Reprinted from

Magazine by

R e p r in te r ' s N o t e : T h e W i s e U s e M o v e m e n t h a s th e
E n v ir o n m e n t a lis t s o n th e run.

W e'v e u p s e t th em

s o b a d ly th e y 're c a ll in g u s n a m e s , lik e . . .

CENTERFOB
THEDEFENSE OF
FREEENTERPRISE

R o n A r n o ld a n d A la n G o t t lie b h a v e m on ey , m u sc le ,
a n d s o m e t h in g t o s a y t o m ill io n s o f a n g r y A m e r ic a n s .
U h - o h ...th e r e g o e s th e b io s p h e r e .
B y J on K ra k a u er

T

HIS COl NTRV's COIN'" TO 11HU- IN A Hl’
CKKT.”SAYS Audubon Society has just aired a slick, hourlong television special

Bill, unbidden, in the velvety inflections o f the southern
High Plains. “
Things are gettin" bad fast. Easterners and en­
vironmentalists cornin’down here from the big cities arc
tryin" to turn our way of life completely upside down." Bill is
a ruddy-faced man with powerful, calluscd hands and a soiled black
Stetson. Frayed jeans hang low on his hips, held tenuously in place
beneath a bulging gut by an immense silver belt buckle. Bits o f
greenish manure cling to the welts o f his high-heeled work boots. A
trapper by trade, he earns his keep dispatching coyotes, cougars,
and other livestock predators at the behest o f local ranchers. He’
s
sitting in the Grand Ballroom o f the Las Cruces Hilton in southern
New Mexico—a cavernous space with salmon-colored walls,
weighty chandeliers, and crisply pressed table linens.
Bill and 150 similarly attired, like-minded folks—sheep and cat­
tle ranchers for the most part, all members o f the New Mexico
Wool Growers Association—arc here to listen to a speaker named
Ron Arnold. I o a person, dies feel as though a green fist has Iktcii
clamped around their collectoc throat and in squeezing hard. I he
OUTSIDE •DECEMBER 1991

entitled ~'l"he New Range Wars" that portrays their way o f life as
an environmental catastrophe in the making. From Montana to
west Texas, environmental groups are demanding that public
rangelands be "(battle Free by "95!" A long story has just run in CSA
Today under the headline. "Arc Cowboys Killing the West?" and a
rash o f similar articles is cropping up in papers across the country.
Ranchers are even taking hits from the 'lecnage Mutant Ninja Tur­
tles: In one of their popular picture books, the ubiquitous terrapins
bad-mouth cattle and urge kids to eat less meat.
When Arnold takes the microphone at the front of the ballroom
and begins his speech, the people in the crowd put down their forks
and raise their eyes to the podium as one. rapt and somlxrr. like pa­
tients in an oncology ward hanging tin the doctor’
s every word.
A dour man with a Mennonitc’
s lieard and wearing banker's pin­
stripes, Arnold gets things rolling with a long-w inded joke about the
environmentalist who unuittingh Mumbles into a fresh cow pie. At
the delivery of the punch line, ripples of laughter sweep through the
crowd, gradually building into a sustained, cathartic dm. W hen the

1

 =i * K V S T A O T

THE PHILOSOPHER AND THE TECHNTCLAN: ARNOLD (LETT) AND COTTUEB AT CDFX’
S HICH COMMA.VD CN* BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON
2

D t C t . M B C R

1SS

OCTSIDC

 1
.

