Erich Veyhl: Environmental Grantmakers Association (EGA) Strategy Session Privately Acknowledges Grass Roots Opposition, Plans Strategy

Preservationists Acknowledge
Growing Grass Roots Opposition
by Erich Veyhl, Land Rights Letter, February 1993.

Reports on a major environmentalist conference held last October have revealed an unusually candid, but private, acknowledgement by environmentalist leaders as to the scope and source of their opposition from the private property and "wise use" movements.

A session entitled "The Wise Use Movement – Threats and Opportunities," at the Environmental Grantmakers Association meeting in Washington State last October, discussed how organized opposition to environmentalist initiatives is coming from a genuine grass roots uprising – not from "corporate funded front groups," the "John Birch Society," or the "Moonies," as is publicly claimed by preservationist publicity campaigns seeking to discredit those who speak out against them.

"All over the country it's like a gas, it's filling – its filling the available space," said worried session leader Debra Callahan, listing grass roots opposition to environmentalist-caused problems ranging from loss of property rights to loss of rural jobs and destruction of rural economies.

Callahan based her conclusions on a long term investigation, which she boasted has included the use of "spies."

The session was part of a three day conference in which environmentalists meet with corporate and foundation sponsors who jointly determine environmentalist strategy and decide on the dispensation of hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to activist groups.

See the special supplement in this issue.