unrestricted placement
of mobile homes, has blighted some areas. This growth of housing
while the population has remained steady is the result of local
kids of the ranchers, loggers, miners and 70s back-to-the-landers
moving out and retirees moving in. Still, population density
is but 3.2 persons per square mile, the lowest of Washington's
thirty-nine counties, if not the entire 48 states.
The Rural
Oligarchy
Ferry County is also number
one amongst Washington counties in poverty rate AND in the size
of land holdings. The average ranch size is 3,876 acres. The
persistent unemployment rate hovers around 15%. Welfare cases
as a percentage of population is also number one for Washington.
Just as one sees a mass of peasants and a few wealthy landowners
in a Third World country, Ferry County has a mass of poor laborers
and a few large land barons.
The county has always had an
all cattleman and logging operator Board of Commissioners. The
County Commission is the power throughout the rural West. Ferry
County was the second county to adopt the "Custom and Culture"
ordinances made famous in Catron County, NM. The ordinances seek
to enshrine the "custom and culture" of extraction--a
culture that dates back just over a hundred years, at best; a
"culture" that conquered and blithely dismisses the
preceding (and still tenuously hanging on) one that was around
for almost 30,000 years.
The County Seat is Republic,
a town of about 1000. It is located in the area gold was first
discovered. It is named after the Republic Gold Mine. The mine
went through many ownerships before closing down a decade ago
as the Hecla Knob Hill Mine. Over 2 million ounces of gold were
extracted over the mine's lifetime -- a point celebrated by a
huge metal (painted gold) block in the town's park. Very little
of the money generated from the 2 million ounces stayed in the
area. Hecla is a Canadian mining giant, as is Kinross Gold which
still operates two smaller mines in the county.
The town's only lumber mill
(Vaagen Brothers) closed two years ago, blaming the closure on
environmentalists restricting "supply." Of course,
the mill's owners conveniently forget to mention that they have
another state-of-the-art mill located in Colville, fifty miles
away where they have consolidated operations. That mill has a
ten story log deck with an immense crane that can be seen from
twenty miles away. "Supply" is obviously no problem
there judging by the fully stocked log decks and twenty-four
hour operation. (I worked in the Republic mill in the mid-70s
when it was called the San Poil Lumber Company. One summer, we
were all given two weeks non-paid vacation. When we came back,
90 of the 270 jobs had been automated away. Again, environmentalists
were blamed for that job loss.)
Indeed, environmentalists have
been trying since 1976 to gain Wilderness protection for the
spectacular, yet undiscovered, Kettle Range. (The land trust
sits at the base of Mt. Leona, one of the range's main peaks.)
The Kettle Range Conservation group (KRCG) was founded by Dick
Slagle and friends. Republic native Slagle courageously did it
despite his own business being the sole pharmacy in the county.
To all their credit, the millworkers and loggers did not cease
to do business with the genial Slagle. In fact, when the owners
posted a picture of a Spotted Owl in the mill's lunchroom with
the statement "This is what's costing you your jobs,"
the workers immediately covered the owl with a photo of a fully
loaded log export ship, knowing full well the truth, including
the fact that spotted owls reside far to the west of the area.
The Actual
Economy
Republic also has a Food Co-op
with a main street store. It was founded as a buying club in
1975 and still is going strong. The KRCG also has a main street
office where folks tirelessly work to preserve the public lands.
Both entities have done a lot of work on the necessary economic
transition for the area.
In the 80s, a number of the
town's original Victorian buildings, including two hotels and
a church, burned down. The replacement buildings leave a lot
to be desired. Republic's main street was repaved just in time
for the Fourth of July. It had been torn up for two years as
sewer, water, sidewalks, etc., were updated, setting back the
transition to a tourism-based economy for that time. A couple
years ago, the County Commission turned down state tourism funding
that would have paid for stylish new streetlamps for the main
street; disparagingly dismissed by the stuck-in-extraction fantasy
Commissioners as a "waste of money" as it had nothing
to do with their fading industries. But, now the picturesque
town can hope that visitors will stop and stay awhile rather
than just drive through on the scenic state highways -- one north/south
and one east/west.
Despite all the Custom and
Culture posturing and the undue political influence of the cattle
industry, the state of Washington's own employment figures show
that these are the actual employment figures in the county: Educational,
health and social services (20.1%), Public administration (16.6%),
Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining (11.5%),
Retail trade (10.6%). Take out "fishing and hunting"
and the combined extraction industries fall below 10%.
