In 1987, the first stirrings of what would later be known as the Wise Use Movement began in Puget Sound. Ted Cowan, a some-time lobbyist for the Washington State Sportsmen's Council described a King County plan for consolidating existing ordinances on no-shooting areas as "a flawed thing." The gun control plan was an attempt to get a uniform law that would state where people could shoot and where they could not.1
Note: Numbers at the end of paragraphs refer to documents cited in Appendix 8, the chronological list of sources.
Cowan, a realtor at the time, has sporadically registered as a lobbyist in Olympia. He was active in the King County Republican party and has sought a seat in Olympia twice, first being one of three nominees to fill Sen. Kent Pullen's seat and later he ran for a state house position in the 5th District. Cowan was the perfect man for Wise Use: he likes guns and hates regulation.
That summer Cowan sponsored a referendum that would have overturned the governor's new power to appoint the director of the Department of Wildlife. If you are trying to build a political machine, you need lists of potential supporters. Meetings, petitions, referendums and conferences are a good way to gather them.
Unlike the national scene, Gottlieb and Arnold had little difficulty getting Wise Use going in the I-5 corridor. Starting with existing friends and allies, like Ted Cowan and Chuck Cushman, they were able to nurture a network of Wise Use activists that over a five year period built a political organization in many unincorporated areas. In 1987, the year before the first Wise Use conference, Cowan was the "legislation chairman" for the Washington's Sportsman's Council. Arnold says of Cowan, "...we see him every now and then. He comes to the Wise Use conference, usually every year." Cowan has served as an unpaid "volunteer" lobbyist for four gun groups, the Property Rights Alliance, the Washington Rivers Coalition, The Umbrella Group and the Cedar County Committee according to documents on file with the Washington Public Disclosure Commission.26
Cushman, who lives near Vancouver in the unincorporated area outside of Battleground, is often described as a Wise Use "tank commander" who makes his living as a Wise Use agitator-for-pay. He operates several Wise Use groups, such as the National Inholders Association, the League of Private Property Voters, and the American Land Rights Association. Despite the high sounding titles, these are all private businesses with Cushman as the sole proprietor.
Other allies slowly moved to the Wise Use banner, foremost of whom was Dan Wood, a lobbyist for extractive industries and maverick Democrat. Wood's organization, The Umbrella Group (TUG), is a classic Wise Use front organization. Wood lobbys under the name of this group, which has the usual suspects as member organizations: Larry Mason's Washington Commercial Forest Action Committee, which practically is the entire spotted owl controversy; the Great Northwest Coalition, the main Alliance for America organization east of the Cascades; Women in Timber, the group that supposedly gave Arnold the idea for the Wise Use Movement; the cleverly named Woods Industry Seeks Equality (WISE) and TUG board of directors member Ted Cowan's Property Rights Alliance.32
Most of the TUG member groups make small financial contributions to The Umbrella Group, but major funding comes from industry. According to documents filed by Wood with the Public Disclosure Commission, the large contributors to The Umbrella Group include the Washington State Farm Bureau, Hecla Mining Company, Washington Contract Loggers Association, Atlantic Richfield Company and Washington Citizens for World Trade.
As the networking between groups progressed, the Wise Use Movement has built a sizable political base that is making itself felt in local and state elections. Most of the political organizing goes under the cover of "property-rights" groups. These organizations have also been the backbone of the secession drives in King, Snohomish and Whatcom counties. [See Steal This State, Eastsideweek 8/17/94]
In the beginning, most of the Wise Use activity was restricted to the classic industry front groups like Wood's The Umbrella Group, Cushman's companies, and organizations like The Public Land Users Society, whose largest member was Cowan's Washington Sportsman's Council.6
The Developers and the GMA
With the advent of the Growth Management Act, things began to change for Wise Use. Where the initial focus for Wise Use had been providing support for industries which operated on the public's land, now private lands began to be a target as well. Gottlieb testified in Olympia against the GMA. Others were concerned about growth management as well. Most of the opposition came from the development industry, a major land-use player that Arnold had completely overlooked when he wrote Ecology Wars.
Note: see Appendix I for more information on the Growth Management Act.
The developers had ready cash and a well-oiled lobbying and election machine in the Affordable Housing Council, the Master Builders Association, Builders United in Legislative Development (BUILD), the General Contractors Association, the Building Industry Association, and the numerous realtors' associations and political action committees.
In October 1989, Terre Harris of Issaquah, longtime lobbyist and consultant for developers, as well as a former official in the Master Builders Association, formed the Property Owners for Property Rights. First appearing at a hearing on a proposed King County land use ordinance, Harris' organization had a petition with more than 600 names asking for delay and further study.17
Also at the meeting was Jeannette Burrage, executive director of the Northwest Legal Foundation, a local version of James Watt's Mountain Legal Foundation, and one of over twenty right-wing legal foundations that lend assistance to Wise Use, religious right, and other quasi-political organizations. As it happens, Ron Arnold has served on the foundation's board of advisors and maintains close ties to the organization.
Note: see Appendix IV for more information on Jeanette Burrage and right-wing legal foundations.
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