Anti-Enviro Front Groups Grow on Trees

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Paul Thacker reports on "one short-lived 'grassroots' organization" based in Oregon, whose leaders "played a key role in passing President Bush's Healthy Forests legislation and are now promoting changes" to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that would reduce protections and require compensation for landowners. One key figure is Tim Wigley, the director of the PR firm Pac/West Communications. After working for a timber industry trade group and a forest-products company, Wigley led the group Project Protect, which supported the Healthy Forests bill and was run out of the offices of the American Forest Resource Council. Wigley is now the campaign director of the Save Our Species Alliance (SOSA), "which has become a prominent voice in convincing voters that change to ESA is needed." Other SOSA figures include Steve Quarles, a timber industry lobbyist; supporters include the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the National Center for Public Policy Research.