last guffaws finally peter out, Arnold sur­ sixties political rallies to stop the war and rator at CDFE—a crafty, little-known hero
veys the audience with an icy gaze and de­ elect McCarthy— the age and sartorial of the New Right by the name o f Alan Got­
tlieb—crow that the movement currently
clares, “
That’
s about as funny as I'm going predilection o f the crowd notwithstanding.
has
an active constituency of five million
The applause from the ballroom, rolling
to get.”Environmentalists arc evil incar­
Americans
and a potential constituency
on and on, echoes down the
nate, he says. Contrary to
numbering
125
million, and that it’
s multi­
carpeted halls o f the Hilton
what they claim, green or­
plying
with
startling
fecundity;
indeed,
the
and out into the withering
ganizations aren't really
movement
seems
to
be
spreading
from
"AGGRESSION!"
heat
by
the
pool.
A
tourist
concerned about protecting
from California, sautding in coast to coast like marbles spilled across a
the environmenq they sim­
Bain d c Solcil, looks up hardwood floor.
ply “
invent environmental A r n o l d s h o u t s
The brown multitudes arc drawn from
from her Jackie Collins pa­
threats in order to recruit
perback and asks her hus­ an unlikely mdlangc o f disgruntled ranch­
members and make t *oney.
band what all the commo­ ers, farthers, loggers, miners, trappers,
Environmentalism is a new i n t o th e
tion is about. “I think it millworkers, hunters, off-road-vehicle
paganism that worships
trees and sacrifices people.
must be all those cowboys owners, oil workers, labor unions, large
m
ic
r
o
p
h
o
n
e
.
Last month the new pagans
we saw in the lobby,”he corporations, and sundry other entities
sacrificed 11,000 timber
replies. “
Sounds like they, convinced that creeping environmental­
ism is an insidious crusade to cripple the
workers in the Pacific •
really know how to party.”
“ W e 'r e g o i n g t o
American economy, rob private-property
Northwest, and this very
minute they're planning to
The back-to-nature
sacrifice every wool grower
d
e
s
tro
y
th
e
m
,
race
to have no
0,6 h u m a n
in New Mexico."
T h e ranchers listen
anthropocentric thought or deed"’
pensively as Arnold warns
biological fact i«? fhnf u
ae , — The simple
lik e th e y 're
them that the hidden goal
dominant
the
o f the environmental
power through pseudo-inn,^
To deny our
movement is nothing less
tr y in g to
mental illn7ss P7om otZ7» ? I? patholo^ ~ a
than “
to destroy industrial
civilization.”Hitting his
that are false to the
T h " ^ t"d behavior
stride now, he cites the d e s tro y y o u I '
chilling: are large rich e n ^
,mphcations
writings o f “deep ecolo­
promoting mental illness in a vaTt pubfe? gr° UpS
gists”and “
nature fascists”
as eviden ce that green
groups want to transform
y 0 million acres h a s b e e n thor o u g h l y assessed.
the entire planet into one vast wilder­
Excessive W i l d e r n e s s designation has w r o u g
ness preserve by eliminating people al­
together. And these days, he tells them,
h a v o c in the fabric of A m e r i c a n ^ u s t r y e c o n o m y
“almost anything the environmental
p o p u l a r recreation a n d o u r s o c ‘ety/ " s ‘°a^
v
movement wants, it gets. No matter how
further wilderness d e s i g n a h o n s s h o u l d t e m a d
by
clean the air or how pure the water or how
careful the grazing practice, it’
s never good
r n n press w i t h o u t t h e specific a p p r o v a l or t n e
enough. You negotiate a settlement one
legislature of the state in w h i c h s u c h designation is
year, and they're back the next year with
b r i n g considered. T h e F o u n d a t i o n speaficalb
greater demands.”
THEWtSEUSEAGENDA
The only hope for reversing the tide,
EXCERPTSFROMCOfFS NEWSLETTER(TOP)AND
Arnold insists, is to take the offensive. “
In
the past, you’
ve done nothing but defend
T SAYS ON RON ARNOLD’
S BUSINESS owners o f their constitutional rights, and
yourself against environmental initiatives,”
card that he’
s the executive vice-presi­ grant government agencies license to lock
he says. “
As long as you have no agenda o f
dent o f a nonprofit foundation called
up public lands and natural resources.
your own, as long as you fail to aggressively
the Center for the Defense o f Free En­ When describing the ultimate aim o f Wise
enter the environmentalists’domain and
terprise, in Bellevue, Washington.
Use, Arnold doesn’
t mince words: “
The
take it away from them, you will always While that is true enough, it fails to convey environmental movement is a rich, power­
lose. You can only win the ecology wars if the scope o f his duties or the reach o f his ful menace to society," he declares, “
and
you set out to destroy the environmental deeds. Arnold’
s supporters hold him up as we intend to destroy it."
movement once and for all.”
the right-wing analog o f David Brower, the
The New Mexico Wool Growers Asso­
Forty minutes after caking the podium, grand old man of environmental activism. ciation, the outfit that footed the bill for
Arnold concludes with a call to arms. “
AG­ His detractors, less kindly, call him the pied Arnold’
s Las Cruces trip, is one o f som e
GRESSION!”he shouts into the micro­ piper o f brown. Both descriptions ac­ 250 disparate groups that have rallied
phone. “
W e’
re going to destroy them, like curately reflect the fact that Arnold serves under the W ise Use banner to form a loose
they’
re trying to destroy you!”As 150 as self-appointed sage, principal strategist, network that’
s still learning to flex its po­
ranchers leap out o f their chairs, in a stand­ and head rabble-rouser for a mushrooming tentially bone-crushing political muscle.
ing ovation, the electricity arcs through the anti-environmental movement known as The affiliated organizations range from the
room, conjuring up vivid memories o f late- Wise Use. Arnold and his primary collabo- large and well known—the National Rifle

