As we enter a new presidential administration with cabinet appointees that are hostile to the conservation ethic that underpins Northern Plains’ work to protect Montana’s clean water, clean air, and working landscapes, it’s worth reflecting on similar situations we’ve faced in our history. Over forty years ago, our members used humor and creativity to draw attention to conservation threats while bolstering the spirit of those concerned about the impacts to Montana’s communities. Here’s the full story.
Ronald Reagan’s entrance to the White House in 1981 was not good news to American conservationists. He had famously remarked that if “you’ve seen one tree, you’ve seen them all.” During his presidency, Reagan tried to weaken the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. He slashed the EPA’s budget, leading to a massive cutback in anti-pollution enforcement. He made huge cuts to renewable energy programs.
Dave Alberswerth, a former Northern Plains staffer who later worked for the Wilderness Society, said that “The Reagan Administration adopted an extraordinarily aggressive policy of issuing leases for oil, gas, and coal development on tens of millions of acres of national lands” – more than any administration in history up to that time.
The person who led those aggressive policies was Secretary of the Interior James Watt, a longtime opponent of environmental safeguards even before joining the Reagan Administration. He made no secret of his contempt for environmental protection.
In September 1981, Watt came to Billings to be the guest speaker at a $75-a-plate (that would be $260 today) fundraising banquet for Congressman Ron Marlenee. In response, Northern Plains hosted a $2-a-bowl chili supper on the same night at the Billings National Guard Armory.
The event came to be known as a “chili reception” for Watt. More than 400 people attended.
Northern Plains chair Helen Waller told the crowd that, “The whole Watt proposition is a blueprint to deliver this vast public resource into the hands of Peabody, Exxon, Standard, Conoco, Burlington Northern. Montana Power, Chevron, and others.”
Other speakers affirmed her message from different points of view. They included:
- Clayton Small of the Montana Intertribal Policy Board – “He has invited tribes to meet with him but, in the majority of the requests by tribes, he has refused to meet.”
- Labor union member Randy Siemers – “Organized labor cannot be so naïve as to think that once business slips under the fence of government regulation that the process of collective bargaining will survive long after that.”
- Bill Bishop of the Montana Wilderness Association – “Let’s use his presence here in Billings tonight as an inspiration to go back and defend more vigorously than ever the land that is truly the basis for everything we are and do.”
- Former Northern Plains Chair Wally McRae – “We’re honest citizens who live and work and raise families and pay taxes here… And we’re damned if we’ll let the James Watt exploitation-at-any-costers push us aside.
- State Representative Dan Kemmis – “Listen to the earth, do what it says, and don’t worry too much about James Watt.”
Crowd members came from all over the state because the event was more than a fundraiser… it was a morale-raiser for Montanans who knew that tough times were ahead and that we must persist.
Wally McRae lamented the recent passing of K. Ross Toole, UM history professor (and author of The Rape of the Great Plains). Wally reminded the crowd that night that, “His loss means that we can’t leave it to others, we can’t lay back, we can’t watch this one from the sidelines.”
