A few years ago Oregon's timber industry sought to privatize some Bureau of Land Management forestland via a "land exchange." It would have swapped private clearcuts for public forests under the guise of consolidating land ownerships.

The latest privatization effort is sponsored by Representatives DeFazio, Walden and Schraeder, who seek to give BLM forests to industry without even getting some overcut lands in exchange. Supposedly, the BLM lands that will be privatized will be those with second growth forest, not old growth. But even if true, we need to let the cut over lands grow back to old forest if there is any possibility to reverse atmospheric carbon levels.

Governor Kitzhaber created an expert panel in October, 2012 to facilitate support for the BLM privatization. This panel is part of a broader trend to develop alleged consensus between polluters, governments and foundation funded non profit organizations on many issues, not just deforestation.

Kitzhaber's timber appointees are Allyn Ford of Roseberg Forest Products, Dale Riddle of Seneca Sawmills, Jennifer Phillipi of Rough and Ready Lumber and Ray Jones of Stimson Lumber. Ms. Phillipi is also on the Governor's Board of Forestry, which sets logging policy for State Forests and supposedly regulates the Oregon Forest Practices Act (the law that allows clearcuts on corporate timberlands).

Four County Commissioners are also part of this effort: Doug Robertson (Douglas County), Tony Hyde (Columbia), Simon Hare (Josephine), and Jamie Damon (Clackamas, not re-elected in 2012). Each of these counties has BLM forest lands, otherwise called O&C lands (from the old Oregon and California railroad lands that became the BLM properties).

The conservation groups hail from the more compromised part of the environmental spectrum. They are a mix of groups concerned about fish habitat and two who primarily fund other groups. Philanthropic foundations have more influence than the membership in how most large environmental groups decide their agendas.

- David Dreher of the Pew Foundation (founded by Sun Oil money) is a former aide to Rep. DeFazio. Pew is a primary funder of US forest protection movements, focusing on "wilderness" but not how corporate timberlands are mistreated.

- Sybil Ackerman, member, Oregon Board of Forestry and director of Lazar Foundation, which funds environmental groups.

- Greg Block, Wild Salmon Center, a group that has taken funds from Mitsubishi corporation which clearcuts tropical rainforest and Siberia.

- John Kober, Pacific Rivers Council

- Bob Davison - Defenders of Wildlife, one of the seven "environmental" groups that endorsed the NAFTA treaty

- Jack Williams – Trout Unlimited

 

A few topics that are unlikely to be in the final report:

- The refusal of the Oregon Department of Forestry to enforce "leave trees" requirements in corporate clearcuts.

- The public health consequences of timber companies spraying herbicides from helicopters over their clearcuts. The BLM was forced (by lawsuits) to stop their poisoning two decades ago. If these forests are privatized and liquidated, they are likely to be sprayed with cancer causing toxins.

- The lack of value added products from timber operations. Where is the furniture industry in Oregon?

- Exporting raw logs to Asia instead of milling them in Oregon.

- Selective forestry can create more board feet in the long run than clearcuts and tree farms.

- Kitzhaber signed a law in 1999 to eliminate "stump taxes" for timber barons with more than 5,000 acres.

- A real effort to mitigate climate change would include letting tree farms grow back into mature old growth forests to sequester carbon and protect the hydrologic cycle that transports coastal moisture into the continental interior.

 

The panel's facilitator is John Ehrmann of the Meridian Institute, a group that brings together corporate polluters and foundation funded environmentalists to greenwash environmental problems.

Ehrmann was a founder of Meridian after working for The Keystone Center, a similar "collaboration" promotional effort.

Another spin-off from Keystone was The Osprey Group, which was used to facilitate the "West Eugene Collaborative" to discuss what to do after No Build was selected for the West Eugene Porkway.

Jamie Damon was one of the mediators (not part of Osprey) involved with the WEC. This "collaborative" included conservative and liberal elites but excluded West 11th businesses, west Eugene neighborhood groups and Parkway opponents who didn't want to compromise away the strong legal obstacles to its approval. Two neighborhood groups were allowed to attend the final meetings after they had already decided what their conclusions were -- a recommendation to double the width of West 11th at a greater cost than the Parkway.

additional details - www.sustaineugene.org/clearcut-consensus.html

www.oregon.gov/gov/media_room/Pages/press_releasesp2012/press_101112.aspx

Governor Kitzhaber names panel to recommend O&C solutions

(Salem, OR) — Governor Kitzhaber today announced he has convened a group of county officials, forest products industry representatives, and conservation leaders to address challenges facing O&C counties in Oregon. The Governor asked the group to build on existing proposals and develop recommendations that help Oregon counties improve financial stability, ensure adequate sources of timber that support local mills and jobs, and meet Oregon's water and land conservation goals. He expects the group to craft a proposal to take to the Oregon delegation and Congress in early 2013.