I

OCTSIOC «DCCCMBCR 1**1

3

 Rick Johnson, the Sierra C lub’
s North­ I t ' s A b r e e z y ji:n e m o r n in g in b e l l e Association and Exxon—to the minuscule
vuc, an upscale Seattle suburb known
and obscure— Eastern Washington Dirt west representative, first felt the sour,
for
its fem bars, tanning salons, and cut­
angry
breath
o
f
the
browns
in
the
late
Riders. Alaska Women in Timber, Idaho
ting-edge mall culture. In an attractive
the very, very
Gem and Mineral Society, Cougar Moun­ eighties, upon witnessing “
office com plex christened Liberty
tain Snowmobile Association. In many rapid rise o f an ofi"-road-vchiclc group in
Park, Ron Arnold is hard at work, cheer­
cases the only thing the groups have re­ Idaho called the BlucRibbon Coalition,
l-'or years ORV folks had no organized
fully skirmishing with the enemies o f cap­
motely in common is a burning conviction
hcrevcr they raise their pointed
crc nonentities. italism w’
that environmentalists pose a serious threat voice whatsoever; they w’
to their personal freedom and/or right to Then, like a bolt out o f the blue, some- little heads.
“I spent three years trying to figure out a
earn a living. Vet they have gamely re­ tiling clicked. In less than a year they orga­
solved to set their squabbles, aside—or at nized into a major polirical force. By 1989, good name for this movement,”Arnold
least to shield them from the public eye— every public hearing on any kind o f wilder­ reminisces. He finally found it in the wait­
to create a deafening, more-or-lcss unified ness issue was packed with ORV people
ings o f Gifford Pinchot, the first chief of the
chorus with which to hector lawmakers and wearing little blue ribbons in their lapels. U.S. Forest Service, w'ho in 1907 coined
plead their ease to the nation at large.
conservation”to describe “the
They’
d gotten hold of a ton of money from the term “
The libretto was composed in August
wise use o f resources.”
1988 at a big powwow in Reno, Nevada,
“‘
W ise Use’w'as catchy,”Arnold says,
sponsored by Arnold and Gottlieb. The
"and it took up only nine spaces in a news­
conference’
s most tangible consequence
paper headline, just about as short as ‘
ecol­
was a wretchedly printed, widely circulated
ogy.’It was also a marvelously ambiguous
paperback tided The Wise Use Agenda,
expression. Symbols register most power­
which has emerged as the movement’
s
fully in the subconscious when they’
re not
manifesto. It spells out 25 specific goals of
perfectly clear.”
the movement, all o f which are anathema
Arnold is a tall, trim man with cold eyes
to environmentalists. It calls for Congress
and a surly comportment that makes him
to allow mining and oil exploration not only
seem older than his 54 years. Although a
in Alaska’
s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,
college dropout, he has a quick, combative
but in all national parks, wildlife refuges,
mind and is a master o f the incendiary
and wilderness areas, “
in the interest of do­
sound-bite. In the tradition o f autodidacts,
mestic economics and national security.”It
Arnold is a voracious, eclectic reader; his
advocates the systematic logging and re­
conversation is peppered generously with
planting of all ancient forests. It would gut
qu otes from Abraham M aslow’
, Lewis
the Endangered Species Act by amending
GOTTLIEB AND FRIEND AT 1968
Mumford, Rollo May, Roderick Nash,
it to exclude “
non-adaptive species such as AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE ONIONGALA Shakespeare, and Lenin, whom he admires
the California Condor, and endem ic
as a brilliant organizer and an unflinching
pragmatist (Lenin’
s 45-volume collected
works occupy a prominent place above
Arnold’
s desk).
He also, 25 years ago, was a card-carry­
» s * - I f w e a c t’w e mayf
□reserve values far beyond those of wise resource use, of
ing member o f the Sierra Club and an ar­
dent conservationist. A Texas Emigre and
responsible stewardship, of profitable business, of
relative newcomer to the damp, plodding
material and spiritual well-being that w e free enterprisers
satisfactions o f backpacking in the Pacific
S T e d s h B y acting, w e m a y c o m b a t the dark cloud of
Northwest, the young Arnold embraced
primitivism an d totalitarian ambition that chokes our
the cause with a zeal that bordered on the
fanatic. He led countless public-aware­
m o d e m world. B y acting w e m a y he p preserve th^
ness hikes into a threatened 1,200-squarebeleaguered flame of individual liberty yet anot
mile area in western Washington known
as the Alpine Lakes country and took
FROMthe INTRODUCTIONTOARNOLD'SECOLOGYWAR! hundreds o f photographs, w'hich he as­
Japanese ORV manufacturers, and they’
t
sembled into a slide show' extolling the
sp ecies lacking the vigor to spread in studied our manuals on environmental ac
area’
s fragile charms. A professional illus­
range.”Properry-rights protection, off-road tivism to leam how to put that money tc
trator for the Boeing Corporation, he put
trail development, the list goes on.
use. And I have to say that they’
re usinj
in long; unpaid hours creating a map of the
■ Because the Wise Use movement is so the tricks they learned from us with a grcai
Alpine Lakes that was used as a lobbying
new, many of those in the environmental deal o f skill.
and fund-raising tool. In 1976. thanks in
movement have scarcely heard o f it. O f
“Politically, their people feel newly
no small part to Arnold’
s efforts. Congress
those who have, more than a few dismiss empowered,”Johnson continues, “
and created the Alpine Lakes Wilderness
Arnold s rhetoric as the idle ravings o f a newly empowered people arc tremen­
Area, permanently setting aside nearly
right-wing crackpot. Nevertheless, a num­ dously energetic. T oo many environ­
400,000 acres.
ber of prominent environmentalists arc be­ mentalists. in contrast, have been fighting
But by then Arnold was long gone from
ginning to regard their Wise Use coun­ -these fights for decades and are tired and
the Sierra Club. The reason, he insists,
terparts with real concern.
jaded.”
had to do with changes in the group, not in

