[at-l] Wingfoot's concerned about the at-l.

[icw39@ncfreedom.net (Clark Wright)]

As a NC environmental attorney now in private practice, but who used to
represent NC agencies when he previously served in the N.C. Attorney
General's Environmental Protection issue, having "practiced"
environmental law with an emphasis on permit issuance and appeal issues
for over 15 years, and having recently volunteered my services to help
the already very capable legal team presently handling this matter for
the ATC and other groups/persons, let me offer a couple of [wide
ranging] comments:

1)  The Putnam Mine permit matter IS NOT necessarily over!

2)  The relevant laws are NOT all that clear - the right side won, but
it was mainly due to a great grass roots efforts AND great LEGAL efforts
from a number of good folk.

3)  It is counterproductive to argue about who did and did not help the
most or least - everyone whose even THOUGHT about the issue was involved
in some way - why don't we just leave it at that and give a collective
pat on each other's shoulders? :)

4)  The "battle" [I hate that word] remains to be waged - here and
elsewhere.

AND .......................

5)  [IMHO] I hope that this "battle" is not characterized as some
righteous war between good and evil; the guy who owns the land has
rights, too; extraction of natural resources is not something any of us
can say with clean hands is terrible under all circumstances [many of us
are right now are using gravel driveways, or driving down
concrete/asphalt highways to get to the PA RUCK - highways that have
gravel in them, among other things] . . to me, it is VERY important that
in our efforts to achieve maximum results for conservation and the
Trail, that we not unnecessarily burn bridges with businesses, farmers,
landowners, foresters, poor landowners, etc. - because, in the end,
VOLUNTARY use of land conservation and land trust techniques in
connection with protection of the Trail [and other "last great places"]
will always give us the best long term bang for our efforts.

I'm sure a great many people had a huge impact in the Putnam Mine case;
most of all, it takes good lawyers, good grass roots efforts, and an
understanding that the effort is never really over  . . . plus that most
difficult human element of all - being willing to fight HARD without
demonizing our opponents or unnecessarily burning bridges, and without
eliminating the potential to even bring them over voluntarily some day
to our point of view . . . [or, in the bigger scheme of things, on
occasion recognizing that sometimes we ought to come over some or part
of the way to another's point of view.

Boy, I'm getting philosophically messy here! :)

hike on, fight on, think on, learn on!

thru-thinker

Snodrog5@aol.com wrote:
> 
> Howdy
>  For the last few weeks, Dan 'Wingfoot' Bruce (the webmaster of the defunct
> Trailplace.com) has been emailing me demanding I apologize to him for a post
> I made to the at-l back in November of 2001.
>  My words were:"We all wanted Saddleback saved, and many of us did something
> about it. Some of us even tried to help via TP's effort. And when we heard
> about the Gulf Tract trouble here on the at-l (where the news broke first,
> btw, for those of you who were stranded on ATML Isle) many of us acted. And
> the Putnam mine issue? It was settled before WF belatedly jumped on the
> bandwagon. Ah, the Truth. Ain't it grand?"
>  He says I'm wrong about Putnam Mine. No one else told me I was wrong about
> Putnam Mine. I thought I was right then, I think I'm right still.
>  My facts:
> The permit was issued in May 1999.
> In April 2000 the State announced it's intent to revoke.
> In August 2000 TP was running it's email project.
> Fact in contention: If Clark Stone's appeal ever had a chance. My research
> says no. The permit was issued in error, the appeal had no merit.
> His gross overreaction is evidence to me that he is obsessively concerned
> with taking credit for the end result of the Putnam Mine Permit issue.
> I've invited him to resubscribe to at-l if he's so concerned about what's
> posted here. He has refused.
> If anyone out there is in personal contact with Dan, you might consider
> checking in on him to make sure he's OK.
> TJ
> p.s. Just checked, looks like TP isn't completely defunct. The link asking
> for donations is still working.
> 
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