"We're not under any illusion that this will be easy," said Governor Kitzhaber. "But the human and environmental costs of the status quo are unacceptable, and Oregonians have shown time and again their ability to come together to solve difficult problems. An Oregon solution that protects the environment, creates jobs in rural communities, and helps restore funding for critical services is our best hope for O&C counties, and we have the right people at the table to get it done."

The group includes the following 14 members and will be facilitated by John Ehrmann of the Meridian Institute:

O&C Counties
• Doug Robertson – Douglas County Commissioner
• Tony Hyde – Columbia County Commissioner
• Simon Hare – Josephine County Commissioner
• Jamie Damon – Clackamas County Commissioner

Conservation
• Greg Block – Wild Salmon Center
• David Dreher – Pew Foundation
• John Kober – Pacific Rivers Council
• Sybil Ackerman – Sybil Ackerman Strategies
• Bob Davison - Defenders of Wildlife
• Jack Williams – Trout Unlimited

Forest Products Industry
• Allyn Ford – Roseburg Forest Products
• Dale Riddle – Seneca Sawmills
• Jennifer Phillipi – Rough and Ready Lumber Co.
• Ray Jones – Stimson Lumber

The Governor's O&C County Solution Principles

1. Stable County Funding – Recognize O&C Act's unique community stability mandate and provide adequate and stable county revenues sufficient to meet needs for basic public services.
2. Stable Timber Supply – Provide adequate and stable timber supply that will provide for employment opportunities, forest products and renewable energy.
3. Protect Unique Places – Permanently protect ecologically unique places.
4. Durable & Adaptive Conservation Standards – Maintain Northwest Forest Plan forest management standards – Late Successional/Old Growth Reserves & Aquatic Conservation Strategy – in an adaptive manner where and when required to comply with environmental laws.
5. Conservation Opportunities – Promote conservation advances on private "checkerboard" lands through voluntary, non-regulatory incentives – financial, technical, regulatory relief, etc.
6. Federal Budget Neutral – Recognize that O&C solution will need to be budget neutral or positive at the Federal level.
7. Achieve Certainty – Develop a policy framework that will provide for certainty in achieving all of these principles.

summaries from Conversations on the Forest www.conversationsontheforest.org

Representing O&C Counties

Doug Robertson – Douglas County Commissioner (since 1980). Republican. President of the Association of O&C Counties. Closely associated with Congressman Greg Walden. Former Roseburg City Councilor.

Tony Hyde – Columbia County Commissioner (since 1997). Republican. Forest biomass promoter, and opponent of normal EPA air pollution regulations for biomass plants. Apparently a supporter of coal export through Port of St. Helens.

Simon Hare – Josephine County Commissioner (since 2010). Republican. Former legislative intern for Senator Gordon Smith. Mixed business background.

Jamie Damon – Clackamas County Commissioner (since 2011). Democrat. Professional mediator - worked in Lane County on West Eugene Collaborative, I-5 Willamette River bridge.

Representing Forest Products Industry

Allyn Ford – President and CEO, Roseburg Forest Products (since 1997). Major Republican campaign contributor. Oregon State Board of Higher Education, Director of the Doernbecher Hospital Foundation and the World Forestry Center, Chairman of the Board, Umpqua Bank.
• "Allyn Ford's father started Roseburg Forest Products [in 1936]. Today, Kenneth Ford's ... son oversees 3,700 employees and a veritable wood-products manufacturing empire: one sawmill, four plywood plants, two particleboard plants, one engineered wood products plant, a veneer plant, and an export dock and loading facility for wood chips."
• Contributed $5 million to endow the "Cheryl Ramberg and Allyn C. Ford Deanship of Forestry" at Oregon State University

Dale Riddle – Seneca Sawmills. Republican. Northwest Forest Plan opponent. Major funders for Measure 37. Biomass promoter and public subsidy recipient. Assisted personally in bogus conservative lawsuit against Lane County Commissioners Pete Sorenson, Rob Handy and Bill Fleenor.
• "Seneca Sawmill is the third largest- producing, single-location sawmill in the USA."