do nothing, w e will richly

4

DCCCMBC* till •OBtllDC

 him. “I originally joined the Sierra Club," and magazine articles singing the praises o f m e n t d w e lle rs u n ab le to pay th eir utility
he says, “because it was primarily a hiking unbridled capitalism, denouncing envi­ bills or afford the price o f irrigated p ro d u ce
outfit." He then became an activist on the ronmentalists, criticizing a proposed ex­ b eca u se s o m e fish ca n ’
t m ak e it past a dam
s Redwood National to spawn.
club's conservation committee, “
because I pansion o f California’
Never mind that environmental groups
was, and still am. a conservationist. I be­ Park, lobbying against the banning o f pes­
lieve in the wise, careful use o f resources. ticides. His big break came in 1981, when continue to trot out expert after expert
But about that time—it was the late six­ Ronald Reagan appointed James Watt as whose research indicates a need for more
ties and early seventies, a very strident pe­ Secretary o f the Interior. Attracted by the conservation, not less; that hard science, to
s articles, the say nothing o f common sense, suggests
riod— the Sierra Club began to lose its reactionary brio in A rnold’
there is good reason to tread lightly in the
original vision as a backpacking club and Free Congress Research and Education
s last unsullied corners; that there’
s
turned into a bunch o f rabid environmen­ Foundation commissioned him to write a world’
talists. It went from advocating wise use o f laudatory biography o f Watt titled A t the more at stake here than the survival o f a
public lands to advocating no use o f pub­ Eye o f the Storm: James Watt and the Envi­ few owls or wild salmon or cattails. T he
ronmentalists.
lic lands.
Wise Users have been busy gathering sci­
entific data of their own. And as Arnold is
“I began to see that the club’
s leaders
inordinately fond o f pointing out, when
were more concerned with achieving per­
push comes to shove, “facts don ’
t really
sonal power than protecting the environ­
GOTTLIEB'S le tte rs a re
matter. In politics, perception is reality."
ment,”Arnold says. “
They were more in­
terested in legislating by headline than
IKE TH E ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEgetting at the truth. Every' single member n o t lo n g o n lite r a r y
ment, the brown movement is held
o f the conservation committee but me had
together by a shared cosmology rather
at least a Ph.D., and when I’
d point out that
than by any kind o f formal structure.
the com m ittee’
s own research showed that
p o lis h , b u t th e y a re
1Also like the environmental move­
one or another timber sale was in fact envi­
ment, it has no single leader. Arnold is per­
ronmentally sound and shouldn’
t be op­
haps its most visible spokesman, but there
posed, all these majestic Ph.D.’
s would
a d e p t a tp in p o in t in g
arc Grant Gerber o f the Wilderness Impact
stare down their noses at this poor dumb
Research Foundation, William Perry
pinhead who hadn’
t even finished two
Pcndlcy o f the Mountain States Legal
years o f college and tell me I just didn’
t
d e e p a n x ie tie s . “ F e a r,
Foundation, and Chuck Cushman o f the
understand.
M ultiple Use Land Alliance, each o f
“
T h ey d id n ’
t give a shit about how
whom steps eagerly to the microphone to
many loggers they were putting out o f
further the goals o f the nascent movement
work. T h e professors and lawyers who h a te , a n d re v e n g e , ”
(and, some say, their own stature within it)
thought they knew everything simply de­
clared, “
The loggers are unimportant. They
at every opportunity..
One o f the other key players is Alan
can be retrained to do something else.’ s a y s A r n o ld , “ a re th e
Gottlieb, a small 44-ycar-old man with
Well, the Sierra C lu b ’
s arrogance and
hypocrisy finally got to be too much for me.
thinning hair and a shy, cheerful demeanor
o ld e s t tr ic k s in th e
Dammit, it seemed like property' rights and
who’
s content to operate outside the lime­
people’
s livelihoods should be every bit as
light. The mention o f his name, however,
sacred as the coffee-table-book prefer­
is sufficient to provoke a stream o f o b ­
}}
ences o f rich Ph.D.’
s living at the top o f the d ir e c t- m a il b o o k .
scene epithets from high-ranking environ­
food chain. So one day I just stopped going
mentalists. As president and founder o f
to the meetings."
s boss
Although he and Watt got along fa­ CDFE. Gotdieb is both Ron Arnold’
N obody knows it," Arnold says, and his comrade-in-arms. “We com ple­
Something—perhaps real or imagined mously (“
but Jim Watt has a great sense o f humor. ment each other,”G ottlieb explains.
snubs from those academics— seems to “
s the philosopher; I look after the
have instilled in Arnold a striking insecuri­ No, fcally.”), Arnold is quick to point out “Ron’
ty' over his own lack o f credentials. In pub­ that the Wise Use movement is not mere­ m echanics— the boring, behind-thes Sagebrush Rebellion in a new scenes stuff."
lic, he is a controlled, artful orator, exhort­ ly Watt’
From the suite o f offices he and Arnold
ing the crowd while keeping a tight lid on suit o f clothes. Wise Use will su cceed
his own emotions. In private, however, the where the Sagebrush Rebellion failed, share, G ottlieb reigns suprem e over a
stony facade slips. When Arnold lashes out Arnold says, because at heart Wise Use is communications fiefdom in which ideol­
at “
effete intellectuals who would destroy much broader and deeper than a temper ogy and lucre have been fu sed into a
the lives o f honest working people to satis­ tantrum over public lands thrown by a gleaming, indivisible whole: Cant begets
fy-aesthetic whims,”his anger rings with an handful o f Nevada cowboys. Arnold, with cash, cash begets more cant, and so on, a
unmistakably personal tone, as if it were a gleam in his eye, speaks o f an anti-envi- paragon o f symbiotic efficiency that, in an­
pouring from a wound somewhere deep in ronmcntal backlash rippling from coast to other context, would gladden the heart o f
coast, sweeping up home buyers who are any ecologist.
the psyche.
Gottlieb's empire includes a publishing
Whatever the source o f the hostility, it angry about what the spotted owl might do
company that specializes in W ise Use
didn’
t take long for Arnold to go public to the price o f a two-by-four, confused
with his disenchantment. A few years after property owners forbidden to build in their “battle books," a printing press, a
he left the Sierra Club, his byline began to own backyards because some pencil-neck radio station in Oregon, and a radio news
apparatchik has labeled it a wetland, apart­
appear regularly a b ov e n ew sp ap er colu m n s