Private
Property Rights and Wilderness
I got number 32 in the first
Draft Lottery and was promptly stripped of my Student Deferment
and drafted into the Army. After a year in limbo, appearing before
various bodies as I declared myself a Conscientious Objector,
I was discharged. Discouraged by Nixon's reelection later that
year, I became quite interested in the back-to-the-land Communities
movement. Soon, I and friends were actively searching for the
place -- the further from Babylon; the better. That's how we
came upon Yarrow, where I lived until 1980. Over time, us originals
had children and moved away to find a better place for their
education and the vision changed to that of a preservation trust.
A decade ago, Jeffrey St. Clair
and I were on a panel discussion at the University of Oregon's
annual Environmental Law Conference (E-LAW). The panel remains
the best attended panel in E-LAW history. Over 1200 people crammed
into the sweltering auditorium to hear...not Jeffrey and I, but
Ron Arnold, the Wise Use architect, who was on the panel with
us. Jeffrey gave a rousing speech and Arnold then put everyone
to sleep with a quite accurate yet numbers-heavy damning analysis
of the Big Greens.
Later, I went to lunch with
Arnold and we got to talking about his views on the Commons--he
doesn't believe in it. When he found out about the land trust
he said, "That's exactly how it should be done. If you guys
want land for wilderness values, then you should buy it. I'm
all in support of your private property right to do so."
When I think just how many
millions have been spent by the collective environmental movement
(over $100 million alone on Ancient Forests since 1988, with
just 28,000 acres at Opal Creek actually gaining Wilderness status)
I realize Ron Arnold is quite correct in a way.
A Movement
Not everyone is a multimillionaire
like Doug Tompkins and his friends who have been buying up huge
chunks of Chile and Argentina and setting up Wilderness parks
(Parque
Pumalin). Nor are there many Ted Turners out there buying
up western range land, tearing out the fences and roads and reintroducing
Bison.
But, as I've spent my adult
life proving, small groups of like-minded folks can pool resources
and buy and protect lands. Rick Klein of Ancient Forest International
has done so all over the place. Klein was instrumental in gaining
a Sanctuary Forest in Northern California, a land trust there
and preserves in Chile <http://www.nativeforest.org/campaigns/gondwana/>
. Klein, Dave Walsh, Tracy Katelman and their allies have used
their talents to gather folks together behind worthy protection
proposals internationally. John Seed and friends have done the
same in Australia and elsewhere.
The state of California has
taken the lead in providing funds for Conservation Easements
on lands -- often the only way to keep ranches intact and out
of then hands of subdividers, as ranchers age and find they need
to sell. Even if they stay on the land, the easements protect
the Open Space nature of the landscape.
George Atiyeh tirelessly fought
off USFS plans to log the public's Opal Creek and even got the
Shiny Rock Mining Company to donate its private holdings in the
area to the Friends of Opal Creek--a group he and I helped create.
FOOC now runs the old mining camp we restored as an Ancient Forest
Educational Center. <www.opalcreek.org/>
My brothers and sisters and
I inherited our parents' place on Loon Lake in Michigan which
we've set aside in perpetuity. We're negotiating right now about
buying an adjacent 14 acres with a spectacular wetlands which
itself is adjacent to a 257-acre former YMCA camp, with a mile
and a half of pristine shoreline, including some of the only
old growth trees left in Michigan's Southern Peninsula.
The 14 private acres and the
camp have been protected by Homer and Dot Roberts for over 50
years! They are now 91 and 87-years old. Homer is one of the
founders of Outdoor School, which was first a thing for "gifted"
students, but now has been made available to all students and
is present in most states. He also founded the Michigan Audubon
Society, served as its president for 50 years and drew many of
the birds in the group's publications. He was able to gain the
state's first private Nature Preserve designation for the camp.
(Clearly I owe my own conservationist beliefs to Homer and Dot,
as they first mentored me about ecosystems when I was eight-years-old
and the term hadn't even been created yet.) The Lutheran Church
now owns the camp and has been meeting with people concerned
with its preservation. The camp is adjacent to the Huron National
Forest.
The Breitenbush Community in
Oregon's Cascades started out in 1977 with 86 acres of private
land within the Willamette National Forest. The founder, Alex
Beamer, used an inheritance to buy it and get the ball rolling.
He admirably sold the land to the Breitenbush Community in 1984
for exactly what he had in it. A few years ago, an additional
67 acres (the sole other private piece in the watershed) was
purchased with the financial help of former community members.