Jennifer Phillippi – Rough and Ready Lumber Co. Republican campaign contributor. Third-generation family sawmill and forest landowner. Member, Oregon Board of Forestry.
• "Phillippi views the current Oregon Forest Practices Rules as both 'productive and flexible, allowing landowners to respond to the conditions of different forest types while accommodating diverse individual objectives.'"

Ray Jones – Stimson Lumber, Vice President of Resources (since 2008). Previously Vice-President of Resources at Roseburg Forest Products. Board of Directors, Oregon Forest Resources Institute (Class 3, 100 million bd-ft/yr)
• "Stimson Lumber Company has assets and operations in four Western States: Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington."

Representing Conservation

Greg Block – Wild Salmon Center http://www.wildsalmoncenter.org — works on salmon issues

David Dreher – Pew Foundation http://www.pewenvironment.org — former senior legislative aide to Peter DeFazio. "Played a key role in writing and negotiating the Healthy Forest Restoration Act."

John Kober – Pacific Rivers Council http://pacificrivers.org — works on salmon issues

Sybil Ackerman – Sybil Ackerman Strategies — Oregon Board of Forestry

Bob Davison - Defenders of Wildlife http://www.defenders.org — appears to work on salmon issues

Jack Williams – Trout Unlimited http://www.tu.org — former BLM, Forest Service, works on salmon issues

Facilitator

John Ehrmann – Meridian Institute

Orwellian Environmentalism

Who is on the Governor's new timber panel, who isn't, and what is the balance of interests? 

Certainly no one who says that clearcuts and helicopter spraying should be banned.

Even Andy Kerr, who is politically friendly with DeFazio, is saying the panel is a sham.

I'm glad I didn't vote for Dr. Kitzhaber, the doctor who approves spraying cancer causing chemicals over Oregon corporate timberlands.

The only environmentalists I know of in Oregon who publicly say that the State should stop allowing timber barons to clearcut industrial forestlands and then spray them with helicopters are volunteers.  I hope I've overlooked some paid environmentalists who do have that courage.

 

Defenders of Wildlife

Defenders of Wildlife is one of seven "environmental" groups that endorsed the NAFTA treaty.  Even Sierra opposed it (while endorsing Clinton and Gore who got NAFTA enacted).  Rep. DeFazio said he opposed NAFTA while voting for highway bills that included money for new and wider interstate highways between Canada and Mexico. 

 

Pew Foundation is the Sun Oil money trust.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Pew_Charitable_Trusts

 

 

Wild Salmon Center

http://www.wildsalmoncenter.org/about/usStaff.php

There are probably some good people on the staff but there's nothing about clearcutting on their site (that I could find) and their total dependence on corporate money and the establishment means they are lap dogs, not watch dogs.

 

http://www.wildsalmoncenter.org/initiatives/habitat.php

lots of euphemism at this page.   Seems to be mostly focused in creating tiny buffers to rampant extraction in eastern Russia.  Logging Siberia is the last frontier of clearcutting.

 

http://www.wildsalmoncenter.org/about/corporate_partners.php

Mitsubishi is a "corporate partner" of Wild Salmon Center.  Mitsubishi clearcuts tropical rainforest.  They got some of the boycott leaders to back off but that doesn't protect the forest.

 

http://www.mitsubishicorp.com/us/en/csr/foundation.html

Wild Salmon Center
Supporting the participation of Indigenous Peoples in the North American Salmon Stronghold Conservation Project ($150,000 over three years)

"Wild Salmon" has a big representation from Russia, so I assume that Mitsubishi is probably protecting its investment in logging Siberia. A search for "Mitsubishi forest Siberia" will find lots of articles about what they're doing there.  Massive clearcutting is not legal in Japan.

 

http://www.wildsalmoncenter.org/about/board.php

President's Council

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
Washington, D.C.

James Wolfensohn
New York, New York
(former head of World Bank)

 

Leah Knapp Hair
Seattle, Washington

Obituaries | Jay D. Hair, environmentalist, was fierce fighter | Seattle ...
community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date...hairobit16m
Nov 16, 2002 – In 1995, Mr. Hair moved to Seattle from Washington, D.C., to be with his wife, Leah Knapp Hair, a Seattle resident he married in 1992.