L

OOTSIOC«
OECCMICR Xttl

5

 fund-raising tricks, conduct direct-re­
sponse cash drives of their own.
Gottlieb says that he and Arnold would
rather act as facilitators for other Wise Use
groups than Ixrcomc the movement's rich,
800-pound gorilla. “
If we raised large sums
o f Wise Use money here at the center." he
explains, “
there'd be all kinds of jealousy
from other groups, they’
d be less inclined
to include us in their tent, and we wouldn't
be able to play such a pivotal role in circu­
lating ideas and coordinating strategy."
Despite Gotdicb and Arnold's efforts to
maintain cordial relations within the young
movement, an odor o f discord can be de­
tected on the breeze. Arnold’
s maverick
opinions and his habit o f shooting from
the' hip have caused the leaders of some
brown groups to distance themselves from
him publicly. Herb Manig, assistant direc­
tor o f natural resources for the American
Farm Bureau Federation and a member of
the Wilderness Impact Research Founda­
tion, says that the Farm Bureau wants
“nothing to do with C D F E . We don ’
t
really even like to use the term ‘
Wise
Use,’a name Ron Arnold came up with.
Although we’
re working for some o f the
same goals and we think this movement is
important, in no way do we feel that
Arnold and Gottlieb should be considered
spokesmen for it." Another member o f
W IR F ’
s inner circle, seizin g the o p ­
portunity to dish a little dirt, casually in­
quires if the reporter “knew about the year
Gottlieb spent behind bars."
_

In the next room is Gottlieb’
s“
caging
area," where incoming mail, the fruit of
the com puter’
s labors, is opened. Sorting
through piles o f checks and $20 bills,
seven women punch adding machines at a
furious pace, trying to make a dent in the
22 plastic trays of unopened contributions
that teeter precariously beside them. “
At
times." says Gottlieb, “
the backlog o f un­
opened mail gets to be 150 trays like
that." Beyond the caging area, a friendly
young man sporting a rakish Vandyke and
hair down to the middle o f his back super­
vises a telemarketing team working a

network with 85 affiliates. But the heart
and soul of his operations, the place where
his odd genius finds its truest expression, is
direct-response political fund-raising.
Friends and foes alike call him the Best
money-raiser outside Washington, D.C.
He once bragged to a newspaper reporter
that “
all I have to do is turn on the spigot"
and dollars start flowing. Gottlieb sends
out more than 20 million pieces o f mail an­
nually, collects an average of $5 million for
the coffers o f CDFE and his nonprofit pro­
gun foundation, and pulls in another $12
million fund-raising for other conservative
groups and political candidates.
"E lM lliM E N T A LIS T S
“f’
m always trying new angles, testing
things," Gottlieb says. “I’
ll send out ten
slighdv different versions of the same letter a n d u s ra n c h e rs
and sec what gets the best response. It’
s
fun." The letters he composes are not long
on subtlety or literary polish, but they arc p ro b a b ly s h a re a lo t
extremely adept at pinpointing the recipi­
ents' deepest anxieties and eliciting floods
o f righteous indignation. “Fear, hate, and m o r e o f th e s a m e v a lu e s
revenge." Arnold observes with a thin­
lipped grin, “
arc the oldest tricks in the di­
rect-mail book."
th a n e ith e r s id e
In G ottlieb’
s office, potted cacti sit be­
neath the windows, and posters depicting
blazing firearms decorate the walls. A re a liz e s , ”m u s e s R o n n ie
suck o f correspondence is anchored by a
chick, gold-placed paperweight in the
shape o f a dollar sign. When Gottlieb ush­ M e r r itt. liB u t i t c o m e s
ers in a guest for a meeting, the chair be­
hind his desk is occupied by a sullen
white poodle the size o f a large Norway d o w n t o a m a tte r
rat, which glares and growls as the stranger
enters. “I’
d like you to meet Winston,"
says Gottlieb with mock formality. “
As
o fs u r v i v a l . ”
you can sec, h e’
s the real boss around
here."
Later Gottlieb walks the visitor down­ bank o f 14 WATS lines. The phones arc lit
stairs and with undisguised pride conducts up nonstop from eight in the morning
a tour o f Liberty Park’
s sanctum sancto­ until nine at night, seven days a week, 52
rum: an array o f carpeted offices, cluttered weeks a year.
with filing cabinets and work tables, that
Most o f the millions that Gottlieb raises
could almost pass for a small-town insur­ at Liberty Park, it should be noted, don’
t
ance agency. lira comer o f one room, hovv- support anti-environmentalist battles per
ever, hums a $250,000 IBM mainframe as sc. but go instead to the pro-gun lobby,
big as a refrigerator. This computer is the G ottlieb’
s favorite cause. A significant por­
hub o f Gottlieb’
s univcisc, ics vital core. At tion o f the money winds up in G ottlieb’
s
the moment, he says, it has one million pocket as well, in the form o f profits from
names on line a nearby cabinet, under lock the companies that perform the mailings
and key. holds another 20 million names and publish the books. It’
s simply a matter
and addresses on reels o f magnetic tape, all o f strategy: Rather than raise money di­
classified and cross-rcfcrenccd by con­ rectly for the Wise Use movement, Got­
gressional district, the amount the prospec­ tlieb and Arnold prefer to travel the coun­
tive donor has given in the past, and the is­ try holding political-action seminars in
sues that are most likely to push his or her which they instruct various groups on how
hot buttons—gun control, say. or the spot­ to gain access to the media, recruit new
ted owl controversy.
members, and, using G ottlieb’
s bag o f

