Identity Theft - BRC

[Grumpy]

Identity Thieves
November 03, 2011 9:30 AM
Op-Ed by Dave Skinner
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Last I wrote for BRC, we rode down Sportsmen Ride Right (SRR), Trout Unlimited's latest anti-access Trojan Horse scam -- built upon the Responsible Trails America model. This time we're keeping the Trojan Horse theme, as in "Trojan Virus."

Why do hackers try to stuff a Trojan virus in your computer? To pull that most modern and new-age of rip-offs: Identity theft!

Identity theft is all about grabbing assets that don't belong to you. In most cases, the asset being grabbed is money. As a political Trojan, however, the green effort is about grabbing a political asset - not just money, not just people, not just identity, but political, nose-counting, election-shaping credibility.

Some of you belong to the National Rifle Association (NRA). Former Washington Redskin Ray Schoenke founded and fronted the so-called American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA), positioned as "a national grassroots organization committed to safe and responsible gun ownership" - something the National Rifle Association has been doing since 1871.

AHSA's real agenda? Here's a clue: In 2000, Mr. Schoenke donated $5,000 to Handgun Control - now the Brady Campaign.

Identify Theft.... pure and simple. Thankfully, few were taken in by AHSA's ruse.

The multi-billion-dollar Pew Charitable Trust's Campaign for America's Wilderness, the 800lb gorilla in Wilderness activism, has been helping to fund another identify theft scam. It began when Pew decided to financially push the Clinton-era Roadless Rule thinking that it would 'pave the way' for 60 million acres of National Forest Wilderness.

It didn't take long for a grassroots backlash to Clinton's Roadless lock up scheme to grow. In order to create the appearance of grassroots support, Pew spread millions around to the usual Green suspect groups. A campaign by the Audubon Society called Heritage Forests Campaign (HFC) took the lead promoting Clinton's Roadless Rule. It was classic Astroturf, so shiny-green that even "mainstream media" such as the Portland Oregonian and Sacramento Bee choked down their bias and reported it.

Once.

Pew has always had the support of the "birdwatcher" side of the outdoors community (or at least their paid flacks) for the roadless scheme. But Pew also understood that Greens have always neglected the other kind of "outdoorsmen" - the traditional hook-and-bullet crowd. So, simultaneously with HFC, Pew created and funded the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Alliance (TRCA), pouring millions into the group, primarily to support the Roadless Rule.

At first, TRCA did not have independent tax status, so Pew made its first grants to TRCA through "fiscal agents" such as Wildlife Forever, the Izaak Walton League, and, you bet, Trout Unlimited.

Although motorized advocates like American Motorcyclist Association and BRC were mobilized against the Roadless Rule as soon as it was announced, sportsmen weren't and, in fact, dang few even heard of it. However, enough Western NRA members (myself included) let NRA headquarters know the real story about Clinton's initiative. NRA opposed the "roadless initiative" and remains opposed today. But the take-away lesson for Pew (and for all of us) was that a giant political leadership vacuum exists in the hunting and fishing world.

Honestly viewed, there's no "umbrella" group out there to speak for sportsmen as a whole - which is probably impossible anyway. Sportspeople tend to break down into species-specific organizations - Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, the Elk Foundation, North American Wild Turkey Foundations- supporting the species they like. But millions of them fundamentally support gun rights, and NRA is the big dog in that kennel - this should earn NRA the title of "voice of sportsmen" by default. But the Roadless issue showed Pew there was value in exploiting the vacuum, and they continue to spend millions to steal the real sportsmen identity.

Pew and allied foundations began aggressively funding "Hunter and Angler" groups, as well as "hunter and angler" campaigns. Of course, the staff and leadership all came from the 'usual suspects' established environmental groups. If you're a subscriber to BRC's Recreation News, you've read countless stories, opeds and press releases with the sexless, politically-corrected "hunter and angler" code phrase. "Hunters and anglers support this, hunters and anglers oppose that." Coincidence? Heck no - all coordinated to create an artificial political support for whatever initiative Pew's Campaign for America's Wilderness is supporting.


