December 18, 2009
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In many ways, the book serves as a window into unconventional strategies--for example the Center for Biological Diversity's (CBD) executive director's confession that the people he lobbies most frequently are Sierra Club staffers. It is the nationals who get CBD's attention, not so much Congress, in CBD's efforts to prevent compromises in endangered species legislation. Delving into the unique nature of groups operating at the grassroots level--groups not aspiring to rise above their founding roots and head to the beltway but stay there at the grassroots--the book assesses the relative effectiveness of that approach. The Center for Biological Diversity is characterized as nimble and lean because of its decentralized structure; the Headwaters Forest campaign as passionate, lean, if thorny coalition of groups largely unburdened by the tendency to compromise so embedded in the wieldy process of the nationals. The only national participating in the coalition driving the campaign engine in the Headwaters campaign is the Sierra Club (and that difficult dynamic is well-documented in the book), and its participation was embodied in one person well versed in regional grassroots dynamics.
Because Bevington's book grew from a scholarly treatise, it is extensively footnoted. Two of my favorite tomes covering the history of the modern conservation movement are heavily drawn on: Mark Dowie's Losing Ground: American Environmentalism at the Close of the Twentieth Century, and Stephen Fox's The American Conservation Movement, John Muir and His Legacy.
"The cumulative impact of Bevington's thorough investigation is to strongly validate the grassroots efforts of the last 20 years. A fine antidote to recent premature reports of the death of environmentalism."........Susy Barsotti, Trees Foundation Board President
The book is well written and an engrossing read. Coming from years in the Headwaters Forest campaign, I of course jumped to that section first and was struck by finding a fresh perspective, even considering the volumes that have been written about the campaign for Humboldt county's redwood forests and Charles Hurwitz. The reason for this, in part, is that Bevington is looking through a sociological lens at the organizational and individual dynamics, with his analysis of the level of effectiveness of the strategies. The analysis is extended to a breakdown of the difference between the grassroots and the D.C.-based nationals in terms of significant movement toward goals of advocacy groups: in fact the argument that the lean and passionate methods of the grassroots groups who believe in themselves without aspiring to grow up into something else is central to the book. It helps that the analysis is grounded in real-life activism as well: Doug has worked within all three campaigns he looks at. He worked with my organization, the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters, during the height of the Headwaters campaign, during the time of the mass rallies. Part of what that means is that he knew the people to seek out for the in-depth interviews and those voices come through loud, clear, intelligent and passionate.
Available in bookstores everywhere.
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TOC for Forest & River News, Winter 2009