A

LAN GOTTLIEB HAPPENS TO BE A

convicted felon. In I9S4 he was indieted by a federal grand jury on
two counts o f filing false income tax
1 1 returns and failing to pay more than
$40,000 in taxes for the years 1977 and
1978. Gottlieb's lawyer claimed the charges
were politically motivated, payback for a
boast Gottlieb had made in 1978 that he
cou ld “personally guarantee" Jimmy
Carter’
s defeat in the 1980 presidential
election. T he U.S. attorney prosecuting
the case called the lawyer’
s claim “
infan­
tile," pointing out that he. the official who
had opened the file, was a Reagan ap­
pointee.
Faced with an overwhelming body o f
incriminating evidence, Gottlieb eventu­
ally admitted to underpaying by $17,000.
H e was sentenced to 366 days, fined
$5,000, and shipped off to a comfy minimum-security jail in Spokane, where he
was let out every morning to do work-re­
lease fund-raising for the local YMCA.
Seven months after going to jail, he was
out. but his troubles weren’
t over.

OCCCMBCR

OCTSIOC

 While Gottlieb had been doing time, shrewdly and played the angles to the hilt. wife, Beverly, run 1,000 sheep and 40 head
seven o f his employees at Liberty Park And the court, to the surprise of many, con­ of Barzona cattle on 13,000 acres, which, he
had staged a putsch. The workers, all ded­ curred: In the opinion o f .Superior Court explains in a mellifluous drawl, “is a small
icated conservatives, had becom e con­ Judge Frank Howard. Gottlieb had d e ­ ranch for this part o f the state, the bare
vinced after examining the books that frauded no one. To add injury to insult, the minimum. You have to keep a real close
Gottlieb had not only ripped off the tax judge mlcd that McDonald and his cohorts eve on things to make it work." Even
man. but had long been misusing founda­ had defamed their ex-boss and ordered
under the best o f circumstances, theirs is
tion funds for personal gain. Led by a com­ them to fork over $30,000 in damages. Gott­ not a soft life. T he work never ends, and
puter-whiz named Greg McDonald, who lieb likes to say that his shiny black Cor­ there’
s just the two o f them to do it. T o
until then had considered Gottlieb his vette was paid for by the folks who tried to .help make ends meet, Beverly delivers die
closest friend, the indignant employees put him out of business.
local mail, w'hich com es three times a
filed a lawsuit charging G ottlieb with
It was in the midst o f this legal fracas, week. Until four years ago their home had
“
racketeering and conspiracy to defraud” in 1984, that Gottlieb made the acquain­ no telephone. It’
s a 140-mile round trip to
pro-gun contributors. McDonald was sum­ tance o f Ron Arnold. Soon after coming the nearest hospital or movie theater. The
marily fited and the others walked out, but aboard, Arnold got Gottlieb excited about tax forms the Merritts filed with the IRS
before they left Liberty Park they man­ Wise Use issues, which set in motion the this year showed that after expenses they
aged to obtain one o f G ottlieb ’
s prime chain o f events that culminated in 1988 netted $9,554.
mailing lists, which they used to send out with the conference in Reno and The Wise
By any measure, the Merritts arc careful
newsletters reporting G ottlieb’
s alleged Use Agenda.
stewards o f the land. Long ago Ronnie
malfeasance to his 2,000 biggest donors.
Greg McDonald, unrepentant after retrofitted his two beater trucks to run on
These missives (one o f which, in a particu­ spending $250,000 in legal fees and three clean-burning propane. T o prevent overlar stroke o f nastiness, was sent to Gott­ years in court, including his American grazing, he rotates his pastures religiously
lieb's attorney on an Alcatraz postcard) Civil Liberties Union-sponsored appeal, and runs 30 percent fewer head o f live­
spelled out Gottlieb's purported fiscal is cynical about G ottlieb’
s newfound con­ stock than his Bureau o f Land Manage­
improprieties in gory detail and compared cern for the plight o f loggers and ranchers. ment permit allows. Thanks in part to the
him to a “
chicken thief”and a “blood­ McDonald suggests that Gottlieb is inter­ watering tanks and salt licks he provides,
sucking parasite."
ested in Wise Use because it could soon many species o f wildlife thrive on the
T h e suit—and a countersuit filed by be a cash cow o f immense proportions. ranch, from pronghorn antelope to prairie
Gottlieb charging McDonald and the other “
Alan makes his living through direct- rattlers. For all its pulchritude, however,
ex-employees with defamation— turned mail fund-raising," McDonald says, “
but there is no mistaking that this is a working
into a mud-wrestling marathon that wore the Right has been winning a lot o f bat­ shcep-and-cattle ranch, not pristine
on for 18months and was covered lustily by tles, so people are no longer as inclined to w'ildcrncss. And that offends the sen ­
the news media. On the face o f it, the give money. The gun issue, Alan’
s bread sibilities o f a growing number o f envi­
charges marshalled against Gotdieb during and butter, is relatively pass<£, and the ronmentalists, who have submitted a bill
the trial were damning. It was alleged, for environment is a hot issue right now. I to Congress that would quadruple the fees
example, that he had conducted a fund­ think Alan sim ply saw a new vein to ranchers arc charged to graze on federal
raising campaign for the defense o f Bern- mine."