The Community runs a hot springs retreat center as its economic
base employing over 60 people. The entire property has been declared
a Nature Preserve, with no dogs allowed, development restricted,
etc. <www.breitenbush.com/> (I'm sure there are plenty
of other examples. Please feel free to send me info.)
How to Do
It
Each state has different organizational
rules, as does the federal government. Some groups are organized
as private (Yarrow, Loon Lake) some are federal non-profits (Friends
of Opal Creek) and some are for-profit businesses (Breitenbush
Retreat and Conference Center) and some have even used the Fraternal
Organizations laws to buy and protect lands. It doesn't have
to be that costly, either. Yarrow members pay but $50 per month
in dues in addition to donating labor to projects on the land.
Most trusts don't have the resources to buy large chunks of land
at first. There are many options already out there. Here is a
fine summation of how to do it and where to get help: http://www.possibility.com/LandTrust/>
It's not at all easy to get
help from the big groups like the Trust for Public Lands or The
Nature Conservancy, however. Yarrow members' biggest regret is
that when we had the opportunity to buy the land Boise did buy
and cut, we could not afford it. Even though the aging owners
were willing to sell it to us at a very decent discount, we could
not get any of these large groups to help out. It just wasn't
spectacular enough for them. I even negotiated with the Washington
State Lands Commissioner Jennifer Belcher on it, willing to trade
development rights to Yarrow for the state buying it and adding
their existing parcels to it and ours and using it as an Eastside
Forest study project. That also went nowhere. In the end, we
regret we didn't buy it and log it ourselves, as we could have
done that with a much lighter touch, maybe even providing a model
of proper logging.
Priceless
However one pulls it off, the
rewards are sweet. We like to note when in a wild place without
others around, "There's six and a quarter billion of us
on the planet and we're here." A group of us climb the ridge
to Yarrow's Sunset Hill. We look out over the landscape and a
sky so big one can only see a small part at one time. The sun
slowly sets and splashes its palette across the billowing cumulus
clouds and forested mountains. Birdsongs abound from the meadows
which have been grazing free for years now. A deer bolts from
the aspen grove, startled by something -- maybe a cougar, maybe
a bear. A Golden Eagle floats overhead, the last rays shimmering
off her huge wings. One can almost feel the Earth turn. Tomorrow
we all leave the land to its permanent inhabitants. All is right
with the world.
MICHAEL DONNELLY of Salem, OR hopes his compatriots
won't be too upset that he let their secret out in hopes of seeing
it replicated all over. Donnelly is a contributor to CounterPunch's
forthcoming book on the 2004 elections, Dime's Worth of Difference:
Beyond the Politics of Lesser Evils. He can be reached at
pahtoo@aol.com
Weekend
Edition Features for JuLY 3 /4, 2004
Elaine
Cassel
Bush's Police State and Independence
Day
Stan
Goff
ABC of Opportunism: "Progressive"
Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti
Snehal
Shingavi
"We Want Real Justice for Bhopal": Two Survivors Speak
Out
Bruce
Anderson
The Cheney-Leahy Metaphor and the Greens
Sharon
Smith
Twilight of the Greens: the Chokehold of "Anybody But Bush"
Josh
Frank
Ralph Nader's Revolt: an Interview with Greg Bates
Robert
Fisk
Pentagon Tried to Censor Saddam's Hearing
Joe
Bageant
Sons of a Laboring God: Leftnecks Unite!
Brian
Cloughley
Fortress Bush and the One Law Doctrine
Justin
Delacour
The Anti-Chavez Echo Chamber: Venezuela's Media Tycoons
William
S. Lind
Saudi Spillover
Linda
S. Heard
A Joke Called "Justice"
Greg
Moses
"It's Illegal, But It's Our Right": Korean Labor Won't
Back Down
Ron
Jacobs
"Ain't You Proud to be White on Independence Day?"
Toni
Solo
Weary of Indigenous Resistances? Just Pretend They're Not There
Dan
Nagengast
Chicken Manure as Cattle Food: Safe, But Do We Want to Eat It?
Stew
Albert
Brando, a Personal Recollection
Dave
Zirin
From the Black Panthers to Sacheen Littlefeather: a Eulogy for
Our Brando
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Progressive Case for Dodgeball
Steven
Rosenthal / Junaid Ahmad
The Problem is Bigger Than the Bushes: a Review of F911
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Ford and Davies
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