 

One of their board members is the widow of Jay Hair, long time leader of the National Wildlife Federation.  He had a personal driver to take him to work in DC.  Mr. Hair had Exxon on their corporate advisory board when the Valdez spill happened in 1989.  NWF also endorsed NAFTA.  My condolences that he died early but he wasn't a "fierce fighter" for ecological protection.

 

another board member:

http://www.conservation.org/newsroom/experts/Pages/seligmann.aspx

Conservation International is probably one of the most conservative (politically) and well funded (a nice correlation) "environmental" groups.

http://www.conservation.org/how/partnership/corporate/Pages/default.aspx

Corporate Partners (who get a tax break) include:

"Featured Corporate Partners"
JP Morgan Chase
Disney
Monsanto
Starbucks
Walmart

http://www.conservation.org/how/partnership/corporate/Pages/all_partners.aspx
CI engages with corporations from key industries with the greatest impact on ecosystems. By engaging in mutually beneficial partnerships with influential corporations, together we have the opportunity to transform global markets and industry standards toward the realization of CI's mission.

LEARN MORE: CI's Center for Environmental Leadership in Business

Agropalma
Alcoa Foundation
Antamina
ArcelorMittal
Bank of America
Bank of America Charitable Foundation
BHP Billiton
BP
Bunge
Cargill
CCX Colombia
CEMEX
Cerrejon Coal
Chevron
Coca-Cola
Daikin Industries Ltd
Darden Restaurants
Dell
eBay Inc.
Exxon Mobil Corporation
FIJI Water
FIJI Water Foundation
Giti Tire
Givaudan
glassybaby
Hanesbrands Inc.
Havaianas (Alpargatas)
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Kimberly-Clark
Kraft Foods Inc.
Marriott International
McDonald's
Merriman's Hawaii
Monsanto
Nestlé
Newmont Mining Corporation
Northrop Grumman Corporation
Northrop Grumman Foundation
Pacific Life Foundation
Rabobank International
Ricoh Company Ltd.
Rio Tinto
Shell
Sony
Sotheby's International Realty
Starbucks Coffee Company
Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Talkie
Toyota Motor Corporation
UCC Ueshima Coffee
United Airlines
Vale S.A.
Veolia Environment
Veolia Environment Foundation
Walmart
Walt Disney Company
WhiteWave Foods
Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company Foundation

http://www.conservation.org/global/celb/key_initiatives/bsc/Pages/main.aspx

BUSINESS & SUSTAINABILITY COUNCIL
A powerful platform for learning and collaborative action
CI established the Business & Sustainability Council (BSC) in 2003 for companies committed to pursuing environmental and business leadership. The BSC has historically centered around producing two multiple day meetings per year, hosted by its members, and covering topics including sustainable agriculture, climate change, freshwater security and sustainable supply chains.

The current 19 member companies represent total combined revenues of more than $2.2 trillion and 4.5 million employees. The forum is uniquely positioned to convene CI's network of scientists and other issue experts with corporate partners for interactive dialogue on key sustainability issues and further advancement of business and environmental goals.

Members:

Bunge
Cargill
Chevron
Coca-Cola
Darden Restaurants
ExxonMobil Corporation
Hanesbrands Inc.
Kraft Foods
Marriott International
McDonald's
Monsanto
Northrop Grumman Corporation
Rabobank International
Shell
Starbucks Coffee Company
Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Walt Disney Company
Walmart
WhiteWave Foods

 

The BSC is rolling out a new structure in January 2013 that will provide additional high value opportunities for members to engage with CI also aligned with our conservation mission and priorities . For more information, contact:
Jennifer Gerholdt
Senior Manager, BSC
CI's Center for Environmental Leadership in Business

 

In 2010, CI created the Asia-Pacific Business & Sustainability Council for business leaders committed to implementing and promoting social, economic and environmental sustainability in the Asia-Pacific region.

Members:

Monsanto Singapore Co (Pte) Ltd
Giti Tire Pte Ltd
Walmart Asia

Collaboration has two meanings, one nice, one not. Cooperation is much better word but it's rarely used by greenwashers. Anyone who has read the history of Europe between 1933 and 1945 would find it hard to use the word "collaborator." Cooperation is a nicer word but it doesn't imply the "Bambi meets Godzilla" aspect of these sham processes.

from Apple Dictionary:

collaborator
noun
1 his collaborator on the book: coworker, partner, associate, colleague, confederate; assistant.
2 a wartime collaborator: quisling, fraternizer, collaborationist, colluder, (enemy) sympathizer; traitor, fifth columnist.

collaboration
noun
1 the action of working with someone to produce or create something : he wrote on art and architecture in collaboration with John Betjeman.
• something produced or created in this way : his recent opera was a collaboration with Lessing.
2 traitorous cooperation with an enemy : he faces charges of collaboration.