lands. If those fees arc raised, the Merritts
hard Goetz, the infamous New York sub­
and some 30,000 other ranchers will be
way gunman, but had neglected to give
faced w'ith insolvency, w'hich would have
HL'NDERHEADS DRIFT ACROSS THE
Goetz any o f the money or even to notify
hazy July sky in a silent, towering almost the same effect as an outright graz­
him o f the campaign. Questions were also
procession, turning the mile-high ing ban.
raised about Gottlieb's elaborately ar­
plains of Lincoln County, New Mex­
A year ago Beverly and eight other
ranged 1982 purchase o f Liberty Park; At
■ »
ico, into a patchwork o f shadow' and w'omcn from nearby ranches formed an
his insistence, despite warnings from his at­ blinding sunlight. Lizards scurry across a “
action committee.”Th ey organized a
torney that the deal might be improper, limestone outcrop. A pair o f Sw ainson’
s campaign that deluged state and federal
$250,000 from two of his tax-exempt foun­ hawks circle purposefully overhead. From legislators w'ith a torrent o f letters, faxes,
dations was used to purchase Liberty Park, the crest o f a rise, die prairie stretches to and phone calls, and to dicir amazement
and then title to the office complex was the horizon in an undulating sea o f knee- the lawmakers took note. “It blew our
transferred to Gottlieb. Not only did the high grama grass. It’
s a place o f immense minds," say's Beverly, “
what a little bit o f
arrangement give him outright ownership scale and subtle beauty, the sort o f land­ organization could accomplish.”Encour­
o f a newly built structure valued at scape that can lead a person to chew on aged, they redoubled their efforts. “I no
$510,000, but it required the foundations large questions. As Ronnie Merritt bounces longer work in the yard," she says, “
or do
to pay-Gottlieb a total of more than $8,000 across one o f his pastures in a battered
the other things I used to love; working on
a month to rent office space in the building C hevy pickup, he p u zzles over a c o ­ the issues takes up all my free time now.
that the foundations them selves had nundrum that’
re backed into a comer, so there’
s
s been dom inating his But w e’
bankrolled.
thoughts for several months now; Why do no choice.”
At the conclusion o f the trial, nev­ so many people want to drive him off this
Which is w'here Ron Arnold came in.
ertheless, Gotdieb emerged unscathed. He land, destroy his way o f life, and wreak H c spent two days in the Las C ruces
neverdisputed the fact that he had profited havoc on the already shaky econom y o f Hilton w'ith the Merritts and their col­
handsomely from the fund-raising services Lincoln County?
leagues, schmoozing and plotting and ha­
he provided, but he maintained that in
Merritt is a lean, thoughtful man in his ranguing them to fight back. He told the
making those profits he broke no laws— early fifties, with a weathered face and a ranchers that he and Gottlieb could show
simply that he'd structured his businesses weakness for strong cigarillos. He and his them how to raise money from the general

T!

OOTSIOC -DECEMBER 11)1

7

 public. g"ain access to environmental
groups' mailing lists, boycott the sponsors
o f television programs like “The New
Range Wars.”and avail themselves o f “
in­
tellectual ammunition."such as Wayne
H agc's Storm O ver Rangelands and
Arnold s own Ecology Warsyo influence
public opinion. Over the next 20 years,
Arnold said, the best minds in the Wis
Use movement will do battle with th
intellectuals of the environmental move
ment, creating ingenious new laws tha
“
put boxes around environmentalists ant
erase boxes around industry, a whole new
category o f law addressing things like in­
terference with business relationships anc
disparagement of product.”
In the meantime, while waiting for new
latvs to be enacted, Arnold encouraged
the wool growers to litigate at every op ­
portunity. “Ever)’time an environmental
group tells a lie about your industry, you
must take them to court,”he declared.
“You must take the offensive!" he repeat­
ed over and over. “
You're in a fight to the
death!"
Arnold's words left a deep impression on
the ranchers. Ronnie Merritt, soft-spoken
and easygoing by nature, was uncomfort­
able with the militancy of Arnold’
s tone but
was nonetheless convinced that extreme
measures were the only option left. “It’
s
not a matter of wanting to fight," Ronnie
mused, drawing in a lungful o f smoke.
“Environmentalists and us ranchers proba­
bly share a lot more of the same values than
cither side realizes. But it comes down to a
matter o f survival."
In the interest o f survival, thousands like
the Metritts are turning to Ron Arnold and
Alan Gottlieb, the bitter philosopher and
the brilliant technician. Their pasts may be
questionable and, as some critics argue,
their m otives less than clean But conjecture
is o f litde concern to embatded people who see these men as their last best hope. Ner­
vously standing before 150 ranchers under
the crystal chandeliers o f the hotel ball­
room, Beverly Merritt pleaded with her
friends to join the battle. “Unless we do
something”she implored with moist eyes
ind a shaky voice, “
we won’
t have an iniuscry in a few years. Even if we’
re able to I
lo something, we still may lose our industry
I
nd our way o f life But if we go under; don’
t
ou at least want the world to know we I
idn’
t go down quietly, that we didn’
t go I
own without a fight?”
Ql I