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Identity Theft

Pew Charitable Trusts, and other like-minded foundations have poured millions into stealing the identity of the traditional hook-and-bullet crowd.

With this history in mind, is anyone surprised that the same groups involved in a strategic effort to divide and confuse gun owners might want to pull the same trick on modern, mechanized recreationists?

Skunks at the party

Don't forget, Trout Unlimited has been a central player in the "hunter and angler" scheme from the start, acting as TRCA's fiscal sponsor for at least $2 million in Pew funds from 2000 to 2002 until TRCA became a stand-alone IRS nonprofit "Partnership."

Never mind that the guy who runs Trout Unlimited, Chris Wood, used to work in the public sector - as senior policy advisor for Clinton-era Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck, who in turn was the fellow responsible for the "roadless rule" - and is a trustee at Trout Unlimited.

TU and TRCP remain intimately connected. TRCP's current CEO is Whit (Pieter Whitney) Fosburgh, who up until June 2010 was Chief Development Officer of Trout Unlimited. Pew's website shows that, as late as 2007, TU was still passing Pew grants through to TRCP.

You might be amused and annoyed to know that HFC is still with us. Their contact address is 901 E. Street NW in Washington, DC - also headquartered there are: Alliance for Climate Protection; National Wildlife Federation's National Advocacy Center; plus the Washington offices of, youbetcha, Pew Charitable Trusts, Pew Center on the States, and Pew Environment Group. Might that explain why HFC's phone number (202-552-2000) is the same as Pew's?

Is this a great country or what?
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The goal is to A.) attract malleable sportspeople to the Wilderness/Roadless camp, and, as a bonus, B.) co-opt NRA's membership and create enough dissent within the organization on conservation issues to at least neutralize NRA.

That's why, since 2000, TRCA - now grown up as the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), consisting of; Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (Alaska, Hellgate, Colorado, New Mexico), National Wildlife Federation, Trout Unlimited, Wildlife Forever, Sierra Club (Sierra Sportsmen), Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads, Outdoor Writers Association of America, even the now-defunct American Hunters and Shooters Association, have all tried to claim they represent the real grassroots community of "hunters and anglers."

The trouble is, Pew's gambit, after ten years and millions of dollars, is having an effect: "Hunters and anglers" is now mainstream-media English. Even NRA has begun using the term "hunters and anglers" in its press releases, as does the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation - which ought to be renamed to the Congressional Hunters and Anglers Foundation any day now.

The lesson here is, if you spend enough money and time on a line of BS, eventually some of it sticks. The entire purpose of Pew's "hunter and angler" strategy was, and unfortunately still is, to steal the "real sportsmen" identity.

And all this isn't strictly Pew Trust's fault. Other foundations bankroll TU: Brainerd, Bullitt, Conservation Alliance (green outdoors businesses like REI, North Face, Patagonia), Hewlett ($4.2 million in July 2011, for "Western Water and Public Lands"), Gordon and Betty Moore (in the millions), Packard Foundation - and lots more.

All you need to know is that at least some of those vast boodles of loot are being spent, not only to directly attack your right to ride, but on efforts to confuse the press, the public and, most of all, politicians - by stealing your identity, and silencing your real voice.

Sportsmen need to take back their identity.



Dave Skinner is one of the nation's best freelance writers on natural resource and environmental issues.
Dave is a BRC member and cynic, and thinks his biggest mistake ever was selling his PE 200.

[Grumpy]

Faux Outdoor Groups Have No Place in Land-Use Debate/Political Process


Over the last few years, HQ has written about faux OHV groups who have been created by far left green groups as a way to try and confuse general recreationists and elected officials. One of HQ’s blogs exposed several of these groups as nothing more then a proverbial “Skunk at the Party.â€