One of the principal deal cutters was Bart Koehler, now a flack for the Wilderness Society, whose main claim to fame rests on the fact that he was one of the founding members of Earth First! During Earth First! roadshows in the early 1980s, Koehler dressed up as a singing cowboy called Johnny Sagebrush. The act wasn't funny then; it's even less so now.
Koehler is only the latest of the founders of Earth First! to opt for a plush office and a plump salary. In 1989, Dave Foreman was arrested by the FBI on charges that he conspired to knock down powerlines in Arizona. He saved his hide by cutting a deal with prosecutors while his colleagues Mark Davis and Peg Millet were sentenced to six and three years in prison respectively. Then he renounced Earth First! and joined the Sierra Club board. Today he claims that Earth First! was really little more than a joke. Two other founders, Mike Roselle and Howie Wolke, both recently defended a deal that consigned thousands of acres in the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana to the chainsaw.
Edward Abbey must be grinding his teeth in his grave at how smoothly these green radicals have turned into political pimps for the Democratic Party, flashing their enviro credentials as they put their green stamp of approval on one clearcut after another. All in the name of pragmatism. Koehler and Foreman used to fume at the Wilderness Society and Sierra Club for just such sell-outs. To differentiate themselves they coined the phrase "No compromise in the Defense of Mother Earth" as a motto for Earth First! Nice slogan. Now it has come back to haunt their every step.
Koehler is only the latest of the founders of Earth First! to opt for a plush office and a plump salary. In 1989, Dave Foreman was arrested by the FBI on charges that he conspired to knock down powerlines in Arizona. He saved his hide by cutting a deal with prosecutors while his colleagues Mark Davis and Peg Millet were sentenced to six and three years in prison respectively. Then he renounced Earth First! and joined the Sierra Club board. Today he claims that Earth First! was really little more than a joke. Two other founders, Mike Roselle and Howie Wolke, both recently defended a deal that consigned thousands of acres in the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana to the chainsaw.
Edward Abbey must be grinding his teeth in his grave at how smoothly these green radicals have turned into political pimps for the Democratic Party, flashing their enviro credentials as they put their green stamp of approval on one clearcut after another. All in the name of pragmatism. Koehler and Foreman used to fume at the Wilderness Society and Sierra Club for just such sell-outs. To differentiate themselves they coined the phrase "No compromise in the Defense of Mother Earth" as a motto for Earth First! Nice slogan. Now it has come back to haunt their every step.