[

T h e

E n v ir o n m e n ta lists
T h e

E n e m y

A n d

H a v e

It Is

M

I
I
I
I
I
I

e t

U s!

Here's How You Can Help Our
Wise Use Experts Keep Them On The Run:

Wise Use Speaker's Bureau
Ron Arnold

or

Wayne Hage

Either one can galvanize your people into action!
Your group provides transportation, lodging, and a tax-deductible
honorarium to the Center for the cause.

□ I want to book a speaker. The Center will call me.

Wise Use Seminars
Alan Gottlieb and Ron Arnold
Learn from both experts at once, in a full, exciting day.
Your group provides transportation, lodging, and a tax-deductible
honorarium to the Center for the cause.
□ I want to b o o k a seminar. T h e Center will call me.

Wise Use Books
One good idea can give you years of experience.
Add $ 1.50 shipping and handling for each book.
□
□
□

Alan Gottlieb, $9.95—“
wretchedly printed"
Ron Arnold, $14.95—“
rabble ouser"

T h e W ise U s e A g e n d a ,
E c o l o g y W a rs,

S t o r m O v e r R a n g e la n d s , Wayne Hage, $14.95— “
intellectual ammo”

Tax-Deductible Contributions
□ $100

□ $50

□ $25

□ Other

'lame_________________
Street_________________
City__________________

State

Telephone____________________________
Mail to;
Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise
I 12500 N.E. Tenth Place
tn Krakauer is a contributing editor o f this  
Bellevue, Washington 98005
agazine and the author o f Eiger Dreams, a
FAX 206-451-3959
'llection o f venting about climbing, much o f I Telephone 206-455-5038

_Zip_

I
I
I
I

hich original.'hr appeared in Outside.

ITIIOC •
OCCCMICK 1*91

8

 f

>v
CHUTES FOB
THE DEFHTSE OF
FHEEEBTEBFBISE

N EW S R ELEA SE

C E N T E R F O R TH E D EFEN SE O F FR EE E N T E R P R ISE
12500 N .E . 1 0 th P l a c e

B e l l e v u e W a s h i n g t o n 98005

C o n t a c t : R o n A r n o l d 206-455-5038
F o r I m m e d ia t e R e le a s e
G R O U P D E M A N D S R E S IG N A T IO N O F N E V A D A A T T O R N E Y G E N E R A L F O R
C O N F L I C T S O F IN T E R E S T .

The Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, on behalf of its
members and supporters in Nevada, has filed a complaint with the Ne­
vada Legislature and the Commission on Ethics demanding the immediate
resignation of Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa for conflicts of
interest in a lawsuit involving water rights.
"The Attorney General is giving away the water rights of every
citizen of Nevada," said Ron Arnold, executive vice president of the
Center, based in Bellevue, Washington.
"Frankie Sue Del Papa should
resign immediately."
Arnold's organization is helping fund a lawsuit in U.S. Claims
Court in which privately owned Nevada water rights are being chal­
lenged by the U.S. Forest Service. Del Papa has filed a motion in the
case to intervene on the side of the federal government.
"Del Papa has violated her oath of office to protect the State of
Nevada's laws by filing to intervene on the side of those who would
take away state-controlled water rights," said Arnold.
A
The lawsuit involves Wayne Hage, a Nevada rancher seeking compen­
sation from the U.S. Forest Service for the taking of his ranch north
of Tonopah. Hage owns the state adjudicated water rights being taken
by the Forest Service.
"The Attorney General's actions in this case are bizarre,"
claimed Arnold.
"Three environmental groups filed to intervene in
this case on the side of the Forest Service, and Frankie Sue Del Papa
contracted, with the staff attorney of one of them to represent the
State of Nevada against the laws of the State of Nevada."
Court records show that Thomas Lustig, staff attorney of the N a ­
tional Wildlife Federation (NWF), appeared in U.S. Claims Court repre­
senting the State of Nevada and three private environmental groups,
NWF, the Sierra Club, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Arnold said, "Attorney General Del Papa now sits on the advisory
board of the Trust for Public Land, an environmental group that has
joined in lawsuits with the Sierra Club for more than a decade.
Courts have awarded land or money to the Trust as a result of its le­
gal alliance with the Sierra Club."
Arnold said, "The linkage is clear: Del Papa is attempting to
give the Hage ranch and its water rights to her pet environmental
group by intervening in this case."

V

J