My copy of Webster's dictionary defines "Stakeholder" as the person who holds the stakes of the bettors in a casino.  It's not a synonym for "citizen" even if public relations people now claim it is.

Perhaps it's a sly way to suggest we're gambling about the illusion of democracy.

Survey stake holder?

Pew

The Pew Charitable Trust is a foundation largely funded with profits from the Sun Oil company (Sunoco). It is an interesting - and worrying - development to have Pew on this sort of "collaboration" panel. Usually, the funders have sat in the background pulling strings via their grants.

They are a dominant funder of forest protection efforts in the US and it would take great courage for foundation funded environmental groups to oppose what they do, not only because it would risk getting grants from Pew, but also the potential that Pew could influence other large foundations to blacklist those who don't go along with this approach.

Mr. Dreher, on Kitzhaber's Clearcut Consensus Panel Pew, moved from DeFazio's office to Pew (to fund / control the environmental groups that might object to privatizing public forestlands).

 

http://www.pewenvironment.org/about-us/experts/meet-the-experts/david-dreher-8589940461

Manager, Campaign for America's Wilderness, Pew Environment Group

Email: ddreher@pewtrusts.org

Address: Washington, D.C.

David Dreher joined the Pew Environment Group in 2010 when the Campaign for America's Wilderness merged with Pew.

Beginning in 2000, Dreher served as senior legislative aide to Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, a member of the House Natural Resources Committee. Dreher played a key role in writing and negotiating the Healthy Forest Restoration Act and wrote major legislation to overhaul the Northwest Forest Plan and protect old-growth forests.

He holds a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Oregon.

 

note: The "Healthy Forest Restoration Act" was George W. Bush's national forest law and many environmental groups (including Oregon Sierra Club) called it a giveaway to Big Timber. The name is Orwellian.

Here are photos of old growth forests in Montana threatened by the so-called Healthy Forest Restoration Act

http://www.nativeforest.org/middle_east_fork.htm

 

Pew also had a campaign for modest improvements in energy efficiency by 2020 for cars. Like most environmental efforts they're not willing to be stronger than what the Democrats are willing to support. Obviously they do not consider environmental pollution, oil depletion, melting Arctic icecaps and similar problems caused by fossil fuels to be sufficient motivation to move faster.

The car companies had experimental models about 100 mpg (42 kilometers per liter) in 1992 but chose not to sell them, the Clinton Gore administration chose not to improve fuel efficiency requirements and the foundation funded environmental groups largely ignored how the Democrats presided over the introduction of SUVs instead of fuel efficient cars. www.peak traffic.org/100mpg.html has a list of the prototypes.

http://www.pewenvironment.org/campaigns/pew-campaign-for-fuel-efficiency/id/8589935289

 

Who Pew funds for forest campaigns.

www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/compilations/wilderness-campaigns-partners-85899363182

 

Pew funds forest protection for environmental groups if they focus on designated Wilderness areas for Federal forests. Ending helicopter herbicides, banning corporate clearcuts, stopping BLM privatization, David Brower's idea of converting National Forests to National Parks -- are not funded.

Devil's Staircase is their priority to fund for the region surrounding Eugene. While all old growth forest does deserve preservation, the idea of focusing on the least accessible forest -- and ignoring massive clearcutting all around that remnant old growth -- shows that politics is more important than ecology. Wendell Wood of Oregon Wild wrote a guide to old growth hikes in Oregon where he called this area the wildest of the areas he profiled. The very fact that there is still some old growth in "Devil's Staircase" is because it was largely inaccessible to the loggers. It is unfortunate the foundation funded environmentalists were reluctant to focus on the massive corporate clearcutting in Oregon's Coast Range -- only about one percent of that original forest remains today. Even worse, their promotion of Peter DeFazio via his alleged support for Devil's Staircase Wilderness did not result in the protection they sought -- DeFazio did not follow through with creating this Wilderness designation when the Democrats had the trifecta of White House, Senate and House of Representatives.

http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/other-resources/oregon-wilderness-campaigns-85899363174

