Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 18, 1995 TAG: 9506220003
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID E. KALISH ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
In a contrarian consequence of the Republican crusade to roll back laws protecting nature, many major environmental groups are reaping the first increase in membership and donations in years.
Their leaders say GOP heads Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole may be at least partly to thank. Many organizations have seized on the conservative shift as an opportunity, sending tartly worded mailings to sign up potential members and arouse existing ones to action.
The ranks of activist members in the National Wildlife Federation jumped to more than 100,000 from 60,000 during the past six months. Dave Michaud, a federation director, says one reason is the sharper rhetoric in a monthly newsletter. One headline last month: ``Taking from the Taxpayers to Dole to the Polluters.''
``Turn Back the Gingrich Revolution,'' urges a May fund-raising appeal by the Union of Concerned Scientists that attacks the House speaker's ``anti-environmental'' agenda.
``Clearly the environmental groups have done their best to capitalize on concern,'' said Joel Makower, a Washington-based environmental columnist and editor of The Green Business Letter.
``Now, instead of having Jim Watt the focus of attention, they have an entire Congress to rail against.''
Republicans in Congress generally say they are responding to businesses hurt by onerous and expensive rules written by environmental extremists. ``If our ability to improve the economy through our actions also improves the economic stature of these multi-million dollar organizations, we're happy for them to share in the Republican economic recovery,'' said Dan Kish, chief of staff for the House Resources Committee.
A Washington spokesman for House speaker Gingrich did not return a phone call seeking comment.
The green rebound is told in the numbers. Giving to environmental and wildlife-preservation organizations jumped 7.6 percent to $3.53 billion last year after adjusting for inflation, the biggest annual increase since 1990, according to Giving USA, a group that tracks charitable donations.
At The Sierra Club, membership rose 5 percent to just under 600,000 last year after steadily dropping since 1990 and forcing a 10 percent staff cut. National Audubon Society membership is up 11 percent at 540,000 following a two-year slump that cost it 42,000 members. Membership at The Wilderness Society rose this year for the first time since 1991.
Greenpeace says a 10 percent revenue rise in January-April 1995 is the first increase for the period in four years. Financial austerity had forced the group to shed one-fifth of its administrative staff.
The growth trend illustrates a seeming contradiction in the world of special-interest groups: finances tend to benefit as political agendas suffer.
The ranks of lobbying and activist groups surged in the ecological euphoria of Earth Day's 20th anniversary celebration in 1990. But when Bill Clinton and Al Gore took the White House in 1992, complacency set in. Many Americans assumed the pair would take care of things and gave up memberships. An economic recession didn't help.
Then came the GOP sweep of Congress last November and the Contract with America, which spawned proposals denounced by environmentalists to weaken protections ranging from clean-water laws to auto-fuel economy standards.
``As more and more word gets out as to what exactly the Contract with America does to the environment, every indication we have ... is the public is appalled,'' said Peter A.A. Berle, president of the National Audubon Society.
Americans are not merely opening their wallets more often.
A recent mailing by the Environmental Defense Fund prompted 40 percent of 2,000 targeted members to write to their congressional representatives, denouncing a measure that would allow more logging in forests. That was four times the usual response rate, said fund executive director Fred Krupp.
Response rates to two membership drives by the National Wildlife Federation improved by up to 40 percent from year-earlier mailings. The group, which describes itself as nonpartisan, says the appeals lacked political messages.
The heightened interest among Americans has boosted morale in the environmental movement, as once-rival green groups set aside differences to attack what they see as the common threat of weaker laws.
Berle, who also is chairman of the Green Group association of the heads of 20 environmental organizations, said a recent campaign to convince the White House to veto the timber-cutting measure prompted unexpected unity between big Washington-based groups and smaller organizations.
The groups spurred Americans to send 33,000 letters, telephone calls and electronic mail messages to the White House over just three days. Clinton vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have allowed the currently exempt logging.
``Increasingly, we are now operating in joint ways we haven't before,'' Berle said.
by CNB