My name is Dan Dagget. I’m an unlikely candidate to be an advocate for the creation of a conservative environmentalism. Unlikely, because for much of my life since 1973 I’ve been a liberal environmentalist and a fairly radical one at that. I started out fighting coal surface mines in southeastern Ohio in the county in which the United Mine Workers of America was born. Then I moved to Arizona where I worked to designate wilderness, fought to increase protection for mountain lions and black bears, and helped initiate a campaign to ban uranium mining in the vicinity of the Grand Canyon. My involvement in that latter campaign included helping to organize some of the first direct actions of Earth First!. In 1992 I was designated one of the 100 top grass roots activists in the United States by the Sierra Club.
In the late 1980s I became a writer and speaker on environmental issues and, later, a land restoration consultant. I have written two books—Gardeners of Eden, Rediscovering Our Importance to Nature and Beyond the Rangeland Conflict, Toward a West That Works. Beyond the Rangeland Conflict, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Gardeners of Eden, was described by a prominent environmentalist as ”the most important environmental manifesto since Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic.” I have also contributed articles and editorials to a variety of magazines and newspapers, and I’ve given given hundreds of presentations across the West.
Recently, I decided to launch this blog; first, because blogging offers much greater accessibility to readers than books or articles and is more flexible and immediate than those more traditional media. Also, via the interactive nature of computers and the internet, it enables a writer to incorporate a greater degree of continuity in developing an argument. Last, and perhaps most important, it offers infintely more freedom than any other type of writing—no editors to impose their prejudices, biases, and timidity.
So, here goes. Welcome to the Rightwaytobegreen.