Other Resource
Jan 01, 2011
Campaign for America's Wilderness
Oregon has 16,135,800 acres of BLM lands and 15,661,278 acres of National Forests. The last wilderness areas designated in Oregon were in the Omnibus Law signed by President Obama in March 2009: Badger Creek Additions, Badland, Bull of the Woods Additions, Clackamas, Copper Salmon, Lower White River, Mark O. Hatfield Additions, Mount Hood Additions, Roaring River, Salmon-Huckleberry Additions, Spring Basin, and Soda Mountain

Campaigns
Devil's Staircase

Oregon's Coast Range, which runs south from the Washington border, is home to what many consider the single most remote location in the entire state. Wassen Creek flows between the Smith and Umpqua Rivers and boasts the remarkable Devil's Staircase. It contains one of the finest stands of old growth ancient forest in Oregon's Coast Range, and is home to the coast's highest density of spotted owls. Wassen Creek supports healthy runs of Chinook and Coho salmon, and steelhead, up to Devil's Staircase's impenetrable barrier. It's also home to robust populations of elk, black bear, mountain lion, otter, and mink. The proposed Devil's Staircase Wilderness would be approximately 27,000 acres in size, with all 7 miles of Wassen Creek protected under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

More info:

Oregon Wild
Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics
Devil's Staircase Wilderness

Meridian - Keystone - Osprey

 

Meridian Institute (facilitator)

Their site doesn't say who funds them, but they have a lot of staff for a "non profit" -- my guess is the big foundations -- and probably some corporations -- are their funders.

from their website

www.merid.org/en/Content/Projects/Council_on_Sustainable_Biomass_Production.aspx

www.merid.org/en/About/Board_of_Directors.aspx

includes 

William Ruckelshaus - the first EPA director (for Nixon), again EPA director under Reagan (after the agency nearly collapsed in Reagan's first couple years), now he's on lots of corporate boards including Weyerhauser 

Frances Beinecke, president of NRDC (NRDC is premier ecological greenwash group, promoted ENRON, endorsed NAFTA, highway bills, Clinton's shredding of the strongest food safety regulation). NRDC has done some good things but they're a minority of their accomplishments, especially in recent decades.

 

www.merid.org/About/Services.aspx#leadership-in-the-theory-and-practice-of-coll

Meridian Institute offers four daily news services— AGree: Transforming Food and Ag Policy, Food Security and Ag-Biotech News, Food Security and Ag-Biotech News (French) and Nanotechnology and Development News. These news services, which are available free of charge via e-mail, RSS news feed, and online, provide succinct summaries of articles from peer-reviewed journals, international news wires, and a variety of publications from industry, government, and nongovernmental organizations. Food Security and Ag-Biotech News covers global developments relating to agriculture and food security, with a strong emphasis on issues related to the controversy over agricultural biotechnology. Nanotechnology and Development News covers global developments at the nexus of nanotechnology

 

www.merid.org/About/Staff.aspx

Dr. Ehrmann received his undergraduate degree from Macalester College and his Ph.D. in Natural Resource Policy and Environmental Dispute Resolution from the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources. His doctoral dissertation involved developing a practice-based model of the policy dialogue that can be applied to both practice and research. Between 1983 and 1997, Dr. Ehrmann was executive vice president at The Keystone Center. In September 1997, he became one of the founders of Meridian Institute.

from Mark:   The Keystone Center is another greenwash group designed to facilitate "collaboration" about pollution.   

www.sustaineugene.org/wec.html
West Eugene Collaborators

www.sustaineugene.org/osprey.html
The Osprey Group - used to push through the West Eugene Collaborators

One of the two principals in Osprey came from Keystone - he left to form his own, similar "collaboration" group.

www.theospreygroup.com/who.html
Dennis formed The Osprey Group with long-time friend and colleague, John Huyler, in 2000. Prior to this, he was a senior facilitator and director of The Keystone Center's Science and Public Policy Program.

Keystone's board of trustees for Keystone includes Dow Chemical, Dupont, General Electric, General Motors, tobacco, Monsanto, Lockheed Martin, coal, nuclear power, Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, NRDC and a contractor for the West Eugene Parkway.

Keystone Center - gutting the Endangered Species Act, promoting polluters, nuclear power launched into space.

 

www.keystone.org/spp/env-esa.html
Executive Summary of Letter to Senators
The Keystone ESA Working Group on Habitat
February 17, 2006
"new provisions for integrating habitat protection and conservation into the ESA to replace the current critical habitat framework"
note: they support undermining one of the strongest provisions in the Endangered Species Act ...

Keystone hired by NASA to promote nuclear power in space

www.keystone.org/spp/env-space-science.html
The Keystone Center aids in the design of an inclusive public involvement strategy in coordination with NASA Headquarters and Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) staff, for ten years of Mars Missions, starting in 2003. The Keystone Center has worked on potential areas of high concern such as the use of space nuclear power sources including launch site issues.

 

West Eugene Collaborative: connections and precedent

"West Eugene Collaborative," an effort as ridiculous as the Governor's timber panel.   They excluded the neighborhood associations, the businesses on West 11th and anyone who publicly opposed all of the West Eugene Porkway.   A number of people on the issue privately told me it was an honor for me to be banned from their discussion.   Their final report recommended spending more than the WEP to widen West 11th into a massive "boulevard" with local and express lanes.  The cross section would be at least twice as wide and would bulldoze all of the existing businesses that are near the street, but the big box stores with large parking lots would not be impacted.   It's a primary reason there are so many "no MX" signs on West 11th, the businesses saw what the "WEC" proposed.

After a year of meetings, and criticism that it was extremely insular and unrepresentative, they allowed two of the eight neighborhoods to send observers for the final meetings, after they had already decided what they were going to do.  One of them privately said it was insulting to be there given how they had no interest in listening to her concerns in a substantive way.

Fortunately, the Collaborators report was DOA and has been almost entirely forgotten, except by the West 11th businesses excluded by the collaborators.

who pays for greenwash and why:

Thus, confronted by powerful corporate opposition, the environmental movement has split in two. The older national environmental organizations, in their Washington offices, have taken the soft path of negotiation, compromising with the corporations about how much pollution is acceptable ... The people living in the polluted communities have taken the hard path of confrontation ... The national organizations deal with the environmental disease by negotiating about the kind of 'Band-Aid' to apply to it; the community groups deal with the disease by trying to prevent it.
-- Barry Commoner, Making Peace With the Planet

http://wrongkindofgreen.org
greenwash and oil company funding of "climate" groups.

http://www.corporations.org/system/envirogrouptypes.pdf
a guide to environmental groups
by Mike Ewall, Energy Justice Network

http://www.mapcruzin.com/environment21/
corporate environmental groups

http://www.mapcruzin.com/review_losing_ground.htm
a review of "Losing Ground" by Mark Dowie, former editor of Mother Jones, about the decline of the environmental movement

http://www.mapcruzin.com/review_american_foundations.htm
American Foundations: An Investigative History by Mark Dowie

http://www.namebase.net:82/news03.html
Multiculturalism and the Ruling Elite

http://www.namebase.net:82/news15.html
Philanthropists at War

http://www.namebase.net:82/roelofs.html
The Third Sector as a Protective Layer for Capitalism
"Some may see a galaxy of organizations doing good works -- a million points of light -- but the nonprofit world is also a system of power which is exercised in the interest of the corporate world."

http://www.namebase.net:82/names/nn01.cgi/hV
Roelofs, Joan. Foundations and Public Policy: The Mask of Pluralism. Albany NY: State University of New York Press, 2003. 269 pages.

Few American scholars dare admit that capitalism could not survive without the support of the nonprofit sector. It helps to first get tenure, and then approach the topic very cautiously. Joan Roelofs, a political science professor at Keene State College in New Hampshire, has broken through to the other side. While Karl Marx criticized the role of bourgeois philanthropy only in passing, due to a lack of evidence, Roelofs starts with the robber barons and continues through the twentieth century. That adds up to a hundred years of heavy evidence.
Beginning with the cold war, American philanthropy branched into foreign policy. The Ford Foundation (and to a lesser extent, Rockefeller and Carnegie) worked very closely with the CIA. Ford funded many leftist minority and special-interest groups during the 1960s, but it was all part of the same grand scheme to promote pluralism as an antidote to class consciousness. McGeorge Bundy, an architect of U.S. policy in Vietnam, became president of Ford Foundation in 1966. In his words, his role was "to make the world safe for capitalism." Now it is 2006, and Russia is finally realizing that they've been raped by capitalists using philanthropy as a cover, and are taking steps to stop it. They should re-read their Marx. While they're at it, they might want to pick up this book as well.
ISBN 0-7